{"id":388257,"date":"2026-01-03T04:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T04:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/388257\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T04:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T04:28:10","slug":"storm-chaser-captures-rare-red-sprites-across-kimberley-sky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/388257\/","title":{"rendered":"Storm chaser captures rare red sprites across Kimberley sky"},"content":{"rendered":"

A fleeting burst of red light high above a Kimberley storm, in Western Australia’s far north, has been caught on camera by a storm-chasing photographer.<\/p>\n

The eruption of red, luminous sparks is known by meteorologists and weather enthusiasts as red sprites.<\/p>\n

They are the result of a large electrical discharge and flash high above intense active thunderstorms, occurring in the stratosphere and mesosphere.<\/p>\n

Photographer Danny Welgama said it was a “see-it-to-believe-it” moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"red<\/p>\n

Danny Welgama says red sprites happen in “the blink of an eye”. (Supplied: Danny Welgama)<\/p>\n

“I saw it out of the corner of my eye and ran back to the camera to look and was just over the moon, I just screamed when I saw it,” he said.<\/p>\n

“You have to know where you’re looking and what you’re looking for, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to see it.”<\/p>\n

Mr Welgama said the Kimberley was one of the most opportune places to see this phenomenon, because of the lack of light pollution and largely flat surrounds.<\/p>\n

“It happens in the blink of an eye and then it’s gone \u2026 if you’ve never seen one of them, you don’t believe it, a lot of people think it’s AI,” he said.<\/p>\n

“When it happens, just grab a beer, go outside and look up at the top of the sky so you will see.”<\/p>\n

Chasing red sprites\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Welgama has been chasing storms to capture these rare and surreal images for the past two years.<\/p>\n

\"red<\/p>\n

Red sprites are mass electrical discharges that flash high above the intense, active thunderstorms. (Supplied: Danny Welgama)<\/p>\n

He has a knack for predicting when they will occur \u2013 then it is just a matter of positioning himself in the right spot to capture the spectacle.<\/p>\n

“The storm cloud has to be around 150-200 kilometres away, so this storm was in Fitzroy Crossing and we were photographing from Derby,” he said.<\/p>\n

“These red sprites, blue jets and gigantic jets, they all are shooting upwards, they are shooting 40-90 kilometres above the storm clouds, so it has to be clear to see this stuff.”<\/p>\n

A Bureau of Meteorology spokesperson said while lightning strikes and red sprites were both “large-scale electrical discharges”, they were quite different.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

A Bureau of Meteorology spokesperson says red sprites occur in the stratosphere and mesosphere. (ABC News: Sharon Gordon)<\/p>\n

“Red sprites are believed to be a form of luminous plasma, which typically lightning is not,” they said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Red sprites occur in higher levels of the atmosphere, the stratosphere and\/or mesosphere, compared to typical lightning, which is in the lowest layer, the troposphere.<\/p>\n

“They typically occur above large thunderstorm clouds, although can be displaced from the cloud itself, with a gap in between.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Mr Welgama said he would continue chasing storms across the Kimberley in an effort to capture this rare, natural phenomenon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fleeting burst of red light high above a Kimberley storm, in Western Australia’s far north, has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[114457,208162,43,22561,24514,44,208164,208163,58631,180095,41,39,42,40,25962,45,1192],"class_list":["post-388257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-clouds","tag-danny-welgama","tag-headlines","tag-kimberley","tag-kimberley-news","tag-news","tag-rare-skies","tag-red-skies","tag-red-sprites","tag-storm-chaser","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-wa","tag-wa-news","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}