The easiest way to strike up a conversation with a stranger it to talk about the weather. Every so often meteorological events are so unique, awe-inspiring, or just dangerous that it leaves everyone breathless.
Here’s a look at some of the most captivating weather phenomena, from the Northern Lights to video of the sky last night over Boca Raton, FL
The following written content from Aaron Millar
Man-made wonders are impressive – the Taj Mahal and Stonehenge fill us with pride. But seeing the natural world at its most awesome puts us in our place. Instead of the usual natural wonders – places such as the Grand Canyon, Mount Everest and the Great Barrier Reef – we are highlighting natural phenomena. Not places to go, but things to see, from chasing storms and desert super-blooms to meteor showers and the aurora borealis lighting up the night’s sky. Here’s a month-by-month guide to the world’s most spectacular natural phenomena. Because the planet at its most powerful is the stuff of travel dreams.
The small seaside town of Nazaré, on Portugal’s Atlantic coast, is quiet most of the year. But in winter, huge swells roll in from the ocean and hit an underwater canyon just off the shore. The result is the largest waves on the planet; and people surf them. The world record, set by Rodrigo Koxa in 2018, was a whopping 80ft. But you don’t have to be an extreme athlete to enjoy the show. A viewpoint on a nearby
These dancing celestial hues have been both feared and revered throughout history. Today, although we know their cause – charged particles ejected from the sun reacting with the earth’s atmosphere – they are no less awe-inspiring. Enormous curtains of bright green, red and blue sway among the stars. To see them, you must travel north to the Arctic circle, away from light pollution, on a clear, dark night when the solar winds are blowing. Wait, look up and you might just catch the greatest show on earth.
Lightning
Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous release of an average of one gigajoule of energy.
Meteorological events like this happen frequently in South Florida. This lightning storm happened over Boca Raton on Apr 4, 2022
Every spring the plains of the Midwest are lit up with extreme weather, including – when the conditions are just right – some of the biggest tornadoes on the planet. There are few events that showcase the humbling power of nature in a more terrifying way. The top five biggest storms ever recorded were all here – the most powerful, El Reno, measured 2.6 miles wide, with wind speeds in excess of 300mph.
They say lightning never strikes twice, but on Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela that’s a lie. This large inlet of the Caribbean Sea, next to Catatumbo River, holds the Guinness World Record for the most lightning strikes per square kilometre – some 250 per year on average. And they happen all the time: about 260 days a year, thousands of flashes an hour, all night long – as if you’re watching the sky transform into a plasma globe on full beam. Read more from CNTraveller
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