Daily Celestial Challenge Thursday - Forces In Nature

Lightning of the Catatumbo.

At the mouth of the Catatumbo River in Venezuela, a very unique mass of storm clouds is formed creating the rare spectacle known as the Catatumbo Lightning. This storm occurs up to 160 nights a year, 10 hours a day and 280 times per hour.

Catatumbo lightning is a meteorological phenomenon that occurs in the basin of Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela, mainly in the southern part of the lake and in the lower basin of the Catatumbo river, from which its name derives. Scientists from the Scientific Modeling Center indicate that it would be more appropriate to talk about the Catatumbo lightning bolts, because they tend to occur in multiple places every night, but from a distance they are seen as a single phenomenon.

source

This phenomenon is characterized by the appearance of a series of lightning almost continuously and virtually silent because of the great distances needed to observe the phenomenon, which occurs in clouds of great vertical development forming electric shocks between 1 and almost 4 kilometers of height, as the winds associated with the Low Level Nocturnal Jet of the Lake Maracaibo Basin penetrate the surface of the lake in the afternoon hours (when the evaporation is greater) and are forced to ascend through the mountainous system of Perijá (of 3,750 msnm) and the Mountain range of Merida, the Venezuelan branch of the Andes (of up to 5,000 msnm, approximately).

The origin of this phenomenon is in the orographic effect of these mountain ranges that enclose and brake the northeasterly winds; thus, clouds of great vertical development are produced, concentrated mainly in the Catatumbo river basin. This phenomenon is very easy to see from hundreds of kilometers away, as from Cúcuta, in Colombia, or from the lake itself (where there are usually no clouds at night). For this reason, it is also known as the Maracaibo Lighthouse, since the boats that sailed the area could sail during the night without problems at the time of sailing. It can occur up to 260 times a year and lasts up to 10 hours per night; In addition, this phenomenon can reach 60 downloads per minute.
source

thanks for visiting my post

Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by josmery from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows. Please find us at the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.

If you would like to delegate to the Minnow Support Project you can do so by clicking on the following links: 50SP, 100SP, 250SP, 500SP, 1000SP, 5000SP.
Be sure to leave at least 50SP undelegated on your account.