A highspeed camera captured lightning striking residential buildings in Brazil, revealing new details about such strikes. The spectacular slowmotion video shot at 40,000 frames per second shows the connection process between lightning and a building. The video also shows that a staggering 31 fingers of upwards reaching lightning, called positive leaders, launched upwards from other nearby buildings in an attempt to intercept the downward negative leaders. The strike severely damaged a chimney, throwing fragments in all directions, the researchers report.

Paper:
Close View of the Lightning Attachment Process Unveils the Streamer Zone Fine Structure,
Marcelo M. F. Saba, Diego Rhamon R. da Silva, John G. Pantuso, Caitano L. da Silva,
[2022] Geophysical Research Letters:
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.c...

Camera: Phantom V2012 running at 40,000 images per second 1,280 × 448 pixels
Date: 30 March 2021
Location: S. Paulo Brazil
Who captured: Diego Rhamon da Silva (2nd author)
YouTube channels for more slow motion videos:
   / @marcelosaba  
   / @rhamon  

Editing by Larry O'Hanlon