UK Photographers Capture Lightning And Rainbows At The Same Time

Photographers both amateur and professional have been out capturing some fairly remarkable weather conditions that have seen both lightning and rainbows in the sky at the same time.

The incredible - and unusual - dual weather phenomenon occurred over the Midlands area over the past few days after the hot weather much of the UK enjoyed over the weekend gave way to some pretty explosive electrical storms.

You see, in theory it shouldn't be that rare to see this sort of thing, as rainbows occur when raindrops refract of droplets of water in the sky, but to actually grab a photograph of the two in action together is difficult.

Not only do you have to rely on the showers being pretty isolated - which means there are pockets of sunshine knocking about, too - you need to get the sun at the correct angle to expose the rainbow in the sun against the backdrop of the ominous thunder clouds.

Oh, and you need to be in the right place at the right time, as the photographer behind this shot told us.

Chris Fletcher, who brought us this remarkable piece of camera work, said that he 'just happened to be in the right place at the right time on the outskirts of Birmingham'.

However, he rightly added: "No-one would ever believe this was taken near Birmingham."

As for the below shot, taken by amateur photographer Ben Cartwright, he took loads of short snaps in order to make sure that one of them captured the exact moment that the lightning struck across the sky, blending in with the rainbow in the process.

You'd have to agree, it's a sensational shot to get while standing about in your back garden chatting across the garden fence to a neighbour.

He told LADbible: "It was taken a mile away from Dudley - home of Duncan Edwards and Lenny Henry - from my back garden.

"I was chatting to my neighbour over the fence and spotted one rainbow, then another started to form."

"We could hear the thunder, then saw the lightning appearing near to the rainbow, so I put my phone on live view and kept snapping away every second.

"Managed to go through the live view photo frames until I saw the lightning, had to darken the image a little, voila."

Voila, indeed.

Meanwhile, Helen Hulston, who shot the picture that is the featured image of this article, told us: "It was taken on my iPhone XR from my open ground floor apartment window.

"It was just a case of 'point & shoot'.

"I was very lucky to capture such a spectacular storm."

That's certainly true.

With further thunderstorms expected across other parts of the UK today, perhaps we'll see a few more amazing photos like this.

Featured Image Credit: Helen Hulston

Topics: Weather, UK News, Interesting, Weird

Tom Wood

Tom Wood is a LADbible journalist and Twin Peaks enthusiast. Despite having a career in football cut short by a chronic lack of talent, he managed to obtain degrees from both the University of London and Salford. According to his French teacher, at the weekend he mostly likes to play football and go to the park with his brother. Contact Tom on [email protected]

@TPWagwim