April showers bring May flowers.  Every year, the coming of spring means the coming of thunderstorms.  For some parts of the country, spring is also known as tornado season because of these storms.  While forecast technology has improved, there is still a certain level of unpredictability in storms.  It would be nearly impossible for me to tell you the exact time and location of a thunderstorm weeks or months in advance, unless, of course, we are talking about Hector.

Hector the Convector is a large thunderstorm that forms nearly every day from September to March at 3 p.m. over the Tiwi Islands in Australia.  Because Australia is in the southern hemisphere, its seasons are opposite to ours in the northern hemisphere.  So, September is the start of spring in Australia.  As the temperatures rise in spring and summer, the air over the land warms faster than the air over the ocean.  This creates a pressure difference that drives a sea breeze as ocean air flows onto the island from all directions.  As the breezes collide, they rise and form a massive, 12-mile-high thunderstorm.

Normally, only hurricanes, nor’easters, and other large, destructive storms are given individual names.  Hector is named not for his size or destructiveness but for his dependability and regularity.   He received his name during World War II from pilots and captains who used the reliable large column of cloud as a point of reference in navigation.  The name has stuck ever since.

Hector’s reliability provides benefits beyond navigation.  For anyone who has lived on the coast of Florida, predictable, daily afternoon showers may not seem that impressive.  Sea breezes flowing onto the land also create thunderstorms there.  However, Florida’s topography does not cause these pop-up storms to form in the same place at the same time each day.  The pyramid-shaped geography of the Tiwi Islands makes Hector more consistent.  Because scientists know when and where storms will form, they have been able to use their research to study various aspects of storm formation since the 1980s.

While our stormy season is just beginning, Hector’s is winding down for the year.  But if you ever happen to be in Australia between September and March, you might consider taking an afternoon to join the crowds on the coast of Darwin to watch this magnificent storm forming off in the distance.

Crystal Kelly is a feature writer for Bizarre Bytes with those unusual facts that you only need to know for Trivial Pursuit, Jeopardy, or to stump your in-laws.

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