The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-06-19
RARE ELECTRICAL DISPLAY.
Freaks of Lightning During the
Storm Yesterday Morning.

A rare electrical storm hung over this
city yesterday morning for an hour. 1t
followed the terrific downpour of rain that
began at 1870 o'clock and lasted nearly two
hours. When the rain ceased heavy bank
of black clouds blew over the city. Then
it was the electric display began. AT inter
walls of two or three seconds the entire sky
was lighted up with sheets and blue flames
of zigZag streaks of lightning, seeming to
start at the ground and run upward, meet
ing overhead and then exploding into thou
sands of downward threads of light This
continued for a half hour. Then all at once
the entire eastern heaven burst into a iurid
red glow down toward the horizon, paling
away to faint rose high in the eastern
sky. Still farther overhead the clouds, now
copper colored in great splotches and
bright gold in others, were beautiful beyond
description. A reflection from the golden
light overhead ,ightened up the western
horizon. Down town people working in
newspaper offices hurried out of doors be-
lieving that a great fire must be burning
near at hand. So bright was the reflections
on the western clouds the figure of Indiana
on the soldiers monument and the gilded
dome of the Statehouse stood out in bold
outline against the mass of black clouds be-
and yet more bright. 1t was as though some
great city in the east were on fire All
this time the blue lightning serpents kept
racing up to the center of the dome of
heaven, forked tongues of flame breaking
off with little darts. Loud crashes of thun-
der formed an inspiring accompaniment to
the great spectacle
one popularity of the electric storm was
the large number of horizontal flashes of
lightning. A belated reporter stood on the
Virginia viaduct from $3.50 till 3:45
viewing the electrical display and in that
quarter of an hour counted nine bolts that
apparently came out OF one cloud in the
west. The bolts shot eastward until over
the city, when they seemingly burst like
a rocket. six or eight thin streams of the
electro fluid taking the place of the big
one. All The little streams, like the parent
one, flashed horizontally through the air.
but IN zigzag course. None was near
enough the earth to do damage. The dis
play was awe-inspiring and continued till
the cloud passed away.
As the electric display faded away the
clouds blackened and rain began falling
again II continued until 6 80 o'clocks During
the night half inch of rain fell. One re-
markable feature OF the storm was the
great variation of temperature A few min
utes before the rain ceased falling the tenn
perature was = degrees. Forty minutes lat
er IL had risen 10 SO degrees and then fell
back to IS by O'Clock, two hours later
During the storm in the morning a house
on West New York street near the corner
of Minkner street. was struck by lightning
and badly damaged. Strangely enough the
damage was entirely from the shock the
house not taking FIRE A gable on the west
end of the house was almost shattered 10
splinters. The house is owned by Mr.
Miller.
A house at 81 osgood street was also
struck during the same storm and took
fire. The fire company stationed at old West
Indianapolis responded to an alarm and ex-
tinguish the flames with very slight loss
The house is the property of Mr.. Briggs.