Lightning Dazzles Onlookers Watching the Eruption of Volcan de Fuego in Guatemala

[Judi Lynn]

Volcanic lightning is so common that it’s even earned its own nickname: dirty thunderstorms

Sarah Kuta
Daily Correspondent

May 15, 2024 2:08 p.m.



Lightning wowed onlookers watching the eruption of Volcán de Fuego in Guatemala last month. Johan Wolterink / Instagram


Observers watching the eruption of Volcán de Fuego in Guatemala last month were treated to an unexpectedly dazzling show when lightning appeared to strike the active volcano. Videos of the scene have been making the rounds online this week, including one posted with the caption: “What are the odds?”

As it turns out, the odds are pretty good. Any erupting volcano has the potential to produce its own lightning, thanks to the principles of physics.
When volcanoes erupt, they spew gasses, lava, rocks and ash into the air. The ash particles collide with each other and generate static electricity, which can produce lightning.

As the ash particles rub up against one another, their atoms shed or pick up electrons, which creates positively and negatively charged areas of the ash plume, according to the Center for the Study of Active Volcanoes at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo. The atoms want to maintain a neutral charge, so the excess electrons in the negatively charged part of the plume “jump” across to the positively charged area. This temporarily restores the balance—and produces lightning in the process.

The same thing—known as charge separation—occurs during thunderstorms, only with water and ice particles instead of ash.

More:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/lightning-dazzles-onlookers-watching-the-eruption-of-volcan-de-fuego-in-guatemala-180984367/

[AltairIV]

1. Mother Earth is awesome!

[cachukis]

2. I climbed Acatenango headed for Fuego

when we were enveloped by thunderhead firing lightning bolts all around. I had an aluminum rack for my pack.
Took it off and buried it in ash and then dug a hollow to keep low and covered myself with a rain Pancho.
The storm persisted and we were buried in 8 inches of snow/hail.
Got pictures of the Fuego rim covered in snow looking down on a bubbling cauldron.
The trip down was Romancing the Stone in spades.
The melting snow turned into rivulets and we sloshed our way to the bottom.
This was 1978.
Years later, one of my managers hired a fellow from Antigua and I told him my story.
You are one of the gringos who survived that storm. We still talk about it. No one had ever seen or heard about snow on that mountain and we became legends.

[twodogsbarking]

3. Damn, that is legend.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Can't imagine how anyone could survive so many threats at once! Amazing.

Somewhere along the way you developed an organized, disciplined mind which kept you from getting zapped to a crisp, then soaked, and bombed by hail.

That would definitely keep an audience's attention in a movie.

[cachukis]

5. Certainly, a memorable experience.