Home
Weather New York
WeatherRadar
RainRadar
TemperatureRadar
WindRadar
LightningRadar
Weather News
Editor's Pick
Discover the app
Weather widget
Contact us
Apps
Career
    Home / Weather News /

    Giant smoke spirals form after lighting lights wind turbine on fire

01:54 PM
July 25, 2022

Giant smoke spirals
Wind turbine burns after thunderstorm

Privacy policy

A wind turbine in Texas caught fire after being struck by lightning. Video shows how the rotor blade keeps turning and spirals of smoke form.

A strange smoke display appears in Texas on Friday after a thunderstorm struck a wind turbine blade near the small town of Crowell. Just a few seconds later, the blade caught fire as it continued to rotate causing an giant and unique-looking spiral of smoke behind the windmill.

weather-radar-archive-windmill-fire
The responsible thunderstorm can be quickly identified in our WeatherRadar archive.

The rotor blades are usually made of flamable fiberglass and reinforced plastic. So, it doesn't take long for the flames to spread to the rest of the windmill. Eventually, the entire wind turbine was destroyed.

The video puts into perspective just how dangerous lightning can be. A single discharge can produce up to 400,000 amps—conventional house-hold ovens usually have about 20 to 60 amps of current. Bolts can also reach temperatures that are higher than on the sun's surface.

Weather & Radar USA editorial team
Federico Di Catarina

More on the topic

Hurricane Polo heads for Mexico. Severe weather risk. . . Monday, September 28, 2026
Hurricane Polo is set to make landfall in the Baja-California.
Monday, September 28, 2026

Severe weather risk

Hurricane Polo heads for Mexico
Record ocean heat halting hurricanes. Strong El Niño influence. . . Sunday, September 13, 2026
A weather map shows a calm Atlantic Ocean with no hurricanes, alongside a picture of the sea.
Sunday, September 13, 2026

Strong El Niño influence

Record ocean heat halting hurricanes
10 facts about fog. Low clouds. . . Sunday, September 27, 2026
Fog impacting the Appalachian Mountains.
Sunday, September 27, 2026

Low clouds

10 facts about fog
All weather news

This might also interest you

Heavy rain brings flooding concerns to South Florida. Coastal, marine hazards. . . Sunday, November 1, 2026
Sunday, November 1, 2026

Coastal, marine hazards

Heavy rain brings flooding concerns to South Florida
Autumn foliage: weather's impact. Leaf-peeping season!. . . Saturday, October 31, 2026
Cool nights can help intensify autumn foliage color!
Saturday, October 31, 2026

Leaf-peeping season!

Autumn foliage: weather's impact
Time to 'fall back' an hour. Back to Standard Time. . . Saturday, October 31, 2026
Saturday, October 31, 2026

Back to Standard Time

Time to 'fall back' an hour
All articles
Weather & Radar

Weather & Radar is also available on

Google Play StoreApp Store

Company

Contact us Privacy policy Legal info Accessibility statement

Services

Uploader

Socials

instagramfacebookthreadslinkList