Is there finally something more terrifying in Australia than wolf spiders?
Like – aliens Chuck Norrising through the sky and leaving rainbow laden Donnie Darko portals ?
When the poor frightened Aussie townspeople gazed above to witness this phenemoena, they took to twitter to marvel in shared amusement. Was the rapture finally here? Did I make the cut? Am I going to get last minute cut because I think the rainbow’s kinda a cliché and campy touch? Despite the fact that this celestial trend of awe and wonder online was probably a really nice reprieve for Iggy Azalea’s butt, it didn’t last for too terribly long. Because, as ever, science promptly stepped up to ruin our fear-fun and Giorgio Tsoukalos’ stiffy alike with their stupid facts and logic and resolution of paranormal unsolved mysteries.
As for this one? It’s called a fallstreak hole cloud. Or a “hole punch cloud”.
But why? And how?
Did Evan Rachel Wood stab it with a broomstick?
Maybe, but it’s probably more to do with good old dihydrogen monoxide.
You know how when you’re a kid – and you’re going on your first airplane – you’re all excited about heading up into the sky because the clouds are going to be like cotton candy and you’ll be able to feel the plane gently easing through them like the Snuggles bear in fresh outta the dryer towels? What happens? Your inconsiderate parents too busy to brief you on the lie of the ethereal atmospheric marshmallows you’ve fantasized about since you could physically look up, fail to break the news. So you board the plane, take off, ascend with mouth ajar, anxiously await the sky party… and BOOM. Suddenly, you’ve been transported into an amusement park ride with bumper cars made of fog. And you turn in a panic to the old lady next to you, screaming the rhetorical question, “Why has god done this to us?!”
Such was your first lesson that clouds are made of water – not whipped cream.
And today’s lesson about hole punch clouds isn’t much more cerebral than that. There’s dew drops all loitering around in those clouds we see. But the nature of water is to change states if the temp does enough. Normally, when it dips below a certain temp, the cloud-water latches onto rando ambient particles, ice crystals form, and voila: school’s canceled and you have to dig out your car. But in the case of the chasm-clouds, it only happens in a localized region. So instead of grey skies opening up and falling down to your tongue as perfectly crafted flakes, you get this inception-esque skylight in the sky instead. And yes, we humans can and do have an effect on whether these things happen (not saying if that’s good or bad – ‘cause I dunno). But as one sci-guy expert tweeted, usually it’s triggered by something like a jet causing supercooled droplets, thus leaving behind an attic hole for god to watch us talking and walking and wanking.
So, in short, the answer is: No.
Nothing – including this now explained rainbow alien hole – is more terrifying in Australia than spiders.
In fact nothing exists more terrifying anywhere outside of Aussie town either.
Be it land or sky.