Cyclone Dahlia And An Amazing Lightning Show!

Most of us know dahlias are beautiful flowers, but did you know that there is a tropical cyclone in Australia named after those lovely blooms? A storm of extraordinary power with lightning that gave the idea that Apocalypse was there hit Kimberley (Western Australia) a few days ago.

(Image source)

What's a cyclone?

A cyclone is a spinning air mass. A swirl of air around a center of low pressure. Even though it has destructive effects, we need it to balance out the planet's temperature, by transfering the heat energy from the tropics into colder climates. 

Tropical cyclons according to wikipedia are:

 A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain. Depending on its location and strength, a tropical cyclone is referred to by different names.

Cyclones, hurricanes, typhoons, aren't they all the same?

We see cyclones in the south Pacific and Indian ocean, hurricanes in the Atlantic and northeast Pacific and typhoons occur in the northwest Pacific. The basic difference is the place where they happen Here is a video to explain the differences:

What happened in Kimberley?

Watch the jaw-dropping video!

It looks like a star-battle is happening inside those clouds, but the cause of this spectacular sight is ELECTRIC DISCHARGE!

Lightning you mean!

Exactly! As I wrote in a past post of mine:

"Within the clouds, upward and downward movement of water drops and ice particles separate the negative and positive charges of the cloud particles. When this segregation becomes too great we get a negative bottom and positive top. The ground underneath the cloud gets positively charged and when the voltage is great enough, the air between the cloud and the ground works as a conductor and then…LIGHTNING!"

When the air is dry air resistance is higher, but in wet climates (tropical), humidity levels are high and increase conductivity. The result? Amazing, awesome fireworks!

Thank you for reading this short post. An honorable mention goes to @mariossap, who messaged me the link to the video. Thank you @mariossap for pointing it out!

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Special thanks and mentions:

Until my next post,
Steem on and keep smiling, people!