Why was the lightning red?

Question

We had a storm a couple days ago and every now and then red lightning would strike. Why was the lightning red?

Answer 1

I cant say for sure, but I would tend to think that it wasnt the lightning that was red, but rather the light from the lightning was being filtered thru somthing in the atmosphere before it got to ur eyes and made it look red. Just my thought...

Answer 2

I'm wondering that too.  Most sources seem to say it's just red from dust scatter, just like the sun at sunset.  But I've seen lightning overhead that is a really magenta red, not just a rusty sunset red.  There are sources that talk about some flashes having strong spectral elements to the light, and I think nitrogen spectrum is kind of a magenta color, so perhaps it could be different spectra that are causing the color in certain instances?   According to the second link, the strong spectral lightning only sometimes occurs, other times it's just continuous white.  It would seem to explain why some bolts are magenta and others are white.  But the cited articles are really old, so who knows what's been discovered since then. I'm just wondering too.