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Strange lightening in the early morning


maggiemae

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I was awakened about 4:00 this morning by the strangest lightening. The entire sky lit up. There was no thunder. The lightening seemed to pulse at a regular beat like a strobe light. It lasted for a little over half an hour. My neighbor saw it, too. She stood in the middle of our west Ajijic cul de sac. She said the light was most intense over San Juan Cosala. Neither of us have ever seen anything like it before. What was this light? What caused it? Another neighbor said a similar light was reported in Mexico City just before the earthquake. Is there such a link?

 

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 I saw it through a window at 4:30AM.  I got up and looked online at radar and there was a big blob of rain showers out "there" .... the site is hard to read geographically and is usually 45 minutes lagging to real time.  Then I checked this site and saw there were lightning strikes, here and there around the lake, but most to the far west of Ajijic.  

http://www.ajijicweather.com/StormStation.htm

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I saw it also at the same. Here in San Jan Cosala I could hear faint thunder. It was to the west of me. Sheet lightning is just lightning that is too far away to be heard and is hidden in the clouds. It is fairly common as I've seen it many times.

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I don't know that I've ever noticed it from the ground but I used to see it in my flying days.  We would see it run along the tops of the clouds, especially over the north Atlantic.

Sometimes you could see it run for 100s of miles across the tops of cold fronts.

Beautiful, isn't it?

 

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Saw it in SAT.  Sheet lightening is our most common type here.  Sometimes out over the lake on the other side you will see fork lightening.  But mostly sheet lightening here.  I saw my first sheet lightening in Arkansas in 1993 and it was thrilling.  Even the street lights went off after a strike.

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17 hours ago, maggiemae said:

I was awakened about 4:00 this morning by the strangest lightening. The entire sky lit up. There was no thunder. The lightening seemed to pulse at a regular beat like a strobe light. It lasted for a little over half an hour. My neighbor saw it, too. She stood in the middle of our west Ajijic cul de sac. She said the light was most intense over San Juan Cosala. Neither of us have ever seen anything like it before. What was this light? What caused it? Another neighbor said a similar light was reported in Mexico City just before the earthquake. Is there such a link?

 

We also awakened to this phenomena. First we thought someone was shining a flashlight into our yard, definitely a strobe effect. And strangely quiet, no thunder, wind or rain or animals. We have lived here 18 years and been coming here for many more and have seen plenty of cloud-to-cloud lightening and this was not like any seen before...thanks for confirming our observations.

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This is funny...as I submitted my question, I realized I had incorrectly spelled "lightning." Then I decided that "lightening" was more appropriate. This was not lightning. It was as though a light switch was being toggled....day, night, day, night, day, night. The day light was very bright and "smooth," meaning there was no texture to indicate clouds. I have seen many variations of sheet lightning as I have traveled the world. This was not sheet lightning. The mystery continues......

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It was not a mystery to me. I went outside and watched it. There were many clouds. Definitely the same sheet lightning I have seen many time many places.

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lightening |ˈlītn-iNG, ˈlītniNG|
noun
a drop in the level of the uterus during the last weeks of pregnancy as the head of the fetus engages in the pelvis.

lightning |ˈlītniNG|
noun
the occurrence of a natural electrical discharge of very short duration and high voltage between a cloud and the ground or within a cloud, accompanied by a bright flash and typically also thunder: a tremendous flash of lightning.

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1 hour ago, RVGRINGO said:

lightening |ˈlītn-iNG, ˈlītniNG|
noun
a drop in the level of the uterus during the last weeks of pregnancy as the head of the fetus engages in the pelvis.

lightning |ˈlītniNG|
noun
the occurrence of a natural electrical discharge of very short duration and high voltage between a cloud and the ground or within a cloud, accompanied by a bright flash and typically also thunder: a tremendous flash of lightning.

I usually get it wrong.

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Noun vs. Verb definitions are quite different.

lighten 1 |ˈlītn|
verb
make or become lighter in weight, pressure, or severity: [ with obj. ] : efforts to lighten the burden of regulation | [ no obj. ] : the strain had lightened.
• make or become more cheerful or less serious: [ with obj. ] : she attempted a joke to lighten the atmosphere | [ no obj. ] : Robbie felt her spirits lighten a little.

lightening |ˈlītn-iNG, ˈlītniNG|
noun
a drop in the level of the uterus during the last weeks of pregnancy as the head of the fetus engages in the pelvis.

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I would not be surprise to find that English may be the most confusing language to learn, as it is such a mixture of so many other languages, with little rhyme or reason and an abundance of exceptions to its “rules“.  No wonder the official language of the English court was French for so long. In my school days, it was expected that you would take French, German, and/or Latin, if you had any aspirations to a University education.

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