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SYFY WIRE Science

Thor's gotta be jealous of this crackling bolt of continuous current lightning

By Adam Pockross
Thor Avengers: Endgame

The God of Thunder has never been shy about throwing some lightning into the Mjolnir mix, but perhaps if he really wanted to strike down the unjust, he'd be better off delving into continuous current lightning.

As you can shockingly see in the video below, taken by Boynton Beach resident Erica Hite and posted by The Palm Beach Post, the Gods were angry in South Florida on Sunday...

Odin's beard! Remind us never to go outside again!

After viewing the video, the National Weather Service in Miami determined the bolt to be of the continuous current variety, aka positive lighting.

Besides being a scintillating name for a rock band, positive lightning can also be up to ten times stronger than your average bolt. Originating way up in heights of a cloud’s anvil, continuous current lightning makes up less than 5 percent of all lightning strikes, per The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“It was crazy. Very scary, very loud. It was just the right place at the right time. I could probably never in my life get something like that again,” Hite told The Palm Beach Post about filming the strike, which damaged a concrete dumpster cover. She had been filming video for her family at the time, hoping to capture the severity of the weather coming down outside, which she undoubtedly accomplished.

The Post reports that some 300 lightning bolts “as hot as the sun” lit up West Palm Beach between 4 and 7 p.m. on Sunday, forcing Tears for Fears to cancel their poorly named SunFest show, and presumably causing upset fans to shout, shout, and let it all out.

The storm also dropped some two inches of rain on the Sunshine State on Sunday. But it doesn’t look like the heavy stuff will be coming down for quite a while, as the area’s rainy season doesn’t officially start till May 15.


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