An electric storm vortex was recorded near the Virgin Islands

A giant plasma column was recorded near the Virgin Islands by photographer Frankie Lucena on the evening of September 20, Spaceweather reports.

This weather phenomenon occurred during a severe thunderstorm that preceded tropical storm Peter, and had the shape of a carrot. Carrot electric vortices are notable for their inner bead — bright balls of light hundreds of meters wide. It is worth noting that the more common type of electric vortex has the shape of a tree.

The phenomenon itself is not a single one, but it is extremely rarely recorded in a photo or video. This is due to both the place of occurrence of the phenomenon (most often over water) and its short duration.

In order to photograph electric vortices in 2017 and 2018, high-speed cameras were placed on the northern coast of Colombia. They were installed by a lightning researcher from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia – Oscar van der Velde. But for three months of observations, he managed to catch only 12 "lightning of the Earth", which were not particularly impressive in their size. This is not surprising, because over the past 20 years, only about 10 really huge such phenomena have been photographed.

Electric storm vortices are sometimes also called "the highest lightning of the Earth", because they reach the ionosphere at an altitude of more than 80 km. The last time such huge towering forms were discovered near Taiwan and Puerto Rico was in 2001-2002.