According to the National Weather Service, a bolt from the blue is a cloud to ground lightning strike which appears to come out of a clear sky, hence the name.

A lightning bolt strikes the ocean near a lifeguard tower at Bolsa Chica State Beach in 2021. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) By Grace Toohey. Staff Writer Follow. March 19, 2024 1:04 PM PT .

The researchers imaged out more than 300 lightning bolts during a 90-minute storm that passed over the Los Alamos-based interferometer on July 30, 2022.

The new method is far more expensive, but it allowed scientists to use a laser beam to control lightning bolts. The physicists working on the experiment did so from a mountaintop in Switzerland, ...

However, conducting the research for the study was challenging — and Wada said it required a bit of luck — as the study relied on being able to observe lightning bolts in action.

A lightning bolt strikes the ocean near a lifeguard tower at Bolsa Chica State Beach in 2021. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) Coastal Southern California, which rarely sees lightning, witnessed ...