What is bead lightening?
Have they set off any real tornado warnings lately? Those loud "test" sirens every Friday were startling to hear when I was back there last year for several months.
No word on tornado warnings here, but the shear radar was quiet last time I checked. Still quiet. I'musing the Houiston feed which has a range gate essentially at the LA border. Not sure what's up east of there.
Bead lightnong is a form of ball lightning. When a stroke weakens at the end I believe that internal emag forces make small sections of it ball up. The linear stroke dissolves into a string of beads. It crackles when it does that, consistent with regular ball lightning which often explodes when it disappears. Many small explosions at close range equals "crackle".
Thats what I saw and heard. Best guess between 1000 and 2000 feet away.
It was kewl.