See Blue Flash on a Mountain? It’s Already Too Late

Bright Side

If you ever see a sudden blue flash on a mountain, you might want to brace yourself—because it’s already too late! ⚡🏔️ This eerie phenomenon happens just moments before a powerful lightning strike, and it’s caused by an intense electric field building up in the air. Hikers and climbers who witness this glow often report feeling their hair stand on end—nature’s way of saying, “Run!” 🏃‍♂️💨 But the scary part? There’s usually no time to escape once the flash appears. Scientists are still studying how to predict these strikes better, but for now, the best advice is to get low and stay away from anything metal. So if you're ever up high and notice an eerie blue glow... maybe don’t stick around to admire it!  Credit: Tribo: By Zátonyi Sándor, (ifj.) Fizped, CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tribo.ogv Solar glory: By Brocken Inaglory, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15799557 Plasma microfields: By Evgeny Stambulchik, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Plasma_microfields.webm Animation is created by Bright Side.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV   Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Telegram: https://t.me/bright_side_official   Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

Transcript

00:00If nature had its own movie, it'd be a mix of Avatar and Interstellar, and I'm not even

00:06kidding. How else could you explain something as surreal as avalanches that spark blue light

00:11or pink lakes? The thing is, these aren't CGI, and I'll show you how Earth manages

00:18to pull these off!

00:22In October 2024, a guy was lucky enough to be at the right place during the right cold

00:28night and got to record a blue avalanche. I mean, it was mainly white, but it quickly

00:33flashed a blue light while it was running downhill. Now scientists aren't totally

00:39sure how these blue flashing avalanches happen, but they have some ideas. One part of the

00:44mystery comes from a thing called triboluminescence, which is when light is created by rubbing

00:50or breaking something. It can happen on many different occasions. One of them is with ice

00:56structures. This happens because of friction, like when two things scrape against each

01:01other causing a little bit of sparks to appear. It's a cold light, meaning it doesn't come

01:07from heat, just from pressure or movement. Sometimes when ice cracks or breaks under

01:13pressure, it can make a tiny electrical charge. When something disturbs ice blocks, making

01:19it crack, this ignites a reaction. The trapped ions are charged particles, and when they

01:25suddenly get released, they start moving around. This big release of energy is what

01:30creates flashes of light. In this case, a blue glow or flash of light. All of this happens

01:36absurdly fast, so to actually witness this release of light is super rare!

01:45In June of 2024, people in the US witnessed a massive emergence of cicadas that only appear

01:51once every 13 or 17 years. Cicadas spend most of their life cycles underground. While

01:58they're still nymphs, they can spend multiple years feeding on tree roots. Some species

02:03can spend up to 17 years under the earth before they're ready to re-emerge to the surface

02:08and officially turn into adults. But in 2024, both 13-year and 17-year-old cicadas appeared

02:16at the same time. And since 13 and 17 are prime numbers, this event only happens once

02:23every 221 years!

02:27The forests got absurdly loud. You see, cicadas can sing anywhere as loud as 80 to 120 decibels.

02:35They usually sing in groups, which is why it tends to get pretty loud. Someone who actually

02:40lived through this event said they could yell at full strength while inside the forest and

02:45not hear themselves at all. When cicadas come out of the ground, the male insects produce

02:51loud songs by vibrating their abdomens to attract females. With millions of insects

02:57from both species singing together, you were in for a real-life natural symphony. Some

03:03people mistook these cicadas for locusts and called it an infestation.

03:11All the way down in Senegal, Africa, lies a unique lake. Arriving there, you might think

03:16you're walking out of a spaceship and into an unknown planet. After all, have you ever

03:21seen pink water before? The so-called Lake Retba, or Lac Rose, as known by the locals,

03:28has become internationally famous for shining its vivid pink color. And yes, you can swim

03:34there if you'd like, but you should know the water is extremely salty. Lake Retba is

03:39known to be one of the world's saltiest lakes with a saline level of about 40%. And

03:45in case you're wondering why the water is pink, I assure you this has nothing to do

03:50with other worldly factors. It's actually due to the high levels of salt. The algae,

03:55known as Dunaliella salina, is the one responsible for the pink shading. These algae produce

04:01red pigments that absorb sunlight, giving the lake its striking pink color. But if you'd

04:07like to catch the lake at its brightest color, you should go during the dry season, between

04:11the months of November and June. In other months, the rainwater dilutes the pigments,

04:16and its color becomes less distinct.

04:19You can also find a Bubblegum Pink Lake in Western Australia. It was actually crowned

04:25as the 10th most otherworldly site in the world. Lake Hillier is shaped like a footprint

04:30and measures over 1,900 feet in length. You can really see how the pink stands out next

04:37to that deep blue ocean sitting next to it.

04:41Hey, look here! Any ideas what this is? Take your wildest guess. Ok, it looks like a river,

04:49right? But that doesn't look like water flowing on it. When locals first saw this

04:54happening, they didn't know what it was. So, to make things easier, they just called

04:59it Sand River. It sure was a good guess, but it turns out that what these people saw

05:04is more or less an optical illusion. It's not sand, but it's not exactly water either.

05:11You see, in arid environments, it's pretty rare for hails to happen. And in this case,

05:17what we're seeing are thousands and thousands of floating hailstones. Simply put, hail is

05:22just frozen rain that pours down in the form of small pebbles of ice. Looks pretty magical

05:28though, doesn't it?

05:32Now isn't it crazy that something as beautiful as the Northern Lights emerges from a violent

05:38encounter? Yep, the so-called Aurora Borealis is actually the result of solar storms. Here's

05:45how it works. The sun, the giant ball of gas, sometimes throws out bits of plasma into space.

05:52When this plasma flies away from the sun, we call it a solar storm. These storms travel

05:57through space, passing by planets like Mercury and Venus, before reaching Earth. When these

06:02intense solar storms hit the Earth's magnetic field, something amazing happens. These particles

06:09coming from the sun are captured by Earth's magnetic field. They collide with atoms and

06:13molecules in the Earth's atmosphere, and these collisions create auroras, especially near

06:19the North and South Poles. From where we stand, these flashes look like colorful lights dancing

06:25in the sky. But that's not really what's happening. If you zoomed in, you'd see millions

06:30of tiny flashes happening super quickly. Oh, and the Northern Lights make sounds too. It's

06:37a mix of chirps, crackles, and buzzing noises, like a strange radio signal. And this is the

06:42sound of a solar storm crashing into our atmosphere.

06:49Does Thor ring any bells? I'm guessing he lives inside this next natural phenomenon.

06:55The thing is, sometimes when a volcano erupts, it can be accompanied by huge thunderbolts.

07:02Scientists often refer to it as volcanic lightning, and they're still debating as to why this

07:06happens. One of their guesses is that when a volcano erupts, it projects charged debris

07:11into the atmosphere. These charges then react with other charges already present in the

07:16air, which can result in a bolt of lightning. Cool, huh? The first time anyone ever witnessed

07:22something like this was during an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE.

07:31Last but not least, rainbows. Of course, which is the semicircular one we see most times.

07:38If you're lucky, you can witness a full-circle rainbow, which usually happens in high altitudes,

07:43where the line of the horizon doesn't cut the rainbow in half. Ah, yes, there's also

07:49the possibility of a lunar rainbow, aka the moonbow, which is a very unusual sight. It

07:56happens usually during full moons, when the light of the moon is at its brightest, and

08:01it's also perceived as a white arc, outlining the moon's outer rim. Let's just wow here

08:07for a moment.

08:10That's it for today! So, hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like

08:15and share it with your friends. Or, if you want more, just click on these videos and

08:19stay on the Bright Side!

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