Lightning Photo Gallery

Sparks fly off of the tip of a broadcast TV antenna that has just been struck by lightning in this extreme close-up view of the WVAH television tower near St. Albans, West Virginia during an evening thunderstorm on July 4, 2006. The sparks visible here are not 'ball lightning', but are glowing shards of molten metal, 'arc welded' from the tower tip by the intense heat of the lightning strike.