St. Elmo's Fire - Have you seen it?

I have been working hard lately and taking advancement classes so I have been getting little sleep. My mind works overtime when I am in this condition so all kinds of crazy things just pop into my head.

Upon waking from my brief four hour sleep after putting in another sixteen hour round, the words St. Elmo's fire popped into my head.

I know what St. Elmo's fire is but has anyone every seen it for themselves?

What were the conditions and what did it look like; if you have seen it?

I've only ever seen footage of it, it's gotta be pretty hard to catch the natural stuff on film but you can get it pretty predictably from helicopter roters, like this...

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/9b3661c494c3.jpg[/atsimg]

The one time I have been on a helicopter I watched the roter tips like a hawk, and although we were on a training flight with the air sea rescue (St elmos fire need moisture I believe) - The conditions were not right, never saw any.

Great pic NT

I am not sure I agree with the moisture in the air statement.
I was/am under the impression, that this happens from static charge and is more noticeable, in dry climates ie...deserts, high altitude, and such.

But I also know that it is something to fear upon boats and rescue missions in water...so hey what do I know, it very welll could be moisture driven.

after chasing driving an ATV into a dust devil and chasing following it quite a ways, when I steped off it, I got a super jolt in my ankle, when I got close enough to the ground..to uhhh ground myself...yall would'v loved it, watching me bang me knee on the handle bars jumping clean over the ATV off to the opposit side I started off of it to begin with.

Prolly not the same thing but anyways I thought it was static..related.

reply to post by Doc Holiday


Hehe, you could probably fit one of those static discharge dangle things that all the cars used to have to your ATV - actually you hardly ever see hose any more, wonder if that's to do with modern car design?

reply to post by SpiritoftheNightSky


AWwww I thought we were tlaking about the 80s movie!

reply to post by Now_Then


That is a neat picture but for some reason I had an impression that its was bit more intensive and spectacular. Of course everything comes in degrees but I would think that it would be a phenomenon that would indeed stand out, be noticed and never forgotten.

I guess it is just so rare that few people have ever really seen it.