Lightning strikes over Chicago captured in stunning slow motion video
By Vlad Savov 
posted June 28th 2010 5:52AM
posted June 28th 2010 5:52AM
posted June 28th 2010 5:52AM
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Truly electrifying!
@Bonila
1.21 Gigawatts!?!
@hazardouswaster Great Scott!
@Bonila
Whoa, this is heavy.
@hazardouswaster "1.21 Gigawatts"
looks more like TERRAWATTS to me dude :p but i feel ya ! :D
@hazardouswaster
Man, this is heavy.
@SilverSatin
Go watch Back to the Future and enlighten yourself.
you fail
@Bonila
i hope someday we can have the technology that can take benefit from this lighting for electricity which we knew ti has a very huge power..
@dicobalt
Beat me to it
@hazardouswaster now we only need a flux capacitor and .. flying cars here I come !!
@Bonila: freakin' ridiculous amazing epic awesome? yes, please.
@Bonila
Man that storm was damn awful, tornado sirens going off and all, first time in three years!
@dicobalt
Theres that word again, heavy. Why are things so heavy in the future? Is there something wrong with the earths gravitational pull in the year 1985?
@sunarto3d problem is lightning is massive amperage and unstable voltage.
Shocking! I guess Jesus is a little pissed off that his new phone is losing reception.
Awesome indeed
@sim888 Would've been more awesome if they'd actually captured it at 1/16th speed instead of fading between frames, but pretty nice nonetheless.
@sim888 The Sufjan Stevens song doesn't hurt either.
one word: AMAZING!!
The fact it doesn't look real makes it so much more amazing.
@tobsmonster2
To be honest though seeing "Dell", a picture of the streak and "lightening" so close together put some other thoughts into my head first.
@tobsmonster2
Dell Lightning! Bring it on baby!
Love to see that beast in slow motion!
Thats really cool, ..............So whens the Thor movie coming out ?
Yay sufjan stevens :)
Kickass musician.
This is our new alternative energy source.
Great idea and if we can developed "flux capacitor" to store 1 TW in 30 ms. ;)
Lightning: Not as fast as the Chrome Browser!
@aMac the youtube vid is also good.
but the striking thing about this video is the first 3 reaching for tallest buildings of chicago. a perfect example to show a school kid when explaining about how lightnings look for the shortest path to ground.
@njsrikar
Look again! the lightning starts from the buldings! Triggered lightning
@magadget
Good one.
can i control it with my iPhone?
@Eli Haj
Not even joking....the WORD of the DAY on my calendar...
"Sinistrophobia is the fear of left-handedness"
Really Cool! I have a casio Exilim EX-F1... but never had the opportunity to catch lightning strikes... :)
cool... But is it engadget? I see a crapload of articles BGR has up and engadget doesn't, but we certainly get cool planet earth shots!
@MFrasier
It is ALT.engadget.com...and besides, planet earth is the single coolest gadget in the universe.
@PaulY strange, it didn't show up under ALT when I first read it. I would've recognized the puke green.
@MFrasier If your puke is THAT shade of green, you need to go get help, stat.
Great post, Vlado. There are some great shows on Discovery Science.. or World.. or something. Lightnings are captured in really SLOW motion there.. very, very beautiful.
That storm, along with the 2 tornadoes that came before it last week sucked donkey boner.
Does this happens when someone manages to make a call with an iPhone? :)
Anyone know if it's possible to store and re-use the incoming voltage from lightening?
@edroid
To answer my own question: According to the NYT, the juice is not worth the squeeze...
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/magazine/09lightningfarm.html?_r=2
@edroid
Yes, if you know how to build device that can store 1 TW in 30 ms :), without exploding.
i live in chicago and that was one heck of a storm!
that storm was crazy!
You can see the iPhone 4 line moving slowly
It's a short time prophecy.
That's LeBron and Bosh landing right there but I am not sure about the third one
Yea, that is amazing.
Sweet home, Chicago! I miss watching storms like that from my building when I was young.
I love lightning video. However, this one is just too cool:
http://gizmodo.com/5034458/slow-motion-lightning-video-is-mindblowing-will-sell-a-thousand-slo+mo-cameras