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Just curious, but are there storms that are bad enough that the lightning in them looks red or purple or even green. I know this sounds weird, but I have had a number of dreams where the clouds are blacker than black and the lightning is different colors. I just want to know if my dreams have a basis in fact somewhere.
Thanks. Jana C.
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Oh good, I'm not the only one with weather dreams! Lightning comes in all different colors so you aren't out of your mind at all! Usually we see a whitish or yellow color as lightning strikes outside. But it can be green or purple shaded or even have a pink tint.
If you took a chemistry class ever you probably got to set some things on fire. Some of those things, ranging from metals to gases have different colors when you light them. The same thing happens outside! When there are different gases or particles outside the lightning can look a different color. Just like when there's different aerosols or sized ice crystals, sunlight can look different too.
You can have excess pollution, ozone or even chemicals from trees in the air that alter the color you see of lightning. When you are closer to lightning it may appear just white or yellowish. As you get farther away and particles in the atmosphere scatter the light, you can see different colored bolts.
Answered by KSL Meteorologist Dina Freedman.
