From Tian comes this picture from a Chinese news agency:
What's the deal? The picture looks a little fishy to me since the rightmost normal curve appears in front of the person whose body is in the foreground of the photo. But if things really looked like that, I would've loved to have been there to see it!
The website I got this picture from is a big big site for Chinese internet users. Something like Yahoo.com in US. I think the reason that the light at the end of one of the normal curves got above the man's leg is because the picture was taken using extended exposure (standard for night shots).
Due to extended exposure, I doubt human eyes may necessarily see the curves since the camera may have captured lights emitted over a period of seconds.
My first reaction to this picture is also suspicion. But the news is purely about storms not a mention of these beautiful curves. I think we are the only ones who may be still talking about this small piece of news coverage.
Hmm... I took another look. The picture must have been taken in something less than 1 second but more than the usual exposure time of a camera.
It seems to be a fairly quick exposure time. (The person's thigh is not blurred, nor is the bicycle.) I would guess it's an optical phenomenon in the camera lens. Each curve is centered over a headlight in the background.
Hmm...Now I took another look. Any lens effect would give concentric circles, wouldn't it? But these feature a horizontal, perhaps ground level, and perhaps having to do with drops spattered up from ground level. The trajectory from car headlight to water drop to camera does not preclude a solid object on the straight line from camera to water drop projected back. (Think of a rainbow in front of a mountain: sun to raindrop to eye doglegs in front of the mountain.) So the leg doesn't have to be moving.