St Elmo's fire
Ship mast luminescence
St Elmo's fire is a luminous electrical discharge that appears during thunderstorms, typically on pointed objects like ship masts, airplane wings, or church steeples.
The bluish or violet glow occurs when atmospheric electricity ionizes the air around sharp edges.
Sailors historically considered it a good omen, associating it with their patron saint Erasmus (Elmo).
The crew watched St Elmo's fire dance along the rigging.
- coronaStar's outermost atmosphere
- dischargeRelease of substance outward
- plasmaElectrified matter state
- glowSteady, soft light
- mastVessel's sail support
electric glow · ship · storm · lightning · static electricity · sailors · bad omen · omen · electrical · blue · flame · static · atmosphere · patron · saint · Brat Pack · movie · 1980s
- skyclouds, blue sky, cloud, sun, moon
- electrical problemspower failure, power loss, power outage, outage, blackout
- luminescenceluminescence, fluorescence, phosphorescence, bioluminescence, chemiluminescence
- visual phenomenaoptical illusion, phosphenes, mirage, afterimage, afterimages
St Elmo's firelightning strike
Atmospheric electrical discharge
thunderbolt · lightning bolt · forked lightning · chain lightning · ground strike
St Elmo's firecombustion
Exothermic reaction with oxygen
open flame · burning · conflagration · wildfire · inferno
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