Meet Hector, The Latest Weather Celebrity That's Actually Been Around Forever

Hector, the world's most reliable daily thunderstorm, pops up around
3 p.m. daily off the northern tip of Australia. 

Like clockwork, every day around 3 p.m or so between September and December, a big thunderstorm develops explosively over some two islands off the north shore of Australia.

The thunderstorm or thunderstorms are so reliable, like a good friend who pops in to see you everyday for an afternoon tea, the storm has a name. Meet Hector.

Weather is usually random and prone to surprising people. Which is why I like Hector so much.  It's the Old Faithful of weather.

Hector has alway been there, as far back as people can remember, but for some reason it's gotten a lot of publicity this year. Just randomly, I guess. Unlike reliable Hector itself, which keeps popping up as scheduled.

I like the fact that Hector gets so much attention.  At any given moment, there are something like 2,000 thunderstorms in progress on Earth. But most of those pop up and die in varying places, depending on whether there are storms are converging winds nearby.

Converging winds are why Hector gets going every day.  He forms over two islands named Bathurst and Melville.  The islands are somewhat pyramid shaped, so the converging winds hit the islands, and the air has to rise up the slopes of these "pyramids" and voila! You have Hector.

Hector was apparently named by World War II pilots flying between Darwin, in northern Australia and Papua, New Guinea because he is such a landmark. The thunderstorm towers high into the atmosphere, so pilots and others can see Hector from a great distance.

Much like you might use a big water tower or tall building to orient yourself in an unfamiliar city, pilots used Hector to orient themselves as they flew north of Australia.

Photographers love Hector, because who doesn't love photos of thunderstorms? Meteorologists who study storms love Hector, too. He's so reliable, there's almost no guess work with it.

I love thunderstorms, too, but living here in Vermont, I'm not exactly in the lightning and thunder capital of the world.  Maybe someday I'll go visit Hector.

Here's an rather engaging video from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology that explains Hector: