Weather stations have been following a low-pressure system that formed over the Caribbean islands in the last few days.
The conditions didn’t lead to the formation of a hurricane but a tropical storm was formed as the hot, moist air was moving west.
Luckily no island was severely affected but the storm reached just north of Puerto Rico where a rare weather phenomenon was observed – a storm unloaded a rather unexpected amount of sprite lightning.
This electrical discharge is a unique type of lightning that shows high above thunderstorms and can be easily distinguished from a flash of classic lightning due to its red colour.
Its appearance is not entirely surprising, what has shocked most scientists was the amount and intensity observed.
The storm didn’t last long and the show was over within half an hour, but even within this short period of time, it’s estimated that as many as 700 flashes of sprite lightning may have fired.
Scientists also estimate that at least 75% of them were Jellyfish like discharges, which are large formations of up to 50km by 50km.
Footage of this unusual weather phenomenon was captured by a local resident and will be sent to a research facility for further analysis.
