St. Elmo’s Fire is a weather phenomenon involving a gap in electrical charge. It is named after St. Erasmus of Formia (also called St. Elmo, one of the two Italian names for St. Erasmus, the other being St. Erasmo), the patron saint of Mediterranean sailors. It is plasma or ionized air that emits a glow, a spark or a shot of electrons into the air. The phenomenon that causes Saint Elmo’s Fire is the dramatic imbalance in electrical charge between the air and a charged object, like the mast of a ship, the tip of an airplane wing or the steeple of a church, because a tapered surface will discharge at a lower voltage. Magellan, Caesar and Columbus experienced Saint Elmo’s Fire on their journeys.
St. Elmo’s Fire
