We Aren’t In Kansas Anymore…
We might not have much interesting weather in the UK, at least not very often! Strange weather phenomena have been recorded throughout history — originally blamed on acts of deities, some were later found to have simple explanations, and a few are still mysteries to this day…
Monsoons
Most typically seen in Asian regions, monsoons occur due to a difference in temperatures between land and nearby ocean. The sun warms the water and the land at different rates, which causes the winds to sometimes switch directions and bring the cooler, moister air towards the land and away from the ocean.
There are two types of monsoon: wet and dry. A wet monsoon typically occurs during the summer months, bringing heavy rains. Typically, approximately 75% of India’s annual rainfall happens during the summer’s monsoon season. A wet monsoon starts when ocean winds bringing cooler, more humid air towards a land mass.
Dry monsoons come about between late autumn and early spring. Instead of coming from the oceans, these winds come from drier, warmer climates such as from northwestern China and Mongolia down into India. This type of monsoon tends to be less powerful than their summer counterparts.
The monsoon season varies in strength, with each year bringing varied rainfall and windspeeds.
Tornadoes
A tornado, sometimes called a ‘twister’, is scientifically known as a violently rotating column of air that extends from thunderstorm clouds, down to the ground. They can be accompanied by baseball-sized hailstones, or even multiple other tornadoes! They don’t come quietly either, with the sound of a tornado approaching being likened to a freight train.
Every U.S. state has experienced tornadoes, but Texas holds the record: having an annual average of 120 tornadoes. This meteorological phenomenon has been reported in many regions of the globe, including Great Britain, Argentina and India.
The tornadoes soggy cousin, waterspouts are typically weaker versions of tornadoes that form over a body of water. They sometimes move inland and become tornadoes. The sandier sibling: Dust devils, are smaller rapidly rotating columns of air made visible by the dust and dirt they pick up, but are typically not associated with thunderstorms.
Tornadoes can occur at any time of year, but they are more common during the early spring — particularly in a region of the United States called ‘Tornado Alley’, made up of multiple states: Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska.
The strength of a tornado is quantified by the Fujita Scale — with the weakest being an F1 (an F0 is technically a funnel cloud, as they do not ‘touch-down’) and the strongest being an F5. This scale is based upon the damage done to both human-made structures and local vegetation (e.g. trees, crops, etc). A tornado measuring at an F1 would break some tree branches, cause damage to chimneys, and has windspeeds between 117 and 118 km/h. An F5 tornado causes mass destruction, with houses being picked up and swept away, cars lifted and carried hundreds of meters, and leaving little to nothing left in it’s path — hitting windspeeds between 420 and 512 km/h.
In terms of warning, weather experts can use a piece of equipment called a Doppler Radar to observe windspeeds and air pressure patterns to predict whether or not a tornado will form in a certain region — but can usually only give a warning of between 5 and 20 minutes. The path of a tornado is usually rather erratic, however a vague travel path can be predicted once touch-down occurs.
Don’t Eat The Orange Snow!
The plains of Siberia are usually covered in snow — with temperatures of -40°C not being uncommon in places, but when locals in the small village of Pudinskoye woke up on an early 2007 morning, they immediately noticed something odd: the snow falling from the sky was a strange shade of orange!
Three regions of southern Siberia later reported the same mysterious phenomenon. Not only was the snow definitely not white, it also smelled rather bad. Most of the snow was orange, with some being red and yellow.
These regions are home to so many polluting industries, which were the first sources to be investigated as the possible cause of this icy phenomenon. However, it was hard to identify which one of those industries could have been responsible. Possibilities included the nuclear plant in nearby Mayak, the metallurgy and chemicals factory in Ust-Kamenogorsk, and the Kazakhstan nuclear testing sites and space launch centre.
Russia’s environmental watchdog later found through chemical analysis, that the snow contained over four times the typically observed quantities of iron, as well as a variety of acids and nitrates. It was later theorised that the orange hue was due to strong easterly winds blowing sand from the Sahara dessert across the world, with some of this sand being caught in snowstorm clouds that eventually ended up over Siberia.
Official conclusions were never reached when it came to what caused this strange weather event. Well, orange-you glad that didn’t happen here in the UK? I’ll be here all week!
If you’re interested in wacky weather, why not take a look at the Geography, Urban Environments and Climate Change course at the University of Wolverhampton? Change your future, and join the pack today.