An abrupt high-current electric discharge that occurs in the ATMOSPHERE and that has a path length ranging from hundreds of feet to tens of miles. (From McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, 6th ed)
    

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Four female torsos joined at the waist with garden features as heads; symbolising the four seasons in a garden. Etching by T. B., c. 1797.

A man discovering the physicist Richmann after he has been killed by a bolt of lightning. Wood engraving by O. Jahyer and L. Hotelin after P. Valentin.

A young barefoot shepherdess and a little girl take refuge near a shrine during a storm. Lithograph by Z. Belliard after M.-Ph. Coupin de La Couperie.

Portents of death and destruction. Gouache, ca. 1910 (?).

Ezekiel has a vision of angels and spheres with eyes coasting along the thunderstruck sea. Etching by R. Pranker, 176-, after B. Picart.

Lightning and stars fall on the earth on the day of Judgement; the sun and the moon hang simultaneously in the sky. Woodcut, 16th century.

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the night of 8 August 1779. Coloured etching by Pietro Fabris, 1779.

Vulcan in his forge with Jupiter throwing bolts of lightning, Venus in the sky above: symbolising the element fire. Engraving by E. Baudet, 1695, after F. Albani.

An account of a very extraordinary effect of lightning on a bullock : at Swanborow, in the parish of Iford near Lewes, in the county of Sussex / in sundry letters from Mr. James Lambert ... and one from William Green ... to William Henly. Read at the Royal Society, May 1, 1776.

Natural disasters: lightning, earthquake, and a tornado destroying buildings. Engraving.

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Lightning and stars fall on the earth on the day of Judgement; the sun and the moon hang simultaneously in the sky. Woodcut, 16th century.

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the night of 8 August 1779. Coloured etching by Pietro Fabris, 1779.

Vulcan in his forge with Jupiter throwing bolts of lightning, Venus in the sky above: symbolising the element fire. Engraving by E. Baudet, 1695, after F. Albani.

An account of a very extraordinary effect of lightning on a bullock : at Swanborow, in the parish of Iford near Lewes, in the county of Sussex / in sundry letters from Mr. James Lambert ... and one from William Green ... to William Henly. Read at the Royal Society, May 1, 1776.

Natural disasters: lightning, earthquake, and a tornado destroying buildings. Engraving.