Black Halo Caused by Lightning

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Inch of rain brings minor flooding to sections of city By Lisa Marie Gómez Express-News Staff Writer Web Posted : 07/08/2003 6:45 PM Moisture coming in from the Gulf of Mexico dumped more than an inch of rain in parts of San Antonio this morning, causing minor flooding in some areas of the city.The National Weather Service in New Braunfels recorded 1.03 inches of rain at the San Antonio International Airport between 9 and 11 a.m.“There’s a trough of low pressure over the Gulf of Mexico, and the disturbances of that system is what’s causing the rain,†said Dennis Cook, a weather service meteorologist.More rain is expected through Thursday.“It’s real nice to sleep in,†Cook said.In addition to the usual fare that comes with a thunderstorm, many on the city’s Northeast Side witnessed an unusual dark circle in the sky, which turned out to be a ring of smoke that a weather official said emanated from an “explosion caused by lightning.â€Several people reported seeing the ring this morning shortly after a lightning bolt struck an area near North New Braunfels Avenue and Nacogdoches Road.“I saw the lightning strike out the side of my eye, and when I turned to look, there was a plume of black smoke rising up … with the circle of smoke on the top of it,†Chris Yanas said in an e-mail to the San Antonio Express-News.Chuck Fehlis, an associate appraiser who works at Blair T. Stouffer and Associates at Loop 410 and North New Braunfels, said a co-worker told him about the ring.So Fehlis took his Kodak DC5000 digital camera and walked out in front of his building to check it out.Fehlis, 29, took three photos of the large circle in the sky at 10:44 a.m.“The circle got larger and larger until it finally started breaking up,†said Fehlis, who was among seven co-workers looking up at the rainy sky. “Nobody had ever seen it before.â€Fehlis’ photos were forwarded to the National Weather Service in New Braunfels, and at first it was thought that the ring in the sky was the sun, with light bouncing off the clouds to create a halo effect.But after receiving several calls from people who witnessed the lightning and the ring in the sky, the weather service changed its assessment.“This (lightning) is more likely the cause than the halo effect I described earlier,†Jon Zeitler said in an e-mail to the Express-News. “In any event, it’s still unusual.â€lgomez