A violent storm caused extreme temperatures of -111 ° C in its wake

While high temperatures and high ambient humidity are often synonymous with thunderstorms in our imaginations, this is not always the case. Indeed, a recent study conducted by the American Geophysical Union investigated this storm that occurred in December 2018. Its peculiarity is that the temperature detected in the heart of the clouds reached -111 degrees Celsius, and at the same time all the existing cold records were destroyed even then.

So it became the coldest temperature that a satellite had ever detected. Additionally, when the NOAA-20 satellite passed over it, the storm had not yet reached its maximum strength. If the vehicle had passed after a few minutes, colder mercury would have been recorded.

The storm itself was not the only factor to take into account: all the weather conditions of that day were behind this unnatural cold.

Behind every storm hides a column of air rising higher and higher in the atmosphere. During particularly violent events, such as the 2018 storm, some energy-laden clouds can reach the stratosphere (the upper layer of the atmosphere). Presumably, that’s what was going to happen in the 2018 episode.

These extremes seem to be becoming more common. The increase in ocean surface temperature effectively paves the way for thunderstorm conditions, as well as changes in the upper layers of the atmosphere.

See also: simultaneous volcanic eruption on two continents