blue starter

noun

A rapidly expanding disc-shaped region of luminosity, lasting less than a thousandth of a second, seen high above energetic lightning associated with hail-producing regions of thunderstorms, reaching up no higher than about twelve miles altitude.

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Meanings

nounblue starter (plural blue starters)

plural blue starters

  1. climatologyA rapidly expanding disc-shaped region of luminosity, lasting less than a thousandth of a second, seen high above energetic lightning associated with hail-producing regions of thunderstorms, reaching up no higher than about twelve miles altitude.

    Blue starters were first observed in 1994.

    2007, Vladimir A. Rakov, Martin A. Uman, Lightning: Physics and Effects, Cambridge University Press, page 483
Cite this entry
APA

blue starter. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/blue%20starter

MLA

“blue starter.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/blue%20starter. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “blue starter,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/blue%20starter.

Source: blue starter on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.