Rare lightning phenomenon captured in the sky during Hurricane Idalia evacuations

A rare weather phenomenon, in which lightning appears upside down, was captured by pilots as Hurricane Idalia approached Florida.

The stunning footage of St. Elmo’s fire - a phenomenon in which luminous plasma is created in an atmospheric electric field - was filmed by pilots at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa on Monday 28 August.

A tweet confirmed that all aircraft had been evacuated from the base as Hurricane Idalia headed in their direction.

It was a Category 2 storm when the footage was captured and made landfall as a Category 3.