The Lightning Hunter

Twitter account of storm and lightning chaser Chris Kwinta (The Lightning Hunter on YouTube). Grad student at UAH studying lightning in MCSs. Part 107 pilot.

[The Lightning Hunter @ChrisTLHunt]

BOOM!!!!!! Closest CG of my entire life!
6:45PM from an isolated supercell in S TN.

[The Lightning Hunter @ChrisTLHunt]

@alluringstorms @brendonme I don't think it would be that much different with hail, especially when its density is below that which would create visible shafts.

[The Lightning Hunter @ChrisTLHunt]

@brendonme Here is a good example of both effects:

https://t.co/b3PJM2eHkB

[LoriGraceWX @lorigracewx]

baSiC mOnsooN in aRiZona

[The Lightning Hunter @ChrisTLHunt]

@brendonme That would not create a more diffuse image of the leader. Lightning strikes around rainfall quite often, and this has the effect of making part of the leader more diffuse or sometimes the rainshaft itself reflects the light and becomes pronounced.

[The Lightning Hunter @ChrisTLHunt]

@PaulMSmithphoto If you're small, you get to deal with algorithmic throttling. If you're big, you get to deal with content thieves.

Wonderful times we live in.

[The Lightning Hunter @ChrisTLHunt]

@AlexKlucher G then J

[The Lightning Hunter @ChrisTLHunt]

Caught three good lightning flashes in Huntsville today. Two upwards, one downward. The first of the upwards was a rare upward positive flash. The negative upward came only several minutes later, indicating that the charge structure changed quickly. Slow-mo is 20x slower.

[The Lightning Hunter @ChrisTLHunt]

Burst of CG lightning over Huntsville yesterday evening. This is 500 FPS video, slowed down 20x. The 2nd CG had 5-6 ground terminations!

[Garret Hartung @HartungWx]

Captured some upward lightning emanating out of a few of the wind turbines near Rufus, Oregon yesterday evening as the main line of storms drifted into the eastern slopes of the Cascades. #orwx #wawx

[The Lightning Hunter @ChrisTLHunt]

@wxmann Hard disagree. High-end MCSs have beautiful organization and dynamics to them. "Slop" is when you miss ingredients to create such systems and you end up with clustering with no rhyme or reason. The purest form of slop is cold-season garbage with no lightning.

[The Lightning Hunter @ChrisTLHunt]

Supercells engage in a behavior called "anting" where they deliberately provoke colonies of storm chasers into spraying formic acid as a defense mechanism. This helps the supercell eliminate or repel parasites that live in its inflow.

[Edgar ONeal @EdgarONealWX]

When my grandkids ask what chasing was like in 2026…@WxFront

[The Lightning Hunter @ChrisTLHunt]

@lapseR8wx I think it's more likely that the rural cell network over there was overwhelmed by chasers streaming. Maybe also power grid instabilities from the tornado damage affecting one of the cell sites.

[The Lightning Hunter @ChrisTLHunt]

@GumryWX In fairness, I'd also not produce anything if I was being swarmed by an ant colony.

[The Lightning Hunter @ChrisTLHunt]

@brewmaster007 @omaha_scanner Long continuing current on that one. Not a surprise that a fire was ignited.

[The Lightning Hunter @ChrisTLHunt]

@b0n_ker @AdamLucioWX I believe that specifically holding a device (i.e. for texting) is what's illegal. My phone is usually in its holder and I periodically touch the screen when I know it's safe to do so.

[The Lightning Hunter @ChrisTLHunt]

@AdamLucioWX There was a car turning around in the road due to a downed power line after the 3/10 Kankakee tornado. Saw it in the last second; I had to veer off the road since I wouldn't have stopped in time. Thankfully there was just grass and I had no damage.

[The Lightning Hunter @ChrisTLHunt]

@AdamLucioWX About 200 feet away based on sound delay, honestly not as close as it looks in the video, which actually makes it more impressive. I wonder where those sparks came from.

[The Lightning Hunter @ChrisTLHunt]

@AaronRigsbyOSC Were you able to find the attachment point of the strike?

[The Lightning Hunter @ChrisTLHunt]

@PettusWX I agree until they let us choose the parcel type (or just include all of them).

[The Lightning Hunter @ChrisTLHunt]

500 FPS video of the CG photo I shared earlier. A different return stroke triggered the upwards before the CG in the video occurred. Note that the audio is from a similar flash in 2023. This flash was a bit softer since the peak current appeared low (but cont. current was not!)