VIDEO: Lightning strikes World Trade Center during live newscast

ByMike Waterhouse WABC logo
Thursday, March 17, 2016
World Trade Center hit by lightning during Eyewitness News
Lightning struck the World Trade Center at the end of Eyewitness News on March 16, 2016.

New York -- The timing couldn't have been better for Mother Nature's light show Wednesday night -- lightning struck the World Trade Center right on cue for the end of Eyewitness News.

The 6 p.m. news broadcast was coming to an end when the bolt of lightning struck the WTC's spire. Anchors Bill Ritter and Liz Cho had just signed off to World News with David Muir, and the Lower Manhattan-focused camera was taken to air.

The forked lightning lit up the sky and created quite the spectacle on live TV. Click on the video player above to see it.

Some Eyewitness News viewers immediately noticed it, and brought it to our attention via social media.

And it appeared other Eyewitness News viewers captured the same strike from different perspectives:

And this video captured the accompanying thunder:

At 1,776 feet, the World Trade Center has 104 floors and is the tallest building in New York City and in all of the Western Hemisphere.