Sometimes I've seen a bright blue-green glow coming from the ground right after a lightning strike. What causes this?

By DAN ROBINSON

Editor/Photographer

From Dan: How the crime of copyright infringement took $1 million from me and shut down my operation.

In September of 2025, my work is generating the most income it ever has in my career. Yet, I'm being forced to shut down my successul operation, against my will, due to one cause alone: 95% of that revenue is being stolen by piracy and copyright infringement. I've lost more than $1 million to copyright infringement in the last 15 years, and it's finally brought an end to my professional storm chasing operation. Do not be misled by the lies of infringers, anti-copyright activists and organized piracy cartels. This page is a detailed, evidenced account of my battle I had to undertake to just barely stay in business, and eventually could not overcome. It's a problem faced by all of my colleagues and most other creators in the field.

It is not uncommon for lightning to strike electrical power equipment (power lines, transformers, etc.). When this happens, many times the lightning will cause a secondary arc. These arcs are usually referred to as power flashes. These power flashes are extremely bright and can easily light up the night sky. They can flicker like lightning, or glow for a second or two before the circuit breakers trip and turn off power to the line (see video clip below).

Storm chaser and photographer Dan Robinson

About the Author: Dan Robinson has been a storm chaser, photographer and cameraman for 33 years. His career has involved traveling around the country covering the most extreme weather on the planet including tornadoes, hurricanes, lightning, floods and winter storms. Dan has been extensively published in newspapers, magazines, web articles and more, and has both supplied footage for and appeared in numerous television productions and newscasts. He has also been involved in the research community, providing material for published scientific journal papers on tornadoes and lightning.

Video clip of lightning-triggered flashover
Windows Media, 157KB

To see a more detailed description on how lightning causes electrical arcs or flashovers see our article about flashovers.

See Also:

		Flashovers and Strikes to Power Lines A commonly seen, but frequently misidentified phenomenon observed when lightning strikes an energized power line.

		Power arcs caused by storm events The 'real story' behind the flashes mistakenly called 'exploding transformers'.

		FAQ: What color is lightning?