As a kid learning about a storm chasing, I can always count on Pecos Hank. He’s teached me so much and I just love everything about him. He’s such a caring person especially to animals!
I’ve only ever seen this once, when I was about 10 years old in Melbourne, Australia (sometime in the mid-1990s). There was an isolated severe thunderstorm on an otherwise clear autumn night about 60km away that I could see flashing away on the distant horizon. Occasionally these weird red tentacle-things flashed high above the cloud, and both myself and my dad had no idea what they were. I only learned what they were in the past few years, but I’ll never forget seeing them. Pretty awesome.
Hi, form California. Originally form Woomera. It's so fast, isn't it? Up there, electricity meets less resistance. the sprite happens from a (difference of potential). Just imagine a storm; like nylon socks, on a carpet, and the earth's magnetic field is your older sibling.
@@Mikelaxo He just means because of the fact that you have to be at a distance to begin with most of the time to see them properly, they appear "smaller" in comparison to their actual size.
The visibility is so bad where I live. Hopefully, I’ll be able to move to a remote location without lights and smog everywhere. Sigh. I’d pay big bucks to be able to stargaze freely every night.
baksu or get sued dang where do you live that the sky is so bad. I’m from Florida and I can drive 3 hours to a spot where the stars and Milky Way are so bright they cast a shadow. Also if you drive like an hour out of your city I think you’d be surprised how many stars are in the sky.
Brandon Smith I live in the northwestern part of Alabama :/ The farther out you go from my house (into the rural backroad countryside), the better the sky is. A lot of ET searchers love going to the backwoods here. There’s this place where people claim to see lights and ufo sightings. I’ve never been out there though, but it’s the perfect field to stargaze in because of the large stretch of flat land. It’s quite a distance, but it’s worth the drive.
Brandon Smith It’s amazing how the sky has changed, when I was younger (I was 5 or 6 in 2007) the sky definitely wasn’t as polluted as it is now. I can see quite a bit of stars on a good clear night if I look hard enough. I have really bad eyesight though, so that could also be the cause for me not being able to see the stars.
@@jomormont Trump was hilarious a few years ago. Then in 2018 he stopped being as funny. Now, in 2020, he's not funny in the slightest. He's caused the death of over 180,000 innocent people.
@@TheFirstCurse1 Lmao! That's actually even more funny. One because, he didn't cause any of that to begin with. And two, the CDC has changed that number from 180k, to less than 10k on their website.
I knew they existed via the aircraft world, however had no idea you could see them from the ground. Seen plenty of distant T-storms at night but never looked for sprites thinking you needed to be at high altitude. This video is awesome.
You still don't. It's word salad. I can speak the words of the Kale . The truth of the Crystal will reveal you and me. The Cosmic vibrations call to our being! Aand it's all just bullshit to sell a few "help yourself" -books.
In 1985, I was 14 years old and on a connector flight between Tokyo and Nagoya, Japan. There was a thunderstorm we were flying around and I was glued to the window, watching it. I saw what I called "fuzzy pink lightning" shooting out of the tops of the clouds. There was one blue jet, but I even convinced myself I was seeing things because there was more pink. When I got home, I asked every science teacher and "smart person" I could find what it was that I had seen. Most of them tried to tell me I had imagined it. A couple pilots I talked to told me they had seen similar lightning, but had no explanation, and one said no one had believed him. Just after I graduated high school in 1989, I heard about Pink Sprites. In years after, I even saw some of the people I had asked who told me I was imagining it and told them about sprites. Most still thought I was making it up. There was no google or youtube to show them at the time.
People told me I was imagining things when I told them about similar colors of light flashes coming directly up from the earth where there are faults near us. It's only recently that there has been enough video evidence of this happening during earthquakes that people started to take it seriously. However, to my knowledge, I am one of the few people who has noticed them when there wasn't an earthquake but coming up in the area of the fault. Still don't know what they are.
@@whoever6458 In 1994, I saw what I think was "ball lightning". I have no idea what it was, and make no claim. It was like a large, slow-moving meteorite, bluish white, not too luminous, moving downward about 15 degrees off horizontal until it went behind the hill. It wasn't a bolide, though. It was too slow. It wasn't a crashing plane or satellite coming down, either. To this day I don't know what I saw.
@@whoever6458 Unfortunately, it's hard to say for sure if earthquake lights are valid without more scientific research into it. One theory is that they're power flashes from strained power lines, grids, so forth. And, that's very possible. But, I would be thrilled if more study went into it to see if it's due to electric charges being triggered by the movement of the plates. There's so many minerals in the ground, various layers, it'd be a very complex thing to try and study... but it's a fascinating thing.
Just need to get something off my chest: I'm 70 now; born in 1950. When I was about 6 years old, with the Cold War going on, there were many Sci-Fi movies about robots and flying saucers, the typical semi-scary shit. My parents bought me a "Robbie the Robot" toy, and we had gone to see a "flying saucers land in Washington D.C. and invade!" movie earlier in the day...and then went home. It was late afternoon and I had gone outside into a field of old strip pits to play; there was a massive thunderstorm brewing and I knew I had to go home before it hit. It was clear where I was but the clouds were high overhead and moving to cover us. I was looking up at them because the thunder was coming closer. Suddenly there was a red dot in the cloud followed by a crack of thunder. When I say "red dot", I mean a perfectly circular disk of red light. It only lasted a fraction of a second, but I'll never forget it, because it was literally as round as a manhole cover. ROUND. Not "roundish", but a perfect disk. I went on home and told my parents about it; they promptly told me I was just imagining it because of the sci-fi movie we had seen. Now, I didn't say "I saw a flying saucer"; I just described it exactly as I saw it. THEY thought I was trying to get THEM to say flying saucer, but I wasn't. And I was hurt and disappointed that they just dismissed it completely. I went on to become a scientist, had a great and fun career and am now retired... but I never forgot what I had seen and for over half a century kept looking for an explanation...until I finally got one: I had seen a Sprite from the bottom up- apparently I just happened to have that sucker bore-sighted The duration was correct; in later years I had estimated it as lasting around 1/4th of a second- just long enough to see it and form an unmistakable image. I never discussed science with my parents after that day, no matter what cool science I was into; they lost their chance to participate in my scientific life by rejecting my honest observation and basically calling me crazy, dishonest, or stupid- take your pick. Their loss. But eventually solving the mysteries one comes across from time to time was the main driving force behind my entire career, and finally solving them is very sweet indeed.
Really nice testimony. Thankyou for sharing this. You must feel vindicated by this video. Life has strange ways of confirming truth and really shitty timing.
Sounds like you just got unnecessarily salty. Your parents shouldn’t have been so flippant, but you definitely overreacted if you shut them out of that part of your life over something so small.
Yeah, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say you're not 70, or you'd be over that by now. Also, nobody simply says "I'm a scientist". There are so many fields, and anybody that specializes in one would never reduce it to something as simple as "scientist". You sound like a young man who has trouble relating to his parents.
This has become my favorite and most relevant channel. I can't express the joy I get from these videos. Weather has always fascinated me. From my house breathing while the eye of Andrew was passing, witnessing the 91' Lemont, IL tornado outside a basement window and many other amazing sights. I'm so humbled by weather. Thanks Hank.
Andrew? Really. Went down from Atl with supplies on an 18 wheeler the next day. It was a devastating site pulling in. Worked for a week & brought what plants were left up
@@clairewiechulla4640 What a sight that was, I was too young to do any real work back then but we ferried friends to Homestead to help with the clean up. I'll never forget the sight. We were lucky, we had some pretty bad damage but nothing like those just south of us.
"Ordinary people can still discover something new." Hank, you're far from ordinary. Not only do you get closer to active tornadoes than any sensible person ever would, but your photography of the storms you follow is very often absolutely stunning.
Far from ordinary yet so very much so. He's just a dude who started with a regular fascination of tornadoes that slowly grew into a "lemme try seein a couple" to "maybe I could get into this more" to "maybe I should learn about the way these things work" to "maybe I should really try to share this magnificence with the world" to making a fantastic channel with beautiful footage and occasionally highly educational videos such as this. If you look at that last step, he sure does seem like something else, and in a way he is. But how wild is it to go from step to step? Step one to step two. Hell you can even do it a little out of order and start with learning their anatomy/formation/etc. He's a dude who found his passion and pursued it like so many other storm chasers. We may love his work more than others, but that doesn't take away from other skilled storm chasers either. They too are regular people who pursued their passion. That's pretty ordinary to me ;)
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Well tbf to photograph TLEs you just need a decent high speed camera and to be a good distance away from a thunderstorm so that isn't particularly hard. And the sentiment is true, there's a ton we're learning about the atmosphere because nowadays everyone carries around a pretty decent camera and is somewhat decent at using them so there's a ton of events that had never been captured on camera before that we're starting to get data on now.
For an "ordinary person," you make some of the best quality scientific videos I have seen! The quality of your footage, descriptions, explanations, and animations are outstanding! I also love how you include your own music. Keep up the good work!
That’s absolutely awesome, Hank. In the interest of identifying possible sources, I’d like to recommend simultaneous capture using a 532nm filter on one camera and a near-IR (at least up to past 1064nm) filter on the other. By spectrally separating the cameras with passive filters, you should be able to dig a little deeper into the characteristics driving the colors, and by extension, the chemical makeup of the molecules driving the visible phenomena. Good luck, have fun, and stay safe!
It blows my mind that you were able to discover something new, in my opinion you are the best storm chaser, not only because you look, but because you actively search for new information, you inspire me so much! I hope to discover something new in this world of seemingly unlimited information, thanks!
Hank - you’re killing it dude. This is great shit! Start an online course for the down season when you’re not chasing. I’m in. I’d pay good money to learn about this stuff more. You’re on the the bleeding edge man.
Appreciate you so much, you've become a staple of our homeschooling curriculum (science/weather supplement) for the kids... Truth be told, we all learn so much and love your uploads. You are turning our kids into little meteorologists and weather science aficionados, thanks Hank!
This is honestly so underrated and deserves more credit, you have left me sitting here completely amazed and interested about something I never really expected. Great work Hank!!
Nice concise and understandable explanations. I've been kind of perplexed at seeing "upward red lightning" over distant t-storms here in AZ; in fact I saw a couple more tonight. This makes a lot of sense, and your videos correspond pretty much exactly with what I've seen with my naked eye (although in much greater detail). Funny the stuff you stumble across "surfing" RUclips late at night. 😛
That's not a random color spot, it's the complementary color to the initial light flash. Overexposure of the eyes to a certain color makes the eyes blind to that color for a while, causing it to see its complementary color.
@@phroggysaur4708 naw, the color is in your brain. Your retina and your visual cortex get used to seeing red there and compensate to not get overstimulated; when the red input stops it registers the complimentary color. People usually make these “afterimage” optical illusions with green and red, but you can easily see it when you stare at an a yellow incandescent light for a second then cover your eyes: you’ll see a purple glow-blob in the same shape behind your eyelids.
I've loved watching thunderstorms since childhood, the elemental power of nature has always left me awestruck but the storms we get where I live a small in comparrison to the monsters the Hank gets to see, but thanks to this channel I can ride along with one of the most listenable, knowledgable storm chasers in the world. Thank you Pecos Hank for allowing us to ride along with you as you see these awsome events.
There’s that moment, around 3:20, where you can feel their excitement about confirming what triggers sprite activity that is so contagious and ubiquitous. Loved this one, and super cool to see you documenting newly discovered phenomena
When I was about ten years old, late 90s,I saw a wide, branching bolt of red lightning. All these years I've thought I was misrembering it being red. Man, thank you.
Incredible work Hank!! I’ve always found sprites to be wildly interesting. They’re gorgeous, and learning the science behind them just makes them cooler! It’s really inspiring to know that there’s still weather phenomena out there to be discovered and explored. Keep at it! I look forward to hearing more about these elusive ‘Ghosts’ in the future 😋
I remember watching a documentary in the 90s when I was a kid about thunderstorms. It described a "strange phenomenon" observed from space above large storms right after lightning struck, and back then, there was little else but mystery around it. Now, the strange phenomenon are known as sprites and you've found their cousin! Never stop doing science, Hank! Stay safe!
In my 40+ years on this planet, this is the first time I am hearing of this phenomenon - and the explanation from this video is soo basic, I can now teach this stuff to others like me - as though I have always known about this.. Thanks guys and also to the inventors of RUclips!
My husband and I found your channel this week and we absolutely adore it! We have learned so much about the sky and how weather systems work in the last several days. Thanks so much for creating this channel and posting all these videos! Now we can't wait till monsoon season here in Arizona (just a few weeks away!) :)
@livid creature Sadly I've also seen more reputable news sources capitalising on shady science reporting. Everytime there's a study suggesting that x thing might give cancer to mice in certain circumastances I see newspapers being like "if you eat it you're going to die" It's not as bad as Info Wars but it still happens
Really cool video. I had just remembered a tv show about sprites I saw when I was a kid and stumbled upon your video. I was just looking for some cool pics but got all the info that I normally would have to look up and research for an hour after watching the video. Thanks for saving me all that time by including everything in the video. Seriously, for real, I really mean it... great video.
I've only ever seen Sprites when a large thunderstorm passes from land and over the sea. To see them myself is amazing but to share the experience with others (especially the one's who think you are nuts) is far better. Only just found your channel by chance, now subbed. Cheers.
This channel is “on par” with Vsauce, Because Science, Mark Rober, Star Talk and Destin from Smarter every day. It teaches me so much. Top quality content, thanks for your service.
Pratwurscht Gulasch Michael Stevens is still at it. Mind field has become free and dong has become ding where he showcases “toys”. Vsauce1 is sleeping but still active, Vsause2 has just uploaded a new video and Vsauce3 uploading rarely but often cooperate with other YT. Mind field is really good!
@@davecrupel2817 It's a show hosted by Neil DeGrass Tyson, (the guy who hosted the remake of Cosmos), who has a comedienne as a co-host, and invites guests on to talk about stuff related to science or science fiction. It's fascinating, funny, and..... IDK... It has the feel of friends getting together to talk about things. Kind of cozy, I guess. Love the show. This is a link to a list of guests who appeared on the show if you want an idea of content. www.epguides.com/StarTalk/
Hey hank, good to be seeing videos again. And Dude! Such wonders in tbe skies, and awesome, awesome soundtrack! Love it to bits, thank you so much for sharing 🙏💓🤩🤗💓
What a breakthrough in sprite and ghost development.. we really haven't heard much about these for a while now. Hank, love the videos, been watching for a long time.. this is great. Don't stop chasing those twirly things though..
That is amazing footage, The stills look like some of those Nazca lines in Peru or petroglyphs out west. Less light in those days would mean the sprites might have been easier to see and the indigenous cultures had their own ideas of what they may have been...
As a child I remember one incredible storm near Overland Park, KS where I saw what I thought was strange colored lightning. I had seen bluish lightning, yellowish, and white before but that night I kept seeing fast flashes of deep blue, purple, pink, red, and I was pretty sure I saw some green. Having watched your videos with sprites I can finally explain what I saw. Because when I told my parents, friends, and teachers, no one believed me, which made me worry that I was crazy or had imagined the colors. I have loved storms all my life, I even did some very amateur chasing back in the late eighties when I was a teen chasing storms in a rusty, yellow 1970 Chevy Nova. I still like to turn the lights off and open the window shades to watch from the comfort of my home. But I have never seen a storm as beautiful and colorful as that one I saw when I was 7 or 8 years old which would have been either 1977 or 1978.
Pecos you and your friends might be just having a good time doing what you love, but you just made a scientific and meteorological discovery that no one has documented before. Congrats dude! I like the name you guys chose for these events as well, "ghost" realy fits the theme.
Hey Pecks Hank, I know you were not in Nashville during our tornado a few months ago. But I was wondering if you have any thoughts on the Nashville tornado. I have been watching your videos for about a year ago, and love your content!
Thank you for the explanation of Transient Luminous Events and congratulations on your discovery! I also really enjoyed your background music, I love that minimalistic guitar work with heavy reverb style!
I’ve been watching you since you had 20k and I was only 10 then 😂 you’ve been my fav RUclipsr since!!! Now I’m 15 and I still loveeee your amazing videos !!! :)))
OH MY GOD! Did Hank make all these animations?! I'm nominating him for the Meteorologic Hall of Fame, man. Freakin' guy's making scientific discoveries...unbelievable!
We had an amazing lightning storm last night, and afterwards I started looking up more info on lightning and found your channel. This is insanely cool stuff man, congratulations on being part of the discovery!
What really intrigues me is how sprites seem to be "pre-formed;" unlike slow-mo shots of lightning, where you see the steppers forming as they go, sprites seem to be illuminating some structure that's already there, like a jellyfish in a flash photo. I'm really curious how those structures form.
I love your tornado content but this was fascinating. The science behind it is so cool and brilliantly explained. Thanks heaps for all your vids. Cheers
He mentioned ball lightning in his video talking about the different forms of lightning. He said that he scoured the Internet, and only found one believable image of ball lightning... a electrical sphere photoshopped into the famous Bigfoot image. Obviously a joke, but the meaning is clear. Ball lightning is extremely rare and next to nothing is known for sure about it.
Don't mind us down here in Flo-ri-day! Just you know... Responsible for discovering half the species in the sea known to man... Don't mind silly old Florida...
At first its hard to see the scale, when they fire off in an empty sky. But once I saw them above the clouds in the distance I realized how big these things are. Incredible
You and/or RUclips has invaded my brain. I just saw your season wrap up video and sadly only saw 'sprites' for the first time. I was thinking what the hell...how have i not known of this beautiful thing. Then last night I was thinking what the heck are they? So I am jumping on to search up another subject and I saw this video and literally yelled out loud. I got so excited to see this video in my recommends. Thank you so much for sharing the beautiful things you experience with us. Stay safe .
Gigantic jet!? That's what it's called? The grand, mystical event I witnessed as a child and held dearly to me as my legendary tale is called a Gigantic jet. Thats...fucking awesome.
Extremely awesome. Would be happy to use my Phantom camera to try to capture ghosts with you.
please make this happen
You should definitely try this. It would be amazing
Hank, i just subscribed to see that colab!
Please make this happen
MAKE IT HAPPEN!
It's always a good day when Pecos Hank uploads
Yeah
My two current favorite channels are pecos and osfirsttimer
It really is
yeah
Yeah👍🏻👻👻👻
As a kid learning about a storm chasing, I can always count on Pecos Hank. He’s teached me so much and I just love everything about him. He’s such a caring person especially to animals!
Hank is a thoughtful and wise teacher. Let's all be grateful to learn from him.
If your a kid, do yourself a future favor: don’t use your real name anywhere on the internet whatsoever. Change it when you can.
He’s been a great teacher for me too as a 17 year old aspiring the same future.
That means a lot Ethan. Thanks for tuning in again.
Primethread Agreed
I’ve only ever seen this once, when I was about 10 years old in Melbourne, Australia (sometime in the mid-1990s). There was an isolated severe thunderstorm on an otherwise clear autumn night about 60km away that I could see flashing away on the distant horizon. Occasionally these weird red tentacle-things flashed high above the cloud, and both myself and my dad had no idea what they were. I only learned what they were in the past few years, but I’ll never forget seeing them. Pretty awesome.
Hi, form California. Originally form Woomera.
It's so fast, isn't it?
Up there, electricity meets less resistance. the sprite happens from a (difference of potential). Just imagine a storm; like nylon socks, on a carpet, and the earth's magnetic field is your older sibling.
Awesome. If I had ever seen one it would have been burned in my memory. Very cool.
Hey, did you happen to tell your Dad what the red tentacles thingies were, after finding it out?
The fact that they don't look that big but are actually massive makes them terrifying
What do you mean? They look massive
@@Mikelaxo He just means because of the fact that you have to be at a distance to begin with most of the time to see them properly, they appear "smaller" in comparison to their actual size.
Imaging being able to watch sprites, lightning, and see the Milky Way at the same time. Hank’s profession is amazing.
And falling stars
The visibility is so bad where I live. Hopefully, I’ll be able to move to a remote location without lights and smog everywhere. Sigh. I’d pay big bucks to be able to stargaze freely every night.
baksu or get sued dang where do you live that the sky is so bad. I’m from Florida and I can drive 3 hours to a spot where the stars and Milky Way are so bright they cast a shadow. Also if you drive like an hour out of your city I think you’d be surprised how many stars are in the sky.
Brandon Smith I live in the northwestern part of Alabama :/ The farther out you go from my house (into the rural backroad countryside), the better the sky is. A lot of ET searchers love going to the backwoods here. There’s this place where people claim to see lights and ufo sightings. I’ve never been out there though, but it’s the perfect field to stargaze in because of the large stretch of flat land. It’s quite a distance, but it’s worth the drive.
Brandon Smith It’s amazing how the sky has changed, when I was younger (I was 5 or 6 in 2007) the sky definitely wasn’t as polluted as it is now. I can see quite a bit of stars on a good clear night if I look hard enough. I have really bad eyesight though, so that could also be the cause for me not being able to see the stars.
I’ve never seen a red sprite in my entire life, and I’m shocked to find out that they exist
Generally I'm shocked just by seeing lightning....
@@jomormont Naw, Donald Trump is enough to tickle my fancy.
Rahul Kher he’s hilarious
@@jomormont Trump was hilarious a few years ago. Then in 2018 he stopped being as funny. Now, in 2020, he's not funny in the slightest. He's caused the death of over 180,000 innocent people.
@@TheFirstCurse1 Lmao! That's actually even more funny. One because, he didn't cause any of that to begin with. And two, the CDC has changed that number from 180k, to less than 10k on their website.
Didn't even know such things existed, amazing
I knew they existed via the aircraft world, however had no idea you could see them from the ground. Seen plenty of distant T-storms at night but never looked for sprites thinking you needed to be at high altitude. This video is awesome.
You still don't. It's word salad. I can speak the words of the Kale . The truth of the Crystal will reveal you and me. The Cosmic vibrations call to our being!
Aand it's all just bullshit to sell a few "help yourself" -books.
They dont
@@laalki80 I agree
@@laalki80 the government will give us thier explanations to keep us at Bay....if we challenge them we lose....
In 1985, I was 14 years old and on a connector flight between Tokyo and Nagoya, Japan. There was a thunderstorm we were flying around and I was glued to the window, watching it. I saw what I called "fuzzy pink lightning" shooting out of the tops of the clouds. There was one blue jet, but I even convinced myself I was seeing things because there was more pink. When I got home, I asked every science teacher and "smart person" I could find what it was that I had seen. Most of them tried to tell me I had imagined it. A couple pilots I talked to told me they had seen similar lightning, but had no explanation, and one said no one had believed him. Just after I graduated high school in 1989, I heard about Pink Sprites. In years after, I even saw some of the people I had asked who told me I was imagining it and told them about sprites. Most still thought I was making it up. There was no google or youtube to show them at the time.
People told me I was imagining things when I told them about similar colors of light flashes coming directly up from the earth where there are faults near us. It's only recently that there has been enough video evidence of this happening during earthquakes that people started to take it seriously. However, to my knowledge, I am one of the few people who has noticed them when there wasn't an earthquake but coming up in the area of the fault. Still don't know what they are.
@@whoever6458 In 1994, I saw what I think was "ball lightning". I have no idea what it was, and make no claim. It was like a large, slow-moving meteorite, bluish white, not too luminous, moving downward about 15 degrees off horizontal until it went behind the hill. It wasn't a bolide, though. It was too slow. It wasn't a crashing plane or satellite coming down, either. To this day I don't know what I saw.
@@seanbaskett5506I saw one a few years ago, maybe 2015
It was something very similar to what you just described, but dissapeared suddenly, I am not in contact with the people who saw it too
@@whoever6458 Unfortunately, it's hard to say for sure if earthquake lights are valid without more scientific research into it. One theory is that they're power flashes from strained power lines, grids, so forth. And, that's very possible. But, I would be thrilled if more study went into it to see if it's due to electric charges being triggered by the movement of the plates. There's so many minerals in the ground, various layers, it'd be a very complex thing to try and study... but it's a fascinating thing.
Just need to get something off my chest: I'm 70 now; born in 1950. When I was about 6 years old, with the Cold War going on, there were many Sci-Fi movies about robots and flying saucers, the typical semi-scary shit. My parents bought me a "Robbie the Robot" toy, and we had gone to see a "flying saucers land in Washington D.C. and invade!" movie earlier in the day...and then went home.
It was late afternoon and I had gone outside into a field of old strip pits to play; there was a massive thunderstorm brewing and I knew I had to go home before it hit. It was clear where I was but the clouds were high overhead and moving to cover us. I was looking up at them because the thunder was coming closer.
Suddenly there was a red dot in the cloud followed by a crack of thunder. When I say "red dot", I mean a perfectly circular disk of red light. It only lasted a fraction of a second, but I'll never forget it, because it was literally as round as a manhole cover. ROUND. Not "roundish", but a perfect disk.
I went on home and told my parents about it; they promptly told me I was just imagining it because of the sci-fi movie we had seen. Now, I didn't say "I saw a flying saucer"; I just described it exactly as I saw it. THEY thought I was trying to get THEM to say flying saucer, but I wasn't. And I was hurt and disappointed that they just dismissed it completely.
I went on to become a scientist, had a great and fun career and am now retired... but I never forgot what I had seen and for over half a century kept looking for an explanation...until I finally got one: I had seen a Sprite from the bottom up- apparently I just happened to have that sucker bore-sighted The duration was correct; in later years I had estimated it as lasting around 1/4th of a second- just long enough to see it and form an unmistakable image. I never discussed science with my parents after that day, no matter what cool science I was into; they lost their chance to participate in my scientific life by rejecting my honest observation and basically calling me crazy, dishonest, or stupid- take your pick.
Their loss. But eventually solving the mysteries one comes across from time to time was the main driving force behind my entire career, and finally solving them is very sweet indeed.
Really nice testimony. Thankyou for sharing this. You must feel vindicated by this video. Life has strange ways of confirming truth and really shitty timing.
I've seen it too. Nobody believe me i thought it was an alien 👾 ufo 🛸
I'm happy for you buddy! Keep living the dream! We need more wonderful stories of science in our lives.
Sounds like you just got unnecessarily salty. Your parents shouldn’t have been so flippant, but you definitely overreacted if you shut them out of that part of your life over something so small.
Yeah, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say you're not 70, or you'd be over that by now. Also, nobody simply says "I'm a scientist". There are so many fields, and anybody that specializes in one would never reduce it to something as simple as "scientist". You sound like a young man who has trouble relating to his parents.
This has become my favorite and most relevant channel. I can't express the joy I get from these videos. Weather has always fascinated me. From my house breathing while the eye of Andrew was passing, witnessing the 91' Lemont, IL tornado outside a basement window and many other amazing sights. I'm so humbled by weather. Thanks Hank.
Andrew? Really. Went down from Atl with supplies on an 18 wheeler the next day. It was a devastating site pulling in. Worked for a week & brought what plants were left up
@@clairewiechulla4640 What a sight that was, I was too young to do any real work back then but we ferried friends to Homestead to help with the clean up. I'll never forget the sight. We were lucky, we had some pretty bad damage but nothing like those just south of us.
when you get that one notification that pecos hank uploaded, you exit out of ANY other thing you were doing immediately. and you watch the video!
What about a new bootlegged Buckethead video? I guess, cross that bridge, if I happen upon it.
pornhub paused!
I've never seen this in my 28 years of living.. incredible.
Because they havent always sprayed salt in the atmosphere for creating clouds to counter global warming.
This is "chemtrails"
@@RKroese no you actual fricking investment, they're literally where chemtrails aren't.
@@RKroese
"Chemtrails"
OK BOOMER!
Me too!!
Ranstone OK BOOMER! xD
"Ordinary people can still discover something new."
Hank, you're far from ordinary. Not only do you get closer to active tornadoes than any sensible person ever would, but your photography of the storms you follow is very often absolutely stunning.
Far from ordinary yet so very much so. He's just a dude who started with a regular fascination of tornadoes that slowly grew into a "lemme try seein a couple" to "maybe I could get into this more" to "maybe I should learn about the way these things work" to "maybe I should really try to share this magnificence with the world" to making a fantastic channel with beautiful footage and occasionally highly educational videos such as this.
If you look at that last step, he sure does seem like something else, and in a way he is. But how wild is it to go from step to step? Step one to step two. Hell you can even do it a little out of order and start with learning their anatomy/formation/etc. He's a dude who found his passion and pursued it like so many other storm chasers. We may love his work more than others, but that doesn't take away from other skilled storm chasers either. They too are regular people who pursued their passion. That's pretty ordinary to me ;)
YES CORP. GOV. Lawyer To Law Maker Yes MSM Controls US ALL So Ease Fluoride in the Water By LAW = Neg. -20 IQ Points = Fluoride is a Negative Element Attracts Heavy Metals To The Brain Alzheimer's & Dementia It's Corp. Gov. Fake Money & Depopultion & Nuclear END One Way Or The Other Any Time Now ....Take Care....@ 46 CPM
Well tbf to photograph TLEs you just need a decent high speed camera and to be a good distance away from a thunderstorm so that isn't particularly hard. And the sentiment is true, there's a ton we're learning about the atmosphere because nowadays everyone carries around a pretty decent camera and is somewhat decent at using them so there's a ton of events that had never been captured on camera before that we're starting to get data on now.
4:58 "assuming you weren't raised in a barn"
*Slowly raises hand*
me who currently has 3 horses a mule 6 donkeys a cow and a large bale of hay less than 50 feet away: ummm....
I too was raised in a barn. The anti-barny establishment is out to get us!
Kidding. I laughed so hard.
I wasn't raised in a barn and never did that experiment.
Maybe my whole country is a barn, wouldn't be shocked.
That’s what I said, I’m wondering if we are sheep being raised as live stock where we are at. Is that what they’re trying to say……
As do my homeschool kids 😅
Good luck this season hank!😉 can’t wait for the incredible content you’ll create. Be safe!!
Not much for tornadoes this season. Folks in tornado Alley aren't complaining. I'll do my best to wrangle whatever Mother Nature throws at us.
Pecos Hank you missed it in Illinois and Wisconsin there were tons of tornadoes and a few rotations near my house
Central Iowa has had a few warnings and a tornado this week. Too many for my liking though.
@@PecosHank Down here in Texas something always happens, so I bet you can get something here one day🤣
@@PecosHank Have you ever thought about chasing storms in Canada?
For an "ordinary person," you make some of the best quality scientific videos I have seen! The quality of your footage, descriptions, explanations, and animations are outstanding! I also love how you include your own music. Keep up the good work!
He's NOT an "ordinary person", but an extraordinary human being!!
That’s absolutely awesome, Hank.
In the interest of identifying possible sources, I’d like to recommend simultaneous capture using a 532nm filter on one camera and a near-IR (at least up to past 1064nm) filter on the other. By spectrally separating the cameras with passive filters, you should be able to dig a little deeper into the characteristics driving the colors, and by extension, the chemical makeup of the molecules driving the visible phenomena.
Good luck, have fun, and stay safe!
Great comment Mr Dayton duck
7:11 I've never heard Hank squeal like a kid at Christmas from this amount of excitement! Adorable and funny simultaneously!
Agree. Rarely does hank react that way.
Good video and explanation.
It blows my mind that you were able to discover something new, in my opinion you are the best storm chaser, not only because you look, but because you actively search for new information, you inspire me so much! I hope to discover something new in this world of seemingly unlimited information, thanks!
Hank - you’re killing it dude. This is great shit! Start an online course for the down season when you’re not chasing. I’m in. I’d pay good money to learn about this stuff more. You’re on the the bleeding edge man.
Appreciate you so much, you've become a staple of our homeschooling curriculum (science/weather supplement) for the kids... Truth be told, we all learn so much and love your uploads. You are turning our kids into little meteorologists and weather science aficionados, thanks Hank!
That's awesome!
Tell'em I said howdy Jonathan. Thanks for sharing that!
First time I understand these phenomena with detail all the way. Best explanation and easy to understand.
You could call them “Green Halos from Oxygen in Sprite Tops” and your acronym would be even more perfect 😉
Without a doubt my favorite weather anomaly that you record. Best Tuesday ever.
So fascinating. I would love to study weather one day as a living
Yeah, very nice footage he got! I really wish I could see this in person
Start now!
Same! In fact Pecos Hank is the reason I love to find storms and predict what will happen.
Says the guy who shoots lightning out his fingers.
Do it! I'm starting my bachelor in a year! That's step 1
Never knew sprites even existed, just incredible. I've learned more in a few of your videos than I ever did at school!
This is honestly so underrated and deserves more credit, you have left me sitting here completely amazed and interested about something I never really expected. Great work Hank!!
Nice concise and understandable explanations. I've been kind of perplexed at seeing "upward red lightning" over distant t-storms here in AZ; in fact I saw a couple more tonight. This makes a lot of sense, and your videos correspond pretty much exactly with what I've seen with my naked eye (although in much greater detail). Funny the stuff you stumble across "surfing" RUclips late at night. 😛
This is *hands down* the BEST atmospheric phenomenon video I have ever watched. Thanks for making this and sharing with us!
The green color reminds me of when you see a flash and you have that random color spot left in your sight after readjusting to the flash.
yea
That's not a random color spot, it's the complementary color to the initial light flash. Overexposure of the eyes to a certain color makes the eyes blind to that color for a while, causing it to see its complementary color.
is your eye oxygen getting excited or something
@@phroggysaur4708 naw, the color is in your brain. Your retina and your visual cortex get used to seeing red there and compensate to not get overstimulated; when the red input stops it registers the complimentary color. People usually make these “afterimage” optical illusions with green and red, but you can easily see it when you stare at an a yellow incandescent light for a second then cover your eyes: you’ll see a purple glow-blob in the same shape behind your eyelids.
That's probably why some people suspected camera artifacts.
I've loved watching thunderstorms since childhood, the elemental power of nature has always left me awestruck but the storms we get where I live a small in comparrison to the monsters the Hank gets to see, but thanks to this channel I can ride along with one of the most listenable, knowledgable storm chasers in the world.
Thank you Pecos Hank for allowing us to ride along with you as you see these awsome events.
There’s that moment, around 3:20, where you can feel their excitement about confirming what triggers sprite activity that is so contagious and ubiquitous. Loved this one, and super cool to see you documenting newly discovered phenomena
Essa imagem que vemos é reflexo de algum lugar aqui na terra onde esses raios acontecem. Eles nos enganam.
When I was about ten years old, late 90s,I saw a wide, branching bolt of red lightning. All these years I've thought I was misrembering it being red.
Man, thank you.
My cousin and I saw those as kids, about '72, ran like hell into the house. We thought the aliens were on the way.
Incredible work Hank!! I’ve always found sprites to be wildly interesting. They’re gorgeous, and learning the science behind them just makes them cooler! It’s really inspiring to know that there’s still weather phenomena out there to be discovered and explored. Keep at it! I look forward to hearing more about these elusive ‘Ghosts’ in the future 😋
Cheers Sami!
I remember watching a documentary in the 90s when I was a kid about thunderstorms. It described a "strange phenomenon" observed from space above large storms right after lightning struck, and back then, there was little else but mystery around it. Now, the strange phenomenon are known as sprites and you've found their cousin!
Never stop doing science, Hank! Stay safe!
In my 40+ years on this planet, this is the first time I am hearing of this phenomenon - and the explanation from this video is soo basic, I can now teach this stuff to others like me - as though I have always known about this..
Thanks guys and also to the inventors of RUclips!
I keep watching these over and over. Great video and great voice for narration. Happy Trails.
Just opened up RUclips to watch something random and BAM, Pecos hank new video😎
My husband and I found your channel this week and we absolutely adore it! We have learned so much about the sky and how weather systems work in the last several days. Thanks so much for creating this channel and posting all these videos! Now we can't wait till monsoon season here in Arizona (just a few weeks away!) :)
Meanwhile, news media: scientist CONFIRM the existance of ghosts!
Yeah, “news media” like InfoWars and OANN lmao
@@LividCreature he's talking about CNN lol they did a whole fucking 4 hrs interview on it which is surprising since they never do there research
livid creature acnn and fox are just tomed down bullshit
"existEnse"
@livid creature
Sadly I've also seen more reputable news sources capitalising on shady science reporting. Everytime there's a study suggesting that x thing might give cancer to mice in certain circumastances I see newspapers being like "if you eat it you're going to die"
It's not as bad as Info Wars but it still happens
Just stumbled here and wow I’m very intrigued and impressed. Awesome find you guys! Love what you do!
Really cool video. I had just remembered a tv show about sprites I saw when I was a kid and stumbled upon your video. I was just looking for some cool pics but got all the info that I normally would have to look up and research for an hour after watching the video. Thanks for saving me all that time by including everything in the video. Seriously, for real, I really mean it... great video.
I've only ever seen Sprites when a large thunderstorm passes from land and over the sea. To see them myself is amazing but to share the experience with others (especially the one's who think you are nuts) is far better.
Only just found your channel by chance, now subbed. Cheers.
This channel is “on par” with Vsauce, Because Science, Mark Rober, Star Talk and Destin from Smarter every day. It teaches me so much. Top quality content, thanks for your service.
i haven't seen vsauce in a really long time, i think he left youtube?
High praise comparing it with Star Talk-which would be an awesome show to have hank do a guest spot on!!
Pratwurscht Gulasch Michael Stevens is still at it. Mind field has become free and dong has become ding where he showcases “toys”. Vsauce1 is sleeping but still active, Vsause2 has just uploaded a new video and Vsauce3 uploading rarely but often cooperate with other YT. Mind field is really good!
What is "Star Talk"? Dare i ask?
@@davecrupel2817
It's a show hosted by Neil DeGrass Tyson, (the guy who hosted the remake of Cosmos), who has a comedienne as a co-host, and invites guests on to talk about stuff related to science or science fiction. It's fascinating, funny, and..... IDK... It has the feel of friends getting together to talk about things. Kind of cozy, I guess. Love the show.
This is a link to a list of guests who appeared on the show if you want an idea of content.
www.epguides.com/StarTalk/
We can come to an agreenmed that everyone loves Hank
Yes, yes we can
Hey hank, good to be seeing videos again. And Dude! Such wonders in tbe skies, and awesome, awesome soundtrack! Love it to bits, thank you so much for sharing 🙏💓🤩🤗💓
It's so hard to find any good info on this stuff and you are just a wealth of it. You guys are found money! Liked and subbed!
Same pfp
What a breakthrough in sprite and ghost development.. we really haven't heard much about these for a while now. Hank, love the videos, been watching for a long time.. this is great. Don't stop chasing those twirly things though..
Notification comes up
Me: clicks as fast as I can
Agreed
SAME !! #quickasabunny
Ozone you didn’t say anything 😳
@@LilGreasyAndEm Ozone is awestruck...
@@LilGreasyAndEm Ozone's a gas. It can't talk.
That is amazing footage, The stills look like some of those Nazca lines in Peru or petroglyphs out west. Less light in those days would mean the sprites might have been easier to see and the indigenous cultures had their own ideas of what they may have been...
Interesting Jay. I'd imagine there have been many observant people having a difficult time explaining what they saw.
As a child I remember one incredible storm near Overland Park, KS where I saw what I thought was strange colored lightning. I had seen bluish lightning, yellowish, and white before but that night I kept seeing fast flashes of deep blue, purple, pink, red, and I was pretty sure I saw some green. Having watched your videos with sprites I can finally explain what I saw. Because when I told my parents, friends, and teachers, no one believed me, which made me worry that I was crazy or had imagined the colors.
I have loved storms all my life, I even did some very amateur chasing back in the late eighties when I was a teen chasing storms in a rusty, yellow 1970 Chevy Nova. I still like to turn the lights off and open the window shades to watch from the comfort of my home. But I have never seen a storm as beautiful and colorful as that one I saw when I was 7 or 8 years old which would have been either 1977 or 1978.
Oh man Ive been really loving these videos!!! No one explains this stuff as clearly as you do its incredible!!
Everything about this video is just awesome. Your channel rocks dude.
My favorite drink and my favorite Weather Channel all in one place, how can I beat that.
Why does that make me think of something like a glitch in the matrix lol
Because it's green? :P
nick4819 bro it’s red
IRR_LVNT clearly you didn’t watch the vid he’s talking about the ghost above the red
Blindolo I did watch the video, I just assumed he meant the base of the video being the “red” sprites.
IRR_LVNT the whole point of the video was about the ghosts though which are green
This is the kind of thing that makes me crazy wanting to know EVERYTHING ! Awesome video !
The absolute best part about this field of science is that we are all learning at the same time and in real-time.
What an amazing discovery! And such a well done video, easy to follow and with good explanations, thanks for sharing
Hank - really nice video and great explanation!
Thanks so much.
Just one more question - what photo/video camera are you using to capture the sprites?
Pecos you and your friends might be just having a good time doing what you love, but you just made a scientific and meteorological discovery that no one has documented before. Congrats dude! I like the name you guys chose for these events as well, "ghost" realy fits the theme.
Hey Pecks Hank, I know you were not in Nashville during our tornado a few months ago. But I was wondering if you have any thoughts on the Nashville tornado. I have been watching your videos for about a year ago, and love your content!
If it was that surprise nighttime tornado, my thoughts are that was some scary shhh-tuff.
@@PecosHank What are your thoughts on the Black Friday tornado, in Edmonton, Alberta: July 31, 1987 ?
Me: Is in the hospital and should be sleeping.
Hank: Uploads a video
Me: *I FEEL BETTER NOW GIVE ME MY PHONE!*
Get well soon!
Hope your doing ok now!
People everywhere losing their minds and social distancing over a slightly contagious common cold, and we had the cure all along. XD
Thank you for the explanation of Transient Luminous Events and congratulations on your discovery! I also really enjoyed your background music, I love that minimalistic guitar work with heavy reverb style!
WOW! So cool that you got to coin a new term for a meteorological phenomena!!! Such a cool and clever name too!! That's one for the history books!
I’ve been watching you since you had 20k and I was only 10 then 😂 you’ve been my fav RUclipsr since!!! Now I’m 15 and I still loveeee your amazing videos !!! :)))
Storm chasing was my dream job since I was five, I really hope I get to do what you're doing soon!
I know, this footage is amazing
Little heads up, don’t count on storm chasing as a job, more of a hobby, either take on a photography buisness or find a main job :)
How cool to essentially discover and title a natural phenomena. Amazing
The childlike excitement the photographers get when they capture a sprite makes me so happy man
OH MY GOD! Did Hank make all these animations?! I'm nominating him for the Meteorologic Hall of Fame, man. Freakin' guy's making scientific discoveries...unbelievable!
anonation???? i thought this was photograph
@@Dcwest0616-the-best-on-youtube i think they meant the explanation parts like on 4:28
4:57 We were raised in a barn and never got to play with them fancy Buncen burners because we might burn the barn down.
Although it's 5 AM in my country I'll watch this man!!
Cheers from Texas!
@@PecosHank Mr.Hank I shooted a great pic of crazy upward lightning don't know how to share it with you!
Facinating. Great explanations once again.
Hands down one of my favourite weather channels, love your work Hank 😎 Much love from UK x
The only thing cooler than learning about this stuff is seeing how excited Paul and Hank get when they capture sprites.
I must have been raised in a barn because I've never even heard of these. Really informative. Hope to witness this someday.
Hey, Hank, I saw some of your footage in the American Experience: Mr. Tornado. It’s nice to see you getting your footage out there!
Such awesome thing. Also a great video Hank. Thank you for all the content you provide brotha!
We had an amazing lightning storm last night, and afterwards I started looking up more info on lightning and found your channel. This is insanely cool stuff man, congratulations on being part of the discovery!
AMAZING!
10:38 Plane in top right corner casually disappears.
Me: I discovered something new!
That was most likely a satellite disappearing.
The "Mysterious" Green Flash 👈🏼 You Just Revealed a part of the Firmament...the Green Jasper of the Throne!
Much Love and Peace 🤜🏼❤🤛🏿
🤜🏻❤️🤛🏿
Thats a very light aurora as explained in the video
@@nordic24
Same Thing - Either Way Way Its A "Thermøl'ment" Layer 🌬🌈🌌😉💚
@@noelalexisshaw-nas-noz5142 A what?
@@nordic24 Sea Ya 👋 💚
Wow - I had never seen or heard about this before. Thanks for all of the great info about it. Great footage. Cheers!
This just confirms the fact that still we know almost nothing about lightnings
Congratulations on the new discovery by the way
What really intrigues me is how sprites seem to be "pre-formed;" unlike slow-mo shots of lightning, where you see the steppers forming as they go, sprites seem to be illuminating some structure that's already there, like a jellyfish in a flash photo. I'm really curious how those structures form.
I love your tornado content but this was fascinating. The science behind it is so cool and brilliantly explained. Thanks heaps for all your vids. Cheers
This was my first exposure to anything like this! Thank you so much for all you do to share these videos with us.
Who needs National Geographic when Hank alone can do everything they do!!
Can this dude be my science teacher
You've probably been asked this, but have you ever caught ball lighting? And if so, would you make a video on that?
This is a great idea, but ball lightning is extremely rare, so much infact, that theres no recording of ball lightning ever.
@@_miobrot_603 it was caught in a news video in early 2000s in my city.
He mentioned ball lightning in his video talking about the different forms of lightning. He said that he scoured the Internet, and only found one believable image of ball lightning... a electrical sphere photoshopped into the famous Bigfoot image. Obviously a joke, but the meaning is clear. Ball lightning is extremely rare and next to nothing is known for sure about it.
You guys are doing amazing work ❤
Thank you so much for this comprehensive and entertaining video!!
5:00 "assuming you weren't raised in a barn" or FL I guess... same thing anyways huh
Don't mind us down here in Flo-ri-day! Just you know... Responsible for discovering half the species in the sea known to man... Don't mind silly old Florida...
@@Ranstone that's gotta be the last thing Florida's known for. I've never seen someone so proud of FL
@@Ranstone and putting a man on the moon. But hey, no biggie!
At first its hard to see the scale, when they fire off in an empty sky. But once I saw them above the clouds in the distance I realized how big these things are. Incredible
I was an Air Force pilot for 20 years I can remember watching Sprites for 39,000 ft. It an even better show from altitude.
How many planes did u take down
You guys are amazing! Great details in explaining this incredible lighting/sprite phenomena. I loved it.
Cheers from Australia
You and/or RUclips has invaded my brain. I just saw your season wrap up video and sadly only saw 'sprites' for the first time. I was thinking what the hell...how have i not known of this beautiful thing. Then last night I was thinking what the heck are they? So I am jumping on to search up another subject and I saw this video and literally yelled out loud. I got so excited to see this video in my recommends. Thank you so much for sharing the beautiful things you experience with us. Stay safe .
Gigantic jet!? That's what it's called?
The grand, mystical event I witnessed as a child and held dearly to me as my legendary tale is called a Gigantic jet. Thats...fucking awesome.
If my science teacher had been half as interesting as you are, I might remember something from those bunson burner exercises.