Sensational image shows how lightning rods work

With a high-speed camera and a great deal of luck, a researcher in Brazil has managed to record the formation of lightning. More precisely, it shows spectacular video how a lightning rod works.

The clip was recorded with 40,000 frames per second near Sao Paulo in Brazil. “It shows a negatively charged bolt of lightning moving at a speed of 370 km/s (1,332,000 km/h) is approaching the ground”, the scientist Marcelo Saba, who recorded the video, said in a broadcast quoted.

Lightning rod didn’t work

When the lightning is a few tens of meters above the ground, upward positive discharges emerge from the lightning rod. “The last picture before the discharge was 25 thousandths of a second taken before the lightning struck one of the buildings,” explains Saba.

According to the researcher, there should be more than 30 Lightning Rods give. But the lightning did not connect to any of the capture devices. Much more hit the discharge an unprotected chimney on the roof of one of the buildings. “The 30,000 amp discharge hat enormous damage done,” says Saba.

The analysis of the lightning strike was published in the specialist magazine “Geophysical Research Letters“.