Also known as “spider lightning” due to the way it scampers across the sky, anvil crawler lightning is some of the most dramatic and beautiful lightning displays there are. See for yourself in this epic video…
When a rising thunderstorm reaches the ceiling of the troposphere it flares out horizontally into an anvil shape much like rising smoke would in a room. Anvil crawler lightning is lightning that crawls horizontally inside and along the underside of the anvil.
Anvil crawler lightning occurs high in the atmosphere and is often blocked from vision by layers of lower level cloud cover. There are 3 basic types of lightning…
1. Intra-cloud (IC)
2. Cloud-to-cloud (CC)
3. Cloud-to-ground (CG)
Anvil crawlers often encompass these 3 characteristics in one massive discharge.
The underside of the anvil cloud often exhibits bulging bubble-like clouds called mammatus clouds (named after mammary). Anvil crawler lightning illuminating this phenomenon creates a breath taking spectacle.
Anvil crawler lightning in Western Kansas (below).
Massive anvil crawler chaotic discharge in the Big Bend Texas region (below).
