- 5 weeks ago
Mysterious weather patterns and rare natural events often seem impossible to predict, yet science is finally unraveling how they work. From a thundercloud so consistent you could set your clock by it to bizarre natural phenomena that once defied explanation, these stories reveal the hidden rules behind our planet’s most unusual behaviors. Step into the strange, beautiful, and sometimes dangerous world of atmospheric wonders that science is only now beginning to fully understand. Animation is created by Bright Side.
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Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/
Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV
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For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me
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This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
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FunTranscript
00:00Have you ever felt so happy that you were up on cloud nine?
00:05Well, in truth, they don't actually number these guys, but they're cool nonetheless.
00:09And I can show you super rare phenomena related to clouds.
00:13Hey, what time is it?
00:15Hmm, I see Hector, so it must be 3 p.m.
00:19Um, who is Hector?
00:20Oh, Hector isn't a person.
00:22It's a thundercloud cluster.
00:23It forms almost every afternoon from September to March over the Tiwi Islands in northern Australia.
00:30Since Hector has this constant timing, airline pilots and boat captains have used it as a navigational guide for decades.
00:38This is a unique thunderstorm, not just because it's very punctual, but also because it's one of the world's most consistently large thunderstorms.
00:46Hector the Convector, yeah, it's sometimes referred to with an even cooler name, reaches heights of approximately 66,000 feet.
00:55What we see is vertical speed billowing white clouds.
00:59At the top of the clouds, we have an anvil or mushroom-shaped cloud, like a cherry on the top of a cake.
01:05By the way, this anvil can go up to thousands of feet high.
01:08So, how is this thundercloud formed, and why does it only pop up in this specific location?
01:15Well, there are a couple of precise meteorological conditions for this.
01:20The Tiwi Islands play a big part in providing these elements.
01:23Both Bathurst Island on the west and Melville Island to the east have the perfect shape, size, and location for Hector to develop.
01:32The second reason is sea breezes, which carry moisture.
01:35They form over the islands, move from all sides, and finally meet in the middle, like the song.
01:41These converging winds need to go somewhere.
01:43They clash and then go up.
01:46Now, here's the fun part.
01:47As the rising air column gets cooler with altitude, the water vapor condenses into liquid droplets and makes clouds.
01:55Sea breezes I mentioned here also happen to be tropical marine air.
01:59The tropical atmosphere is another vital element in forming Hector.
02:03This fella has an important duty related to the tropical monsoon rain.
02:08Hector is responsible for most of it.
02:10This airport on the Tiwi Islands has an average annual rainfall of around 80 inches.
02:16To put it in perspective, that's double what London or San Francisco get annually.
02:22Next, we have polar stratospheric clouds, also known as nacreous clouds or mother-of-pearl clouds.
02:29I like the third name the best.
02:31They're mostly seen in the Antarctica and Arctic regions, but they can be spotted in places like Scotland, Scandinavia, and Alaska, too.
02:40This type of cloud looks like an impressionist painter touched the sky with a brush.
02:45They appear as iridescent pastel shades in the sky around sunset.
02:49Nacreous clouds can be seen best during civil twilight, meaning when the sun is between 1 and 6 degrees under the horizon.
02:57They mostly form during winter at around 49 to 82,000 feet high.
03:03Mother-of-pearl clouds can be harmful to the atmosphere.
03:06Their existence may lead to a chemical reaction that breaks down the ozone layer.
03:10Nature's other incredible wonder is morning glory cloud.
03:16It kind of looks like a giant rice ball floating in the sky.
03:20This rare phenomenon can be regularly seen in only one place in the world, the southern part of the Gulf of Carpentaria in Australia.
03:28Although morning glory can be observed in other parts of the world, you'll have better chances to see the morning glory cloud around September and October.
03:37This cloud bank says hello to Australians, often from only about 330 to 660 feet above the ground.
03:45It can be 620 miles long and can travel at speeds of up to 38 miles per hour.
03:51Now, if I were there, I'd record a time-lapse of this cloud.
03:55What's cool is to see one of these fluffy clouds.
03:58What's even better is to see up to 10 consecutive roll clouds.
04:01That happened before and can happen in the future, too.
04:05Arca's cloud, it's another name for it, has been known since ancient times.
04:10Not just modern-day people noticed this unusual cloud formation.
04:14The Loko Garwa Aboriginal people gave it a special name.
04:17The Royal Australian Air Force pilots, too, reported seeing this Arca's cloud in 1942.
04:23Then, various teams of scientists studied this phenomenon.
04:27Okay, but how is it formed?
04:29With the right atmospheric conditions.
04:31Duh.
04:32Well, when the humidity in the area is high, it provides moisture.
04:36If we add strong sea breezes to the equation, we get the morning glory clouds.
04:42Well, well, what do we have here?
04:45Pyrocumulus cloud.
04:46They may form as a result of convection, started by heat from wildfires or volcanic activity.
04:53It's generated as a result of the intense heating of air near the surface,
04:57which causes convection and lifts the air mass to a stable point.
05:01Moisture present in the atmosphere and evaporated from vegetation or volcanic gases
05:06can condense on ash particles, leading to the formation of this cloud.
05:11Since it's generated by flames, it's also called flammagenetous.
05:17The next phenomenon is cloud bursts.
05:20You can think of these as giant balloons filled with water.
05:23When the balloon bursts, the water splashes.
05:26Similarly, here, cloud bursts make rapid precipitation.
05:29They depend on thunderstorms.
05:32A thunderstorm may come with strong uprushes of air.
05:35This blocks the condensing raindrops from falling to the ground.
05:39As a result, a huge amount of water may accumulate at upper levels.
05:43When the upper levels get saturated and too heavy, the accumulated water falls all at one time.
05:50Now, I wouldn't want to be around when the water dropped down.
05:53It would be like taking the world's shortest shower.
05:56Luckily, cloud bursts are most commonly seen in mountainous areas.
06:00Let me give you an example of how intense this one can get.
06:04A rainfall of nearly two and a half inches in three minutes was recorded in Portobello, Panama in 1911.
06:11That is a lot of water dumped in a place all at once.
06:16Now, we have a solo riding cloud.
06:18It can occur in different parts of the world.
06:21Here, we see a picture taken at Burza, Turkey.
06:24This orange-tinted, saucer-like cloud amazed and kind of scared people.
06:29We can relax.
06:30It was just a lenticular cloud.
06:32Think of this one as a pancake.
06:34Here, clouds are stacked in linearly stratified layers.
06:38Normally, those layers remain separated.
06:41But if an obstacle, in this case, Mount Uludog, spans several layers,
06:45the air coming from beneath is forced to go up.
06:49Why?
06:50Well, that's because air that's closer to the ground holds more moisture.
06:54The moisture layer near the surface rises up with the air.
06:57The temperatures cool with altitude,
07:00and that air parcel is chilled down to its dew point as it ascends.
07:04Voila!
07:05The air becomes saturated and makes a cloud.
07:08Now, this cloud doesn't last very long.
07:10Once the accumulated air has passed over the mountain or the obstacle,
07:15it comes down to its regular level.
07:17Poof!
07:18It warms up again and disappears.
07:20Keep in mind that wind is an important element here.
07:24In our case, this cloud formed near Mount Uludog
07:26because strong winds were coming from the south
07:29because of low pressure over northern Italy.
07:32Hey, I should be a weatherman.
07:35Rainbows are mesmerizing by themselves.
07:37What if I tell you that nature has gifted us also with rainbow scarf clouds?
07:43World Meteorological Organization says that these kinds of clouds are called pileus clouds.
07:49But that's a boring name, so I won't use it.
07:52So, the better named rainbow scarf clouds are accessory clouds.
07:56This means that they're dependent on a larger cloud system to develop.
08:00Firstly, an accessory cloud enlarges horizontally,
08:03and then a shape like a cap above the top appears.
08:07This part is attached to the upper part of another cloud.
08:11Now, these clouds don't last long,
08:13similar to a regular rainbow's time of appearance.
08:16The main cloud underneath eventually rises up
08:18and absorbs the rainbow cloud above.
08:21Farewell, you beautiful little thing, you.
08:24There are many other cloud formations that we could mention,
08:27such as fall streak hole or hole punch clouds.
08:30Do you ever see that the horizon is full of white clouds,
08:34but there's a hole to remind you of the blueness of the sky?
08:37It's like someone put their hand in there and spread the clouds.
08:41Well, as the song goes, we have just looked at clouds from both sides now.
08:46So, what are some other natural wonders that fascinate you?
08:50So, in Westbrook, Maine,
08:53people saw an enormous ice disc in January 2019.
08:58This disc was like a wittery carousel.
09:00It was spinning away in the Pernodscot River.
09:03Residents called it everything from an icy, lazy Susan
09:06to a frozen spinning wheel.
09:08It was estimated to be around 300 feet wide,
09:11which made it one of the biggest ice discs ever seen.
09:14Weirdly, the spinning ice disc notion isn't new.
09:17They've shown up in places like Russia and Washington before.
09:21They were almost always a perfect circle.
09:24So, why do they happen?
09:25Well, some scientists in 1997 thought it was because
09:29river water created a whirlpool effect around a chunk of ice,
09:33smoothing it out to be perfectly circular.
09:35Yet, in 2016, other scientists claimed that river currents
09:39helped these discs get started.
09:41But temperature changes kept them twirling.
09:44Warmer water makes the ice melt and sink,
09:46creating a vortex that keeps the disc spinning.
09:49The warmer the water, the faster it spins.
09:54Ever heard of the Hestelin lights of Norway?
09:57They aren't the same as northern lights.
09:59Think of these lights as glowing balls.
10:01They have been seen since at least the 1930s.
10:04These luminous wonders show up in all sorts of colors and shapes.
10:08Sometimes they flicker,
10:09and other times they just chill in the air.
10:12The Hestelin lights can show up 10 to 20 times a week.
10:15They appear both during the day and at night.
10:19They can last for just a few seconds or hover for over an hour.
10:23Interestingly, nobody has a clue about what exactly they are.
10:27The efforts to understand these lights include Project Hestelin,
10:31started in 1983,
10:33and later projects like the Triangle Project.
10:35Despite ongoing research, there's no consensus on the origin of the lights.
10:41Some suggested explanations include misperception of celestial bodies, aircraft, or mirages.
10:48One theory ties the lights to airborne dust from mining,
10:51while another mentions plasma, formed by ionized air and dust during radon decay.
10:57Okay.
10:57Okay.
10:57Ringing rocks is a cool geological thing you probably didn't know about,
11:04and it's our next stop on the Mysterious Natural Phenomena Tour.
11:08You can find them in Bucks County in the U.S.
11:11If you give these rocks a hit with a hammer or another rock, they start ringing.
11:16Scientists have been studying them, but the mystery remains.
11:19There are different hypotheses about this one, too.
11:22Things like the size and shape of the boulders and how they're stacked can affect the sounds they make.
11:28But that alone doesn't give them the ability to ring.
11:31Even though the sound is often described as metallic,
11:34it's likely because of the rock's density and internal stress, not just its iron content.
11:40A scientific experiment from the 1960s suggested that the ringing ability came from some internal stress,
11:47not external weathering.
11:48The live rocks found in the middle of boulder fields showed expansion or relaxation after being cut,
11:56indicating internal elastic stresses.
11:59A slow weathering rate in dry fields could cause these stresses.
12:03The relic stress theory suggests that these boulders act like guitar strings.
12:08A de-stressed boulder gives a dull thud, but a stressed one resonates at different frequencies.
12:13The boulders can still ring when removed from their fields, leading to myths about stealing them.
12:20Most fields are now cleared of smaller ringers, and breaking large boulders stops the ringing.
12:25Large equipment is needed to move the remaining small ringers, weighing over a ton.
12:33Now let's talk about the Naga fireballs.
12:36They only show up along the Mekong River in Asia.
12:38These picky fireballs hang out in just a 155-mile stretch of the river.
12:44The reddish glowing balls rise naturally from the water into the air.
12:48Their scope ranges from small particles to the size of a basketball.
12:53The reported number of fireballs varies from tens to thousands per night.
12:58They can be spotted all year round, but they seem to go wild during the full moon in late autumn.
13:04Why?
13:04Well, that's just another one of their little mysteries.
13:07Some have tried to explain the phenomenon scientifically.
13:11One theory suggests that flammable phosphine gas from the marshy environment could be the cause.
13:17However, skeptics argue that spontaneous ignition isn't likely to be the reason.
13:22Another scientific explanation involves free-floating plasma orbs created when surface electricity is discharged into a solution.
13:30Still, these typically occur in controlled settings during experiments, and not naturally.
13:35We can carry on with ball lightning.
13:40It's a super rare thing, a glowing ball that shows up in the air.
13:44It likes to make an appearance close to the ground during thunderstorms, hanging out with regular lightning.
13:50It can be red, orange, yellow, white, or blue, and it's often accompanied by a hissing sound and a funky smell.
13:57This flashy sphere of light is a quick show.
14:00It lasts just a few seconds, zooming around, and then poof!
14:05It's gone, sometimes quietly, sometimes with a little pop.
14:09Ball lightning might seem like a troublemaker, but it's usually harmless.
14:12Sure, it's been known to burn or melt stuff on occasion, but it's not out to get us.
14:19Scientists aren't entirely sure why it happens or how it's related to regular lightning.
14:23People have been tossing around ideas like weird air or gas behavior, high-density plasma stuff, or even a vortex of glowing gases.
14:31Even microwave radiation trapped in a plasma bubble is on the list.
14:36But don't get it confused with bead lightning.
14:39That's a different one, more like a string of beads.
14:42And it happens when a bolt of lightning sticks around for a good chunk of a second.
14:49Shh!
14:50We're now at the Mapini Silence Zone.
14:53It's a spot near this place in Mexico.
14:55The story goes that in this desert patch, you can't pick up any radio signals or talk to anyone.
15:01In July 1970, a rocket from Utah went off course and landed here.
15:07It was carrying some sort of cobalt.
15:09Authorities had to haul away tons of soil from the crash site.
15:13Now, thanks to the cleanup, the Silent Zone is wrapped up in myths.
15:17People talk about weird magnetic stuff missing with radios,
15:21and about plants and critters going through mutations.
15:24Well, locals go with it, boosting tourism in the region.
15:27All right, we can now talk a bit about the sun.
15:33Well, it's not just a big ball of fire.
15:35It's got an outer layer called the corona.
15:38Think of it as an invisible sun jacket made of gases.
15:41You usually can't see it because the sun is super bright.
15:44But there's a trick.
15:46During a total solar eclipse, when the moon slides between us and the sun,
15:51the corona shows up, all glowing and white.
15:54The corona is scorching hot, even hotter than the sun's surface, which is kind of weird.
15:59Scientists are on a mission to crack this heat mystery.
16:02They found something called heat bombs shooting from the sun into the corona,
16:07exploding and warming things up even more.
16:09But that might be just one piece of the puzzle.
16:13You see, the sun's surface is like a playground, covered in magnetic fields.
16:17These magnetic fields create cool shapes on the sun, like loops and streamers.
16:22Special telescopes help us see these cool patterns up close.
16:26The corona stretches way out into space,
16:29and from there, it sends out the solar wind that moves through our solar system.
16:33Its particles are so speedy that they escape the sun's gravity.
16:39So, there's this cool spot called Kuala Sangalur Beach
16:43that you can only check out when the tide is low.
16:46The timing changes every day, and you can't get there when the tide is high.
16:51Most of the time, it's hiding under the sea, not even on the map.
16:55But when the tide's just right, bam, it pops up.
16:59Kind of like Malaysia's own version of Salar de Uyuni.
17:02People call it the mirror of the sky,
17:04because when it's not underwater, it turns into a giant reflection of the sky.
17:09An awesome spot for cool instapix.
17:12Besides being a sweet travel spot,
17:14it's also home to a bunch of marine life,
17:16like sea and baby clams that live all over the sandy shores.
17:22That's it for today.
17:23So hey, if you pacified your curiosity,
17:25then give the video a like and share it with your friends.
17:28Or if you want more, just click on these videos
17:30and stay on the Bright Side.
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