Thunderstorm Cloud Sets Record Low Temperature Of -111 C
Perhaps, we all have seen the majestic clouds in the sky just before a storm, especially in the summer days. But do you know the exact temperature right at the very top of it?
It is obviously very cold due to the higher altitude, but you would be surprised to know that the temperature falls below 100 degrees than the freezing point.
The scientists who have been working on the the data of upper layer of the atmosphere have recently published their research. It is showing that in 2018, a tropical cloud of the storm reached a record lowest temperature of -111 degrees Celsius.
The cloud was seen on December 29 of that year and its reminiscence could be seen in 2019 as well. The measurement was taken by American satellite Noaa-20 on the south equator in the western Pacific.
Usually, when a powerful upward cloud reaches the lower atmosphere or troposphere, it gets flattened out naturally and takes its classic anvil-like shape.
However, sometimes the upward air punches through the next layer of the atmosphere or stratosphere and keeps on rising. The 2018’s event was remarkable as the cloud reached an altitude of 20.5 kilometers.
Dr. Simon Proud, a Nerc research fellow in satellite remote sensing at the National Centre for Earth Observation and Oxford University, UK, explained the fact as “It’s called an overshooting top.”
He further said “Overshooting tops are reasonably common. We get them over the UK as well, sometimes – like last August when we had a number of massive storms. But this was a very big overshoot. Normally, an overshooting top cools by about 7C for every kilometer it goes above the tropopause; and this one was about 13C or 14C cooler than the tropopause – so, a pretty big overshoot.”
Such a phenomenon has taken place over multiple spots around the globe in the past three years. It has also appeared around 13 years ago welcoming a hazardous lightning storm.
Dr. Proud, a research meteorologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, US, said, “The storm we report on was in the middle of nowhere, and just as well.”
Proud further added, “Over the last 20 years, it seems these super-cold thunderstorms are becoming a little bit more common. It’s interesting that in this part of the world, the tropopause is actually getting warmer, so we might expect to see warmer clouds, not colder clouds, which likely means we’re seeing more extreme storms as we’re getting even bigger overshoots than we used to.”
He ludicrously said, “If you’d been there you would have got drenched and very probably a load of hail on your head as well – and a lot of lightning.”
Such surprises of nature don’t fail to make us awestruck.
