At first glance, this seems like a story that perfectly encapsulates the Friday vibe. However, the above video shows screencaps of some truly bizarre clouds above the Bermuda Triangle in the North Atlantic Ocean. The clouds are being linked by MSN as a possible explanation for the area’s happenings. The mythical area of doom, which extends from Miami to Puerto Rico to Bermuda Island, has been the subject of much lore involving hundreds of wrecked ships and planes. History feeds the legend, although some remain skeptical that the area holds any significance.
The hexagonal holes in the clouds depicted in the video join the other floated reasons (including the Gulf stream, wonky compass behavior, and violent weather) for the area’s reputation. Most recently, bursting methane pockets within the ocean surfaced as a possible explanation too, but the clouds may provide a better clue. MSN quotes Dr. Steve Miller, a meteorologist from Colorado State University: “You don’t typically see straight edges with clouds. Most of the time, clouds are random in their distribution.”
No one’s quite sure why these clouds have been observed over Bermuda Island or how long they’ve been occurring. But the holes are rather wide — anywhere from 20 to 55 miles across — and are fueling 170 mph winds near sea level, which are essentially creating microbursts that are baaaad news.
If you’ve never had the pleasure of enduring a microburst (I have), they’re similar to tornadoes in terms of destruction, but they’re more localized in nature. Essentially, a storm system can send down a powerful downdraft that “explodes” on contact with the ground and sends out straight-line winds within a square mile or two. Their existence could easily explain plane crashes and otherwise unexplained shipwrecks. Microbursts are even more unpredictable than tornadoes when they occur within thunderstorms, but the presence of these hexagonal clouds could help planes avoid certain areas within the Bermuda Triangle.
Anyway, this is all still a theory, but reference’s sake, this video shows the power of a microburst that happened in Arizona.
(Via MSN)
