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PICTURES: Mystery Lightning Bolt Strikes Mutare
18 March 2015
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An international journal has published a photograph of a rare lightning strike over Zimbabwe taken by a Mutare resident last month. Dr Peter Lowenstein took the photo of the bolt, which is absolutely straight – unlike most lightning strikes which have a zigzag shape.
640_583_Straight-Lightning-Bolt-Mutare-Zimbabwe (1)
The journal Earthsky says the occurrence is very rare. “It was sheer luck to catch that bolt – surely a once-in-a-lifetime encounter. There were only three visible and audible strikes during that storm, many minutes apart,” said Lowenstein.
The strike is known as a positive cloud-ground (CG) strike. Apart from being much less common than normal negative lightning, positive lightning is very energetic with discharge currents exceeding 100,000 amperes (compared to less than 30,000 for negative strikes).
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10 Replies to “PICTURES: Mystery Lightning Bolt Strikes Mutare”

  1. Tinogadzira zibatiri zihombe! and charge it every rainy season. Imagine capturing all those megawatts. Hi zesa ingacheme zvekuti!

  2. Tinogadzira zibatiri zihombe! and charge it every rainy season. Imagine capturing all those megawatts. Hi zesa ingacheme zvekuti!

  3. Energy = Power x Time
    The energy there is very small because of “time”. The wattage is high, but the length of the strike (TIME) is very small.

  4. Energy = Power x Time
    The energy there is very small because of “time”. The wattage is high, but the length of the strike (TIME) is very small.

  5. We could timely tap this massive energy for good uses if possible.Lots of energy down the drain.

  6. We could timely tap this massive energy for good uses if possible.Lots of energy down the drain.

  9. Although it ususally zig zags, it’s not unusual for it to travel in a straight line because it always looks for a path of least resistance. So i guess in this case it had found a straight line of least resistance unlike when it zig zags looking for a path of least resistance.

  10. Although it ususally zig zags, it’s not unusual for it to travel in a straight line because it always looks for a path of least resistance. So i guess in this case it had found a straight line of least resistance unlike when it zig zags looking for a path of least resistance.

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