{"id":215509,"date":"2026-01-03T23:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T23:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/215509\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T23:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T23:23:08","slug":"storm-chaser-captures-rare-red-sprites-across-kimberley-sky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/215509\/","title":{"rendered":"Storm chaser captures rare red sprites across Kimberley sky"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ruby Littler, ABC<\/p>\n

\"Danny<\/p>\n

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

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.<\/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

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<\/p>\n

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

\"Red<\/p>\n

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

He has a knack for predicting when they will occur – 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.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\nA Bureau of Meteorology spokesperson says red sprites occur in the stratosphere and mesosphere.
\nPhoto: Supplied\/ABC\n<\/p>\n

“Red sprites are believed to be a form of luminous plasma, which typically lightning is not,” they said.<\/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, Welgama said he would continue chasing storms across the Kimberley in an effort to capture this rare, natural phenomenon.<\/p>\n

– ABC News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Ruby Littler, ABC Danny Welgama says red sprites happen in “the blink of an eye”. Photo: Supplied\/Danny…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-215509","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-podcasts","13":"tag-public-radio","14":"tag-radio-new-zealand","15":"tag-rnz","16":"tag-top-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-topnews","19":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}