Ammon News - The thunderstorm that struck over Jordan and Palestine on Tuesday evening prompted several questions among citizens who were watching the sky, as flashes of lightning appeared to continue uninterrupted for about 35 minutes.

Professor Ali Taani, a professor of space and astronomy sciences at Al-Balqa Applied University, told "Ammon News" that, from a scientific perspective, a distinction must be made between the lightning itself persisting for 35 minutes and the continued visibility of lightning flashes in the sky over the course of 35 minutes.

While it is scientifically possible to see flashes in the sky over a span of 35 minutes, a single electrical discharge lasting that long is inconsistent with what we know about lightning, which typically lasts only a few seconds, Al-Taani said.

Thunderstorms produce successive electrical discharges, either within the clouds themselves or between the clouds and the ground, Taani explained. As a storm may continue to generate these discharges for an extended period, the flashes can appear continuous to an observer watching the sky.

Regarding the appearance of a purple flash of lightning behind the clouds without a visible path, Taani explained, "the video suggests the lightning is occurring within or behind the clouds, as a result of a thunderstorm."

He noted that when an electrical discharge takes place inside a cloud, the lightning heats the surrounding air to extremely high temperatures, which produces light. If clouds obstruct the direct path of this light, the sky may appear to illuminate momentarily, even though the lightning bolt itself remains unseen.

The result is a steady glow spreading across the clouds— without a distinct bolt of lightning being visible.