Did Lightning Really Strike Vatican After Pope's Resignation? [1]

Accuweather.com - 2/12/13, Jesse Ferrell

News hit the Net yesterday afternoon that lightning had struck The Vatican twice [2], just hours after Pope after Pope Benedict XVI's sudden resignation. As a lightning photographer [3] and weather photo hoax buster [4], I investigated to see if the photo was real.

When the picture first started circulating on Facebook, Meteonetwork Puglia e Basilicata ONLUS [5] (a division of Associazione MeteoNetwork Onlus [6]) and commenting members of the Facebook page thought that the photo might be faked [7] (loose internet translation here [8]), because the strike didn't seem to reflect on the dome, because it didn't seem to make close contact with it, and because there was no reflection on the wet street below (see annotated image [9]). Since many photos you see on Social Media are faked, or at least re-purposed [4], I was immediately suspicious as well.

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