Latest news with #weatherphenomenon
ABC News
14-07-2025
- Climate
- ABC News
Westerly winds on the Southern Downs give rise to unique 'mountain wave' cloud formation
They may look like ripples in the sky, but these odd cloud formations snapped by locals in south-east Queensland are a rare weather phenomenon known as lenticular clouds. The strange shapes were spotted from the Southern Downs all the way to the Gold Coast during Monday morning and afternoon. The weather bureau said the clouds formed as westerly winds passed over the Main Range. Senior meteorologist Peter Stapleton said "mountain waves" are commonly caused as air travels over terrain, but certain conditions must be met for the streaks to become visible. "You have to have enough moisture to actually form the cloud and then the atmospheric layer that it's in has to be stable enough to trap that wave," he said. "There might have been waves in other layers of the atmosphere, but because the moisture wasn't there, the cloud didn't form. Mr Stapleton said these types of cloud are often more recognisable when they form at the tops of mountains, as 'UFO-like' shapes. "I think they do have the formal name of lenticular cloud, but I think they're more colloquially known as a wave cloud or cloud streaks," he said. "These have formed because of flow over a mountain but instead of forming the cloud on the mountain peak, it's actually formed in the wave that comes off the mountain and travels."
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
'Ball Lightning' Caught on Film After Storm in Canada
During a recent lightning storm, a couple from Canada caught a rare weather mystery on camera. Right from their porch, Ed and Melinda Pardy watched as a lightning bolt struck the land less than a kilometer from their home. In the bolt's wake, a brilliant ball of blue light was left hovering above the ground. The couple managed to capture a 23-second video of the strange apparition. "It looks like a firebolt, but not really, it's the wrong color," Melinda Pardy can be heard saying in the background of the footage, which was provided to several Canadian broadcasters. According to an interview with Canada's CTV News, the bizarre globe of bright light was about one to two meters in diameter, and it hovered above the ground for about a minute before it went out with a 'pop'. Related: Ed Pardy thinks it may have been a rare glimpse of ball lightning, a hypothetical weather phenomenon defined by thousands of eyewitness accounts collected over the centuries. Some have even reported fiery orbs flying through their windows. Despite all the anecdotes, there's no real scientific explanation for the claimed events. The size of the observed light sphere, its color, and behavior can vary quite a lot, so it's hard to confirm if all the stories are due to the same physics. In recent decades, scientists have tried to generate models of plasma balls in the lab, to understand how orbs of light could move around and last for so long. But because of their random and rare nature, real-world examples are much harder to study. In 2014, scientists in China got lucky. They filmed what they argue is the first video of ball lightning, capturing the incident by accident. Upon further analysis, they found evidence that ball lightning is composed of tiny bits of soil, which could be vaporized by lightning and set a-glow. Their observations and measurements were published in a peer-reviewed paper, but some scientists disagree on the physics. Instead, they suspect ball lightning is the result of light, trapped within a sphere of highly compressed air. No scientist has yet confirmed the short video from Alberta is footage of ball lightning, but the Pardy couple says they have been approached by researchers. "If it is ball lightning," veteran storm chaser George Kourounis told CTV News, "then this is one of the best ball lightning videos I've ever seen." But there are plenty of online skeptics. Some have suggested the curious ball of electricity could be the result of a power flash on a high voltage line, which can't be seen in the video, although the Pardy's say there are no powerlines close by. Frank Florian, senior manager of planetarium and space sciences at the TELUS World of Science, told Global News that whatever the couple saw, it was a very strange weather phenomenon. "It could be ball lightning or it could be something that's more of an artifact of a lightning strike itself," he said. This may be one of those mysteries we never get an answer to. Expired Cans of Salmon From Decades Ago Contained a Huge Surprise Melting Glaciers Could Reawaken Hundreds of Earth's Volcanoes Blue Sharks May Be Secret Chameleons, Scientists Discover
Yahoo
05-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Wildly Beautiful and Rare "Red Sprite" Flare Seen on Earth From Orbit
NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers, currently stationed on board the International Space Station, shared an incredible image of a sprite — a rare weather phenomenon that's triggered high above the clouds by "intense electrical activity in the thunderstorms below." The image shows the rare electrical discharge in the shape of a starkly red, upended umbrella, hovering high over a brewing storm, like some sort of occult tower from "Lord of the Rings." "Just. Wow," Ayers tweeted. "As we went over Mexico and the US this morning, I caught this sprite." Being hundreds of miles above the surface of the Earth gave Ayers the perfect vantage point to watch the stunning event unfold. "We have a great view above the clouds, so scientists can use these types of pictures to better understand the formation, characteristics, and relationship of [Transient Luminous Events] to thunderstorms." According to NASA, sprites can appear at altitudes of around 50 miles, which is far higher than where thunderstorms form. They often appear mere moments after lightning strikes, forming spiny tendrils of red plumes. The otherworldly phenomenon, which was first officially observed in 1989 photographs, is still poorly understood. Scientists have yet to uncover how and why they form. In 2022, NASA launched a "citizen science project," dubbed "Spritacular," to crowdsource images of the TLEs. According to the project's official website, over 800 volunteers have joined the effort, and 360 observations have been collected across 21 countries. Other TLEs include elves, an acronym for "emission of light and very low frequency perturbations due to electromagnetic pulse sources," and jets, a type of cloud-to-air discharge that can appear as blue tendrils. "While sprites [and other TLEs] may appear delicate and silent in the upper atmosphere, they are often linked to powerful, sometimes devastating weather systems," University of Science and Technology of China PhD student and TLE expert Hailiang Huang told National Geographic last week. "Understanding them not only satisfies our curiosity about the upper atmosphere, but also helps us learn more about the storms we face here on Earth," he added. Best of all, studying TLEs could even help us learn about distant planets: NASA's Juno mission found evidence of sprites and elves in the atmosphere of Jupiter as well. More on sprites: NASA Crowdsourcing Investigation of Otherworldly "Sprites" in Sky
CTV News
05-07-2025
- Climate
- CTV News
‘Never seen this before': Mysterious orb of light filmed in Alberta
Storm chasers are buzzing after a video taken by an Alberta couple appeared to show a rare phenomenon called 'ball lightning.' John Vennavally-Rao explains. An intense thunderstorm in Alberta has produced more than just the usual bolts from the sky. Ed and Melinda Pardy believe they may have witnessed a rare and elusive phenomenon known as ball lightning. The couple says it happened around 7 p.m. Wednesday near their rural property, about an hour outside Edmonton. A thunderstorm was underway and a tornado watch had been issued. Ed Pardy, a longtime weather enthusiast, was on the back porch scanning the sky for funnel clouds when lightning struck just under a kilometre from their home. What he saw next stunned him. He described a glowing ball of light appearing to float about seven metres above the ground and moving across the horizon. 'Once the lightning bolt kind of disappeared, the ball of light kind of got bigger, intensified, like, really bright,' he said. 'Then I was like, 'Oh, that'll go away really soon,' and it didn't.' Ed and Melinda Pardy Ed & Melinda Pardy live in Rich Valley, Alta. (Ed and Melinda Pardy) He quickly asked his wife for her phone and began filming. The glowing orb was visible for about a minute and the couple managed to capture 23 seconds of video before it vanished. 'There was a little bit of pop and then it just kind of disintegrated,' recalls Ed. 'I was like, 'what is this? I've never seen this before,' It was pretty neat,' said Melinda. According to the couple, the glowing ball appeared to be a metre or two in diameter. Pardy says he remembered reading about ball lightning as a kid and immediately wondered if that was what he was seeing. Ball lightning is usually associated with thunderstorms and is one of the most mysterious and disputed phenomena in atmospheric science. Though it has been described by witnesses for centuries—including reports of glowing orbs floating through homes or passing through walls—credible video evidence is almost non-existent. Ball lightning Depiction of ball lightning from 1901. (Public domain) 'It's just so incredibly rare that some people don't even think it exists,' said veteran storm chaser George Kourounis, who viewed the Pardy video and called it 'pretty amazing.' 'If this is indeed ball lightning, then this is one of the best ball lightning videos I've ever seen.' But Kourounis offered another explanation: a lightning strike on a nearby power line. Still, he acknowledged he can't be sure. 'Without me having been there to see it firsthand, I can't say with 100 per cent certainty.' The Pardys don't believe it was an arcing power line. 'Definitely not,' said Ed. 'It's a long way from a power line,' adds Melinda. Since sharing their footage, the Pardys say they've been contacted by scientists at the University of Calgary and someone from a UFO program. While the couple says they were fascinated by what they saw, they're glad it kept its distance. 'If I saw one of those fairly close to me, I don't think I would want to get near it, because that's a lot of energy. It's a lot of power,' said Ed. 'I never thought I'd see anything like that in my lifetime.'
New York Times
03-07-2025
- Climate
- New York Times
Clouds Are Cool, but Have You Ever Seen One Like This?
The dramatic mass moving ashore one afternoon in Portugal this week looked like something out of a movie: dozens of people who had gathered at a beach to escape an oppressive heat wave stared up at the sky as it inched toward them. Was an alien ship about to emerge? Should someone call Jeff Goldblum? But it was a cloud that stopped people in their track — a 'roll cloud,' to be specific, which more typically form from thunderstorms. In this case, the cloud formed at the intersection of the ocean and the land as a cool, moist air mass moving over the Atlantic Ocean collided with dry, hot air over southwestern Portugal, which, like much of Europe, has been sweltering in a weeklong heat wave. The roll cloud is created by a wave in the atmosphere that causes a rising and sinking motion over adjacent areas, allowing the clouds to form and appear to roll forward. You can see that below in an aerial image, where the crest and trough of the cloud are visible and resemble an ocean wave. Sean Waugh, a severe storms expert with the National Severe Storms Laboratory who typically encounters such clouds as thunderstorms move over the Plains in the United States, compared the clouds to what happens when a rock is dropped in a pond. The cloud is just the leading edge of a ripple in the atmosphere. While the cloud in Portugal occurred in the afternoon, it was most likely a 'morning glory,' a specific type of cloud often associated with roll clouds that more commonly occurs after sunrise in the Gulf of Carpentaria in Australia. This type of roll cloud can stretch many hundreds of miles long, which is why it was seen up and down much of the central coast of Portugal. The heat wave that has swept Europe this week has led to multiple deaths and helped fuel wildfires in Greece, Turkey and Portugal. High temperatures are expected to spread east in the coming days. Tracking Heat Across Europe See detailed maps of the latest temperature forecasts across Europe.
