Venezuela has many fascinating places to explore, one of which is the Catatumbo Lightning in Zulia, a place worth visiting as it is a unique natural wonder. This place has become famous throughout history.
For this reason, we are going to dedicate this article to telling you everything you need to know about the Catatumbo lightning, its characteristics and importance.
What is Catatumbo lightning?
The Catatumbo lightning is a unique meteorological phenomenon that occurs in the Maracaibo Lake basin, the largest lake in Latin America. It consists of a phenomenon in which the largest lightning discharges in the world occur continuously and most frequently between May and November.
The Catatumbo lightning phenomenon is due to:
- Evaporation of the Maracaibo lake basin.
- The mountains of the Cordillera de Mérida prevent the clouds from moving.
These two factors cause a large amount of cloud cover to accumulate in the area, with lightning strikes occurring from dusk until dawn. The best time to see this phenomenon is early morning, as this is when the lightning is most intense and the best time to photograph it. If you would like to learn more about similar weather phenomena, you can find more information on spectacular weather events or read about the world's biggest thunderstorms.
How to get to the Catatumbo lightning
If you are interested in knowing how to get to the Catatumbo lightning, we are here to show you the route you have to take, depending on where you are, of course.
One of the best ways to reach Catatumbo is with a local expert. The most highly recommended guide is Alan Hayden, a man who has lived in the area for 25 years, studied and photographed lightning, and guided people to witness the spectacle . Without further ado, we're here to give you the route you should follow in Zulia to reach the stilt house area where lightning can be seen.
The first stop to witness the Catatumbo lightning phenomenon is Puerto Concha, a town in Zulia state, from where boats depart for the community of Ologá. But to get there, you have to navigate the river for hours. During the journey, you can observe a great variety of animal species, especially the diverse birds and some monkeys native to the area. If you're interested in learning more about places with intense storms, you can explore the stormiest places in the world.
Origin
The origin of the formation of the Catatumbo lightning must be found in the trade winds from the northwest-southeast, when entering the depression where the lake is located, colliding with the Sierra de Perijá (border between Colombia and Venezuela) and producing a large amount of low pressure air in the southern part of the region, in the direction of the Ciénagas Creadas on the water mirror.
As a result of the discharge of ionized gases, especially methane produced by the decomposition of organic matter in the swamp, which is lighter than air and tends to rise, collisions with winds blowing from the Andes cause storms and subsequent lightning to the clouds.
The first reference to the Catatumbo lightning is the epic La Dragontea by Lope de Vega, published in 1597, about Nombre de Dios. Mayor Diego Suárez de Amaya defeated the British pirate Sir Francis Drake. Described by the Prussian naturalist and explorer Alexander Humboldt as "an electrical explosion like phosphorescence...", it was later commented on by the Italian geographer Augustin Kodazzi as "apparently Sully's 'continuous lightning in and around Yahe'".
The main modern study was that of Melchor Centeno, who attributed the origin of the thunderstorms to a closed wind cycle in the region. Between 1966 and 1970, scientist Andrés Zavrostky, along with assistants from the University of the Andes, carried out three expeditions to Santa Bárbara del Zulia and concluded that the site had several epicenters in the marshes of the Ciénagas de Juan Manuel de Aguas Claras and Aguas Negras National Park, west of Lake Maracaibo; he did not penetrate them. In 1991, he proposed that the phenomenon was caused by the meeting of cold and warm air currents, but he did not rule out uranium as a possible common cause, although this last point is merely speculation.
Between 1997 and 2000, a team led by Nelson Falcón from the University of Calabobo carried out several expeditions and managed to locate the center of the phenomenon within the Ciénagas de Juan Manuel and produced the first microscopic images of the Catatumbo lightning Physical model, methane identified. As one of the main reasons for this phenomenon, although it is also a general cloud electrification model, it still needs to be confirmed by accurate measurements within the lightning cloud.
Methane also appears to be associated with lightning on Titan (Saturn's moon) and with other regions of significant atmospheric electrical activity, such as South Florida and Central Africa . According to this model, methane originates not only from the Hunan swamps but also from fractures in the rocky mantle, rich in kerogen III, a product associated with the abundant light hydrocarbon deposits common in the Lake Maracaibo Basin.
In contrast to other hypotheses Different, This is a quantitative model that focuses on the physics of the observed discharges, it is a theory, not just a conjecture about the "clash" of hot and cold air fronts, which can explain precipitation but not the observations to permanent and unusual electrical activity.
There have been no lightning flashes since January 2010, the longest period without visible lightning in almost a century, and it is feared that it has disappeared forever as the country suffers a severe drought . However, studies to see if it was disappearing showed that it wasn't disappearing; its activity didn't cease, it was simply no longer visible to the naked eye. In fact, its frequent flashes continued unabated.
When it happens most often
The lightning strikes occur some time after sunset, when it begins to get dark or the sky is already dark, but according to researchers, it's like daytime because of the continuous flashes. They said there were about 28 lightning strikes per minute over Lake Maracaibo for nine hours . According to NASA, when this happens, it will generate enough energy to power 100 million light bulbs, and a 10-minute lightning strike in the Catatumbo region will illuminate all of South America—a phenomenon that has been described several times this century.
I hope that with this information you can learn more about the Catatumbo lightning and its characteristics.
