Lightning strikes twice - photographer's image of S'pore's thundery sky goes viral

SINGAPORE - This photo of lightning streaking across the Singapore sky has been making its rounds on Facebook.

It has amassed more than 30,000 likes and been shared more than 9,000 times since photographer Darren Soh posted it on his Facebook page on Sunday night (May 22).

Soh said in his post that he had been trying to chase lightning storms for years so that he could photograph them, but has not had much success till now.

The image is a layer of 12 photos that Soh shot in the span of under an hour to show the number of lightning strikes.

He added that the photos were shot from the 16th floor stairwell of Block 593B, Montreal Link, in Sembawang.

In an updated post on Monday (May 23), he thanked supporters for the response.

"Hi everyone, thank you for your likes, shares and comments. I really did not expect the overwhelming response to this image I made last night," he wrote.

Singapore has one of the highest occurrences of lightning activity in the world, according to the National Environment Agency (NEA). This is due to the warm and humid tropical conditions here, which are conducive to the development of thunderstorms.

On average, Singapore experiences 168 thunderstorm days per year, NEA says on its website.

xiuhuil@sph.com.sg