Name: Blue jets shoot upward in storms
Uploaded: 2026-04-02T16:46:11.024Z
Duration: 1 min 2 s
Description: Meteorologist Ari Sarsalari explains what a blue jet is in this edition of Weather Words.

Meteorologist Ari Sarsalari explains what a blue jet is in this edition of Weather Words.

Blue jets are a form of upper atmospheric lightning that occur at the top of thunderstorms, unlike the more common cloud-to-ground lightning. These phenomena are produced when positively charged particles at the storm's top interact with negatively charged particles just above the storm, resulting in an upward bolt of lightning.

Blue jets are rarely seen from the ground due to their brief duration and cloud cover, but they can sometimes be observed from airplanes or the International Space Station. The Weather Channel encourages readers to learn more weather terms through their free newsletter.

Blue jets shoot upward in storms

Today's weather word is blue jet. So blue jets are a type of upper atmospheric lightning. That means that it's lightning that happens at the top of the storm rather than the bottom of the storm. So the regular lightning that you're used to seeing, that happens when positively charged particles inside the storm interact with negatively charged particles down at the surface. That creates that static discharge, that cloud to ground lightning that you're used to seeing. In the case of blue lightning, those positively charged particles at the top of a storm interact with negatively charged particles that are in a layer just above the storm, okay, rather than at the ground, and that creates a bolt that shoots upward rather than down toward the ground. Now blue jets are exceptionally hard to see for a couple of reasons. Number one, they happen so ridiculously fast, just a couple of milliseconds, and the other thing is that there are usually a lot of clouds that will block your view from seeing them. Most often if you see a blue jet, it's from an airplane or from space, like the ISS or something. You'll get lots more weather words in our newsletter morning brief. It's totally free and you can sign up at weather.com slash newsletter.

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