A pilot caught the rare weather phenomenon St Elmo’s Fire on video ahead of Hurricane Idalia.
The footage, filmed by pilots from MacDill Air Force Base, was shared on Tuesday during evacuations before the storm hit.
Hurricane Idalia made landfall in Florida on Wednesday, bringing 125mph winds and “catastrophic” storm surges to the west coast.
Mandatory evacuation orders had been issued in at least 28 of Florida’s 67 counties on Tuesday.
St Elmo’s Fire, also known as Witchfire or Witch’s Fire, occurs when the atmosphere becomes charged and an electrical discharge of plasma is created between an object and the air around it.
The phenomenon can happen to aircraft flying through heavily charged skies and is named after St Erasmus of Formia, also known as St Elmo, the patron saint of sailors.
