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Puzzling Electric Hurricanes

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the zap-me-like-a-hurricane dept.

SpaceAdmiral writes "Hurricanes seldom have lightning because they primarily consist of horizontal winds (as opposed to vertical winds). However, three of the biggest storms of 2005 (Rita, Katrina, and Emily) had plenty of lightning and NASA has an interesting write-up about it." Bottom line is "we still have a lot to learn about hurricanes."

10 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Modesty and Knowledge. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Bottom line is "we still have a lot to learn about hurricanes.""

    Bottom line: we have a lot to learn about a great deal.

    1. Re:Modesty and Knowledge. by Y2 · · Score: 5, Funny
      In other news: Scientists admit that they don't know everything.

      Which wouldn't be noteworthy, except for the numerous other factions that make no such admission, ever.

      --
      "But all your emitter and collector are belong to me!"
    2. Re:Modesty and Knowledge. by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Your theology is sophisticated and admirable; unfortunately, it's also not typical of the people who use religion as a blunt instrument to attack science -- and like it or not, there are a lot of those people, and they have significant political power.

      Science could indeed be used as a doctrine of control, but if it were, it would of necessity be warped so far that it would no longer be "science" by any reasonable definition of the word. In fact, there are historical examples: Lysenkoism and Intelligent Design spring immediately to mind, and there are probably others. In order to function, um, scientifically, science requires freedom of both thought and action.

      --
      The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
  2. Pardon my Ignorance by killkillkill · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I don't know much of anything about the equipment they use, but could it just be that we're seeing more lightning because we're lookinging harder and with better equipment?

  3. Plug the hole? by DaveM753 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Judging by this picture, the moon looks just about the right size to plug the hole in this hurricane.
    Wouldn't that stop it?

  4. But there is Vertical movement... by JasperVal · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Major storms, including severe Thunderstorms and Hurricanes are an oddity in atmospheric conditions specifically because there is vertical movement. Normally the atmosphere is in hydrostatic balance and the vertical speed of an air parcel can be ignored. In a thunderstorm there are severe downdrafts that overpower the pressure gradient force and updrafts stronger than the force of gravity. It's only in severe storms when the atmosphere isn't in hydrostatic balance. Hurricanes couldn't develop without vertical movement; the eye in the center is a result of the surface low "pulling" air from the upper atmosphere down and clearing the clouds; the bands are similar downdrafts with updrafts occurring at the eye wall. There's more to the lack of lightning than no movement.

  5. hmm by mistermicro · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Generally there's not a lot of lightning in the eye-wall region," he says. "So when people see lightning there, they perk up -- they say, okay, something's happening."

    incase the 100mph winds didn't have your attention already..

    sigh.. hurricanes and their egos.

  6. Allow me to translate.... by Duncan3 · · Score: 5, Funny

    God is saying...

    "You're screwing up my planet, I'm going to kick your ass now."

    --
    - Adam L. Beberg - The Cosm Project - http://www.mithral.com/
  7. Re:haarp by ScrewMaster · · Score: 5, Funny

    /me loosens tinfoil hat a bit

    Forget the hat ... loosen your tie. A little oxygen will help.

    --
    The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
  8. Re:Lightning? Not The Result of Global Warming by bloo9298 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Aliens? That's silly. Don't worry, Pat Robertson will no doubt explain why the lightning occurred soon enough.