'Thunderbolts and lightning - very very frightening...' sang a certain rock quartet way back in 1975.
And the weather phenomena continues to excite and delight today.
One passerby recorded this incredible footage of a violent thunderstorm hitting La Ciotat in the south east coast of France.
The dramatic scenes see flashes of light split open the night sky as the storm unfolds over the ocean.
A thunderstorm hits the south east coast of France
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The Weather Net tweeted this image which reveals the huge scale of the storm:
There are many types of lightning strikes and scientists still don't hold the knowledge to all of them.
For instance, until the 1960s "ball lightning" was not widely believed to really exist, though stories of the phenomenon were recorded around the world, and even blamed for some deaths.
