[aruanan]

And at times the lighting bolt seem to remain for a few seconds.

My favorite bolts are the ones that seem to hang there and then break into fragments before disappearing while maintaining the original bolt's form. I've seen this at least 3 times. They're big fat bolts that go directly to earth, not the skinny, snaky, zip-across-the-sky bolts.

Now imagine near-continuous discharges of magnitudes-greater intensity coming down out of an aurora of hitherto unknown extent over a period of perhaps years and confined to certain northerly latitudes. I could see that as being interpreted as being a region under the domination of some freaking powerful gods. No wonder people all over the world were leaving petroglyphs by the millions detailing plasma instabilities (over the south pole), the orientations of which matched their latitude of observation.

[justa-hairyape]

Was interesting to see the comparison between plasma formations and the ancient drawings and carvings. My first thought was no way, but the comparison images are really illustrative.

Been living in Southern California for over a decade and we do not really have lighting or thunder here. It is very weak. Grew up in the Mid West and have seen some big lighting storms. The storm I drove through was in Texas (where else) and appeared to be right where the Dry Southwest climate bordered up against the Wet Southeast climate. Was right between San Antonio and Houston on the 10.

So you may not need a major astro physical event to kick these big lightning storms off. Possible that any major change in climatic conditions could help increase the charge potentials. Right now the sun is at about 40 sunspots (just below average). Granted it was active for a couple of months earlier in the year. Possible too that low activity allows more cosmic rays and those rays can also increase charge potentials or affect plasma.

And it should be noted that the sun can discharge large CME's even when activity is weak or average.