A video of a lightning strike on a clock tower in Saudi Arabia's Mecca has gone viral on social media. In the video, lightning strikes the structure on a rainy evening and then illuminates up the sky in a magnificent way.
A clip was shared online by a user named Mulham H, whose Twitter bio described him as a scholar of astronomy at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah. The translated caption read: “A few days ago, a lightning strike struck the Burj al-Saa during the rain in Makkah.”
Watch the clip here:
The video, which was shared on Friday, has amassed over 1.3 million views on Twitter. Several Twitter users retweeted it and expressed amazement at the beautiful sight.
“The striking resemblance of lightning to a neuron fascinates me,” a user commented.
Over the past few days, parts of Saudi Arabia have been witnessing thunderstorms and torrential rain.
Several parts of the neighbouring United Arab Emirates are experiencing “its wettest weather in decades”, according to Al Arabiya. As per UAE's National Center of Meteorology (NCM), it experienced its wettest weather in about 30 years in July. Experts have described the downpour in the UAE and Saudi Arabia as a result of “the Indian monsoon low,” warning of more rain.
The video from Mecca has gone viral days after images of lightning striking and damaging a tree in Ohio, USA, caught the internet's attention. The thunderbolt burnt the tree from the inside, leaving The Ridgeville Township Volunteer Firefighter Department with a tough task at hand. The tree had to be cut out to fully put off the fire.
The dangerously beautiful natural phenomenon of lightning has always fascinated people. Earlier this year, a video of an upward lightning strike went viral on Twitter.
In the video, the bolt appears to begin at the ground and then travels towards the cloud, in stark contrast with traditional lightning strikes.
Upward lightning primarily occurs when there is a nearby positive cloud-to-ground flash.
