File:330-ps-8631-usn-1026289 16030028986 o.jpg

English: 330-PS-8631 (USN 1026289): One of nature’s rare meteorological phenomenon was witnessed recently by scientists of the Naval Ordnance Laboratory while conducting routine underwater explosion experiments in a remote area of the Chesapeake Bay. When a conventional depth charge was detonated beneath the bay’s surface, the resulting 300-foot-high water plume induced a stray low level cloud in a partially overcast sky to discharge its electrical energy in three consecutive lightning bolts, all following the same downward ionized path and all striking the water plume within one second. The illumination of the top of the plume and its reflection on the water (foreground) shows that bolts actually struck the plume. Naval Ordnance scientists say that there is no sound method of computing the extremely remote mathematical probability of such as occurrence. They point out that Benjamin Franklin coaxed lightening out of a cloud 200 years ago with a kite and a string, but to their knowledge this has never been done with a water plume. Navy Regulations prohibit handling of explosives before or during electrical disturbances; however, NOL Scientists pointed out those atmospheric conditions were clear when the depth charge was placed into the water, and although the sky became slightly overcast, there was no indication of storm or electrical activity in the air. Photograph released October 24, 1957. (12/16/2014).