'One in a million' photo shows moment lightning struck wind farm off Yorkshire coast

This dramatic photo captured the ‘one in a million’ moment lightning from a sudden electrical storm struck a wind farm off the Yorkshire coast.
The incredible image was taken by photographer Richard SparnennThe incredible image was taken by photographer Richard Sparnenn
The incredible image was taken by photographer Richard Sparnenn

Photographer Richard Sparnenn, 71, had been on a walk with his wife for her birthday near Redcar, North Yorks., when the skies suddenly turned dark.

They were setting for Sandsend beach on Yorkshire’s heritage coastline, when dark clouds began to form above him at roughly 2pm turning the sky pitch black.

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An amateur photographer, Richard said his instincts kicked in and he immediately whipped out his camera to try to capture a scenic picture.

In a ‘miraculous’ moment, he snapped the photo at the exact second multiple lightning strikes shot from the skies.

He said the sky cleared and was bright and blue again within minutes.

He had his Nikon camera on a multiple exposure setting, which means the camera took multiple shots within seconds and merged them into one.

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This made for a breathtaking picture - showing multiple thunder strikes illuminating the wind farms beneath.

Richard, from York, North Yorks., said: “My wife wanted to go for a walk after we had lunch but suddenly I looked up and the sky had gone completely dark.

“It was just a few minutes but my instincts kicked in and I took my camera out to take some nice pictures of the clouds over the wind farms.

“I didn’t expect to get the shots I did - I didn’t even see the lightning until I looked at the pictures afterwards.

“It was a miraculous shot. I’ve gone expressly to take pictures of lightning and got nothing like this.

“It was a one in a million picture. I should have missed it.”

The picture was taken on August 23.

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