Lightning and the "correct" White Balance

[spotz04]

I shot some lightning pics a couple days ago with my 7D, camera setting on Daylight and shot RAW. Some shots had red clouds, a couple blue clouds, and most being purple clouds. The storm lasted about 3 hours. Hail had been reported with this storm although no hail fell in my immediate area, but most of my shots came out purplish. And most of the strikes were also cloud-to-cloud crawlers.. While trying to understand why the variety of cloud color in what I captured I did some searching online and found an interesting article on Nikon's web site that discusses the color of lightning. I'm not sure this person's comments are correct regarding color, but I thought I'd throw it out there for debate -

"COLOR: Lightning can strike in a variety of colors. The most common color of lightning is white, but lightning can actually appear red, yellow, green, even blue or purple. The hue usually depends on gases, chemicals, and impurities in the atmosphere, as well as the actual temperature of the lightning bolt. Vivid white lightning is most common. Orange or reddish-colored lightning can occur if there's a large concentration of dust or pollution in the air. Hailstones in a storm can make lightning appear a purplish color, sometimes even blue. Sodium vapor lamps in a city can also influence the color of lightning, giving it a bluish-green appearance. The variety of colors certainly adds to the fun.

Shooting lightning at sunset or during the day can also effect the perception of color. This is one of things I love most about the challenge of capturing images of lightning strikes. I've been doing this for so many years now, I can actually read the sky and get a sense for what to expect. "

http://www.nikonusa.com/Learn-And-Ex...Lightning.html

[tlzimmerman]

I find the colors to be pretty consistent here at least, and I shoot alot of storms. Interesting article though.