Getty Image / Sarianto Sembiring/Xinhua
Lightning storms can occur around a volcano when ash particles from the plume collide and this can create a massive static electricity storm that looks like something out of your wildest dreams. The lead image above is actually from a separate storm which took place recently in Indonesia but the Guatemala footage below is even more spectacular.
This rare weather phenomenon occurred at Volcán de Fuego in Guatemala and honestly, watching this is easy to understand how the ancient Greeks came up with Zeus (the Thunder God and King of Mt. Olympus) because truly how else would someone ever rationalize what is going on here without a deep understanding of science or access to scientific outlets to go to for an explanation?
Clips have made their way across social media showing the massive lightning storm fueled by static electricity at the Guatemalan volcano and they are quickly racking up millions of views as weather geeks simply cannot get enough of this dazzling display. Check it out:
Here is that same clip from Instagram for those who prefer that medium to YouTube:
Zeus. Thor. He-Man. Storm from the X-Men. All of these mythological or modern fictional characters come to mind when I see this and I still fancy myself a man of science, or at least my advanced degree claims to be. Yet this spectacle is so surreal and mesmerizing I find myself immediately going to lore in order to explain what my eyes are seeing.
I’m also thinking that the Art Direction team at The Sphere in Las Vegas where I just saw Phish last month needs to take notice of this. They could do some INCREDIBLE visuals with this as a prompt by allowing their creation engine to run wild. Hopefully someone takes notice of this before Dead & Co. start their residency there because these visuals would go SO HARD for ‘Fire on the Mountain.’
About 9 months ago, volcano lightning was seen on this same Guatemalan volcano but it pales in comparison to the recent spectacle. This is still awesome though:
I’ve been eyeballing a fishing trip to Guatemala for years. Tacking on a trip to see this volcano might be a necessary add-on to that trip.