Even on my way home from work, I’m always looking around with a Nishitsu-style curiosity(^^)
On this day, a thunderhead suddenly flashed, so I quickly took a photo!
I looked into what caused the light＼(^o^)／
Inside cumulonimbus clouds often seen in summer (the ones people call thunderheads… they can reach heights of 15000ｍ…), ice particles rub against each other inside the cloud, creating static electricity.
When that happens, the amount of electricity becomes uneven between the upper and lower parts of the cloud, so it gets discharged.
That’s lightning!
Lightning that heads toward the ground (the visible flashing bolts we see) is called a lightning strike, while the kind that happens within a cloud is called intracloud lightning, apparently!(^^)!
Here’s the video↓
That was what happened a little after 7 p.m. on August 23＼(^o^)／
By the way, lightning is also a summer seasonal word in Japan, but on the Sea of Japan side, lightning apparently happens in winter too, which is quite rare worldwide.
