Storm Chasing in Venezuela - Catatumbo Lightning

[George Kourounis]

I just got home the other day from a really interesting storm chase trip that I don't think any other chaser has tried before. The Catatumbo lightning phenomenon in western Venezuela is a semi-permanent storm system that sits over the Catatumbo River delta where it flows into Lake Maracaibo. What an experience!

First, a bit of background info:

The Catatumbo lightning storm (Relámpago del Catatumbo) is an atmospheric phenomenon in western Venezuela. It occurs strictly in an area located over the mouth of the Catatumbo River where it empties into Lake Maracaibo. The frequent, powerful flashes of lightning over this relatively small area are considered by some to be the world's largest single generator of tropospheric ozone.

The storms are likely the result of the heavy winds blowing away from the Andes Mountains, which then collide with ionized gases - specifically the methane created by the decomposition of organic matter in the marshes. Being lighter than the incoming air, the gas rises up into the cloud layer, creating an electrical charge and a subsequent discharge which is seen as lightning.

The phenomenon is easy to see from hundreds of miles away and is also known as the Lighthouse of Maracaibo, as the boats that sail the area can navigate at night without any problems at the time of sailing. The storms have an annual occurrence of 140 to 160 nights, each lasting up to 10 hours per night and each producing up to 280 strikes per hour.

These "Palafitos" are houses on short stilts that are used by fishermen on Lake Maracaibo. We would stay at 2 different Palafitos during the trip.

The Catatumbo lightning. It is mostly hidden inside the clouds, but there are bolts that come down to the ground (or water). Many resources say that the Catatumbo lightning is silent, but this is not true. The light carries much farther than the sound, which often makes the lightning seem silent, but rest assured, when it came close (and overhead) it was plenty loud!

At the height of one of the storms, our boat skipper had to dive into the lake to bail out the boat. The wind was howling and the rain was pouring down with lightning crashing all around.

The next day we relocated to the small fishing village of el Congo which lies in the Catatumbo river delta, where it joins Lake Maracaibo. There are no roads or cars, only boats and water. The water here in el Congo village is the road network, source of income for the fishermen, and a playground for the children, but it is also the garbage dump and communal sewer.

This is the open toilet in the Palafito we stayed at. It was pretty basic to say the least but the most interesting part was the schools of catfish living in the water below that were eager to slash around and gobble up anything that dropped into the water... And you thought the bathroom at the gas station on hwy 160 in Kansas was bad.

As a side note, while in Venezuela I also was able to do some other "interesting" things like:

Wrangling an 18 foot anaconda:

Fishing for (and eventually swimming with) piranhas:

Getting intimate with some of the waterfalls:

That's it for now. More photos can be found on my site.
George Kourounis
www.stormchaser.ca

[Skip Talbot]

Great shots as always, George. Thanks for sharing your adventure.

The description of how the lightning forms seems a little weird (unbelievable?) to me. I have never heard of a process (ionic/methane convection?) like that before so it could just be my ignorance. To me it seems much more likely that there is a constant warm. moist seabreeze coming in off the gulf that's being forced up by rising terrain. That looks like deep convection to me in your photo, and deep convection causes charge separation. I'm skeptical though that enough methane is being released to this cause massive convection. If it is, it also sounds wildly dangerous for any locals nearby. The Wikipedia article on this phenomenon states the same processes you described, and the source for that links back to a local tour company? This could be some awesome phenomenon I've never heard of before, but when I start hearing about silent lightning, it makes me think they don't really understand the processes involved.

[Keith Mullen]

I remember watching a documentary on the excessively massive amounts of gasses contributing to the phenomena. They described it as essentially artificially increasing the already existing instability, as well as contributing to some of the differing color of the flashes.

Thanks for posting this! Wish we were all so lucky to have such an adventure!

Keith

[George Kourounis]

It appears that the methane does contribute to the storm activity there. It is the leading theory right now but some of what is written on the event is just plain wrong.

Although the lightning ofter seems silent, the light from the flashes carries along farther than the sound of the thunder, giving the appearance of "silent lightning" When the storm was right overhead, it was anything BUT silent. Also, many sources claim that the lightning is entirely in the clouds. I saw many CG's, anvil crawlers, cloud to cloud strikes... You name it. A lot of the bolts were obscurred by clouds but there was certainly a variety of bolt types.

No matter what, it is an interesting phenomenon. I recently found out that it was also featured in the recent "Raging Planet" series in the lightning episode.

[Adam Lucio]

Storms 160-190 nights a year? Screw Kansas...I found my new future home. I cant think of a better way to live than be a fisherman and get treated to that many rounds of storms. Looks like fun as always George, Im so envious of your life.

[Rob Wadsworth]

An intense and interesting account and photos!
XLNT...

[Christian Neumann]

Never heard about this phenomenon - interesting and fascinating!

[Rejean Boudreau]

That hotel almost beat some of the (in)famous Motel 6 we're stuck with while chasing in the alley too late at night

Very nice pictures, wow... ten hours of lightning every night at the same place over and over . That must be close to paradise (photo wise ) . A quick search in Y'Tube and i found that video - nice place http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMY3CwPjLEQ

Wishing you the best for the upcoming Gemini Awards next week - or ''merde'' as we say in french.

[Steven Gliebe]

Wow, that is one wet place. What an opportunity to have so much lightning to shoot. I'm sure this would be some people's worst nightmare but I agree with the others that it sounds like an amazing place to spend some time enjoying. Thanks for sharing your photos. It's neat to see them first hand.