Farmer in Australia captures rare microburst on camera

Mother Nature has all sorts of tricks up her sleeve from thundersnow to firenados, but perhaps one of the most peculiar is the rain bomb phenomenon.

The explosions of precipitation are also known as microbursts, and one of them was caught on video by Peter Thompson, a farmer in Queensland, Australia, according to ABC News Australia.

He was out on his tractor when he saw rain approaching and noticed something odd about it. Thompson grabbed his iPhone and started capturing images.

In a span of about two minutes the weather ball had both formed and hit ground. The man who captured the footage said of the event, "The drop itself was really quite quickly. It looked like the bottom of the cloud falling."

What causes such occurrences is sinking air from thunderstorms that measure less than 2-and-a-half miles. As that downdraft encounters any number of air and weather conditions, including dry patches, hail, rain, and cooling, it forms into an event of its own. The activity they unleash is often swift and intense. Some have a destructive power on par with tornadoes. In extreme cases, they can produce winds up to 150 miles per hour.


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