INCREDIBLE MOMENT WHEN LIGHTNING STRUCK THE GUATEMALA VOLCANO WHILE ERUPTING
Many exciting natural events occur, such as lightning strikes that light up the sky or volcanic eruptions. And occasionally, with a little bit of luck, both of these can occur simultaneously, providing some incredible footage that will last a lifetime. Hikers in Guatemala recently witnessed a remarkable sight when Volcán de Fuego, also known as Chi Q'aq, was struck by lightning during an eruption. The video that locals were able to record shows lava erupting from the volcano's mouth while pulsating light can be seen in the sky. A violent streak of lightning strikes a cloud of smoke rising from the side, spectacularly lighting up the night sky. Even though the moment barely lasts a few milliseconds, it is enough to leave onlookers speechless.
Photographer Johan Wolterink was one of the fortunate people who saw this event; he posted a video to Instagram. He captioned the video, asking, "What are the odds?" After being struck by lightning in his video, the smoke column keeps rising, seemingly given more strength by the storm.
@danii_vee, a TikToker, was a little more fortunate in her sighting; the video she shared on social media depicts lightning lingering slightly longer over the volcanic ash, creating the illusion of a dance between the two forces as the light rays take on various forms throughout the scene. She described it as "a spectacular, once-in-a-lifetime show gifted by Mother Earth herself." "Absolutely appreciative."
These two videos show volcanic lightning in textbook fashion. This is an example of a naturally occurring phenomenon explained by the University of Hawaii at Hilo's Center for the Study of Active Volcanoes: "During a thunderstorm, strong winds push ice particles against one another, which knocks off electrons and gradually accumulates a positive charge in one area of the cloud and a negative charge in another. Eventually, the extra electrons will "jump the gap" and release lightning, which frequently stays entirely inside the cloud. Similar to this, lightning can occur from the separation of charges in a volcanic cloud caused by tiny particles of volcanic material colliding with one another at high speed in an eruption cloud.