Beautiful Nature pics

[Bill Ryan]

[Bill Ryan]

This gorgeous photo taken in Myanmar definitely belongs here.

[rgray222]

Violent lightning strikes - 1 minute

[onawah]

We might need a new thread entitled "Frightening Nature Pics"

Posted by rgray222 (here)
Violent lightning strikes - 1 minute

[rgray222]

Posted by onawah (here)
We might need a new thread entitled "Frightening Nature Pics"

Posted by rgray222 (here)
Violent lightning strikes - 1 minute

It seems that I have a gift for influencing threads into uncharted, less-than-positive waters - I may also have inadvertently guided the Great Quotes thread down a less-than-positive path.

lol, guess I will have to consider the thread title a bit before posting, i.e., Beautiful Nature pic and Great Quotes

[rgray222]

The Qiantang River in China's Zhejiang province is home to the world's largest tidal bore, locally known as the Silver Dragon, which creates mesmerizing wave patterns and dune-like structures as powerful tides rush upstream. Recent footage from November 2025 captured a rare triangular phenomenon where three tides converged at the Haining section, while other clips from 2023 and 2024 highlight the bore's ability to form cross-like formations and "fish-scale" ripples during high spring tides.

Key video highlights and phenomena include:

• Triangular Convergence: A spectacular event in November 2025 where three tidal waves met to form a unique triangular pattern.
• Fish-Scale Tide: A rare pattern observed in July 2022 characterized by parallel ripples spreading outward from a sharp white line.
• Surfing Spectacle: The bore reaches heights of up to 9 meters (though often lower, such as 0.3 meters in 2023) and speeds of 40 mph, attracting thousands of spectators and surfers annually.
• Timing: The most powerful bores typically occur between the 15th and 18th days of the eighth lunar month (mid-October), coinciding with the Mid-Autumn Festival.

[Inversion]

Posted by rgray222 (here)
Violent lightning strikes - 1 minute

At 0:03 into that video it appears the lightning comes out of the ground. The water must have super-heated causing the explosion.

Google AI (what is the temperature of lightning?)

Lightning heats the air it passes through to approximately 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the National Weather Service. This extreme temperature is about five times hotter than the surface of the Sun and causes the air to expand explosively, creating the shockwave we hear as thunder.

Temperature Range: Lightning temperatures typically range between 18,000 and 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Color Correlation: Brighter white or bluish lightning is generally hotter (up to 50,000°F), while yellowish or reddish bolts are slightly cooler.

Physical Effects: This intense, instantaneous heat turns air into plasma and causes materials struck by lightning—such as trees—to instantly vaporize moisture and explode.

Why so hot? Lightning itself is the movement of electrical charge, but the high resistance of air causes it to heat up dramatically.

[Frankie Pancakes]

If you tap the Pic it enlarges somewhat

[rgray222]

It is not necessarily beautiful but it certainly is unsual to record an earthquake while scuba diving.

[rgray222]

If you take a look at the video below (put it on full screen), you will not only get the lava flow down the mountain but a wonderful shot of a meteriote disintergrating in the sky. As a bonus there is a white mysterious object in the right side of the video (around 22 seconds) emeging from the side of the mountain. The official explanation for the light is from a satellite and not related to the meteor. I find that explanation odd and suspicious.

Brilliant-green fireball meteor explodes over erupting volcano in the Philippines

Stunning new footage shows a bright-green "fireball" meteor exploding in the skies over an erupting volcano in the Philippines. Initial reports suggested that the falling space rock may have struck the mountain's fiery slopes — however, experts have confirmed that this did not actually happen.

The "visually striking" fireball was spotted in the skies above Mount Mayon, located within the province of Albay on the island of Luzon in the central Philippines, at 10:33 p.m. local time (10:33 a.m. EDT) Sunday (May 25), according to the Philippine Space Agency.

Two livestreams monitoring Mayon's ongoing eruption captured the bright flash, which lasted just over a second. The volcano, which stands at 8,081 feet (2,463 meters) above sea level, began erupting in early January, according to the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=kRntP5h3AqI

PHIVOLCS representatives initially posted that their footage showed "a meteor striking the [volcano's] northern slopes," which sparked some misleading viral videos on social media.

However, an update to the first post later clarified that "our review of seismic, infrasound and additional camera footage around the volcano indicate that the meteor disintegrated while in the atmosphere and did not strike the slopes of Mayon."

https://www.livescience.com/space/me...he-philippines

[Bluegreen]

Posted by rgray222 (here)
If you take a look at the video below (put it on full screen), you will not only get the lava flow down the mountain but a wonderful shot of a meteriote disintergrating in the sky. As a bonus there is a white mysterious object in the right side of the video (around 22 seconds) emeging from the side of the mountain. The official explanation for the light is from a satellite and not related to the meteor. I find that explanation odd and suspicious.

* * * * * *

Posted by Bluegreen (here)
Space Rock News



Livestream started 6th January 2026
https://www.youtube.com/live/UDAZWxehMAI

[Frankie Pancakes]

.............

[Inversion]

A link to this was on Steve Quayle's website and was posted by MrMBB333.

X

Click the Show More button below or the X link to see the full image.

LIGHTNING, A RAINBOW, AND THE STATUE OF LIBERTY… ALL IN ONE MOMENT

It doesn’t get much more incredible than this.

One perfectly timed moment over New York City brought together a lightning strike, a rainbow, and one of the world’s most recognizable landmarks.

📍 New York, New York
📸 Photo by Misty Kepler

[RunningDeer]

Posted by Inversion:

LIGHTNING, A RAINBOW, AND THE STATUE OF LIBERTY… ALL IN ONE MOMENT

Posted by Inversion (here)
A link to this was on Steve Quayle's website and was posted by MrMBB333.

X

Click the Show More button below or the X link to see the full image.

LIGHTNING, A RAINBOW, AND THE STATUE OF LIBERTY… ALL IN ONE MOMENT

It doesn’t get much more incredible than this.

One perfectly timed moment over New York City brought together a lightning strike, a rainbow, and one of the world’s most recognizable landmarks.

📍 New York, New York
📸 Photo by Misty Kepler

[rgray222]

A wild supercell near Sydney, Nebraska

[rgray222]

Rare Red Sprites Captured Lighting up the Tibetan Night Sky Like Jellyfish-Shaped Fireworks

Red sprites are as beautiful as they are elusive. These large-scale flashes occur up high in the sky, above thunderstorm clouds. As such, it is nearly impossible to see them with the naked eye from the ground. However, experienced astrophotographers have devoted themselves to study this phenomenon enough to be at the right place at the right time to capture them. One such photographer is Dong Shuchang, who recently captured a red sprite over Tibet.

As opposed to regular lightning, red sprites are shot up towards the atmosphere instead of downward toward Earth. Its signature color is the result of nitrogen reacting with electrical discharges up above. This particular red sprite made an appearance between May 31 and June 1.

Since these lights show up at altitudes between 25 and 50 miles, Shuchang took to a 16,404-foot elevation vantage point on the Tibetan plateau. The footage, shot at 120 frames per second, shows these red, jellyfish-shaped “fireworks” shining over the night sky in the Xizang (Tibet) Autonomous Region, near the Shannan City area in southwest China.

“I checked the weather forecast for May 31 and the early hours of June 1 in advance,” Shuchang said in an interview with China Central Television (CCTV). “After analyzing the satellite imagery, I was confident that the weather would not interfere with the shoot, so I made my way to the mountains of Shannan to find a clear vantage point.”

Video 3 minutes (seems to stutter a bit)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=gL9M7JyN5Ek

The beauty of the scene didn't escape the general public. The video of the red sprite has gone viral on Weibo, one of the biggest social media platforms in China, where it has 1.7 million views. “Sprite lightning is formed in the middle layer of the atmosphere and is the result of electromagnetic waves generated by lightning strikes,” Shuchang explains in the video caption. “It exists in the air for a very short time, is elusive, and difficult to photograph.”

His footage has even aided scientists in learning more about this unique weather phenomenon. “By analyzing the parent lightning discharges, we discovered that the sprites were triggered by high-peak current positive cloud-to-ground lightning strikes within a massive mesoscale convective system,” says Professor Gaopeng Lu, who used Shuchang's footage from previous red sprites shot in 2022 to study these flashes. “This suggests that thunderstorms in the Himalayan region have the potential to produce some of the most complex and intense upper-atmospheric electrical discharges on Earth.”

Despite being only 27 years old, the astrophotographer has developed a unique ability for spotting and documenting red sprites, as well as other astronomical events. He was even named Astronomy Photographer of the Year in 2021 for his picture of an annular solar eclipse. Shuchang has also documented comets and the Milky Way over a myriad of landscapes. “I’m always looking out for the next phenomenon,” he says.

To stay up to date with his work, follow Dong Shuchang on Instagram.

https://mymodernmet.com/red-sprite-tibet-dong-shuchang/