Rare Footage of St Elmo's Fire as Hurricane Approaches

BBC ^ | 8/29

[nickcarraway]

Hurricane Idalia is barrelling towards Florida and forecasters warn it is extremely dangerous. This rare footage of St Elmo's Fire was captured by the pilots from MacDill Air Force Base.

The Air Force Base said on X (formerly Twitter): "During the evacuation, the 50th ARS recorded St. Elmo’s fire, a weather phenomenon in which luminous plasma is created in an atmospheric electric field."

[dfwgator]

Where’s Rob Lowe?

[ClearCase_guy]

If that stuff starts coming toward me, I’m going to be a man in motion.

[Tanniker Smith]

I can see a new horizon underneath the blazin’ sky

[verum ago]

That's not St. Elmo's Fire, that's straight up electrostatic discharge. St. Elmo's Fire (as the name suggests) is more of a glow (more like an odd flame), basically a corona discharge.

I once had the privilege of seeing an entire pine tree light up with St. Elmo's Fire during a thunderstorm (the mountain peak I was on was physically inside the thundercloud). Privilege, and terror: I was sheltering under that tree, and I knew what it meant. The subsequent parade of groundstrokes put any version of War of the Worlds to shame...

[texas booster]

I haven't found the tweet from MacDill AFB yet, but here is the video posted on YT, in case you dod not want to go to the BBC.

Plane experiences rare St. Elmo's Fire during Hurricane Idalia | AccuWeather

Not sure if it is St Elmo's Fire or just a static discharge, as other have suggested, but Accuweather has attached their name to this video.

Impressive, nonetheless.

[TXBlair]

Well, THIS is very disappointing; I came here looking for Rob Lowe, obviously.

[tophat9000]

I’m glad I’m not the only one.

I was looking at that and staying that not St Elmo fire because it sure not like any St Elmo fire description I’ve ever read

[nickcarraway]

He may be here somewhere.

[Cold Heart]

“That’s not St Elmo’s Fire,,,”

You are correct. I have seen St Elmo’s Fire and that’s not it.

[maddog55]

I’ve seen that in many cockpits over the years...

[Golden Eagle]

Wow! Cool!!!

Hope everyone is prepared, and safe...

[verum ago]

You are correct. I have seen St Elmo’s Fire and that’s not it.

By any chance are you aware of any good photography of it? I've never seen a photo of anything like that pine tree lighting up before the lightning started; the best I can do is show people pictures of corona discharge and tell them "red-purple version of that, off every needle, and dialed to 11". It remains both the most beautiful and most terrifying thing I've ever seen (it preceded a 25 minute barrage of groundstrokes that wrecked fully half the trees in the area) and I suspect it will retain the "most beautiful thing I've seen" title until my death.

I just wish there were better photography of it to share with others... I was too busy fleeing/dragging the grad student I was with to safety to take pictures of the event I saw...

[Beowulf9]

Wow! I’d say you are lucky to be telling the tale!

[MachIV]

I’ve never even heard of St. Elmos fire before.

[steve86]

It is often named but rarely seen

[gitmo]

I’ve seen that before. I thought it was lightning.

[Sirius Lee]

Friggin’ song’s in my head now. Thanks a lot.