Share this page!

Dr Thomas Smith 🔥🌏 Profile picture
Twitter logo
Aug 22 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
I reckon this building is now one of the most struck-by-lightining buildings in the world. Second tallest building in the world and in equatorial Asia. Just witnessed it being struck three times in the space of ten minutes!
#lightning #merdeka118 #KualaLumpur🇲🇾
And if someone can tell me why there are three flashes I'd be very grateful twitter! ... To the naked eye it was just one!
So there were four flashes. Would love to know why! @US_Stormwatch @StormChaserLiam @StormChaseUK @ben_rich
Just very excited to use my lightning camera app!
So my reading of some @NOAA websites interprets this as a positive cloud-to-ground 'leader' lightning strike (+CG) followed by multiple (3) negative ground-to-cloud return strikes (-CG). There might have been more as my camera was probably only operating at 30 fps. So intrigued!

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Dr Thomas Smith 🔥🌏

Dr Thomas Smith 🔥🌏 Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @DrTELS

Dr Thomas Smith 🔥🌏 Profile picture
Aug 22
Heatwave & drought in China, not covered widely by western media. Here's a wildfire burning on the outskirts of Chongqing (population: 31 million), with a smoke plume covering half of the city. Wider view (400 km across) shows a comparison with a more typical year. 🇨🇳🔥🛰️ ImageImageImage
Thanks to one of our second-year @LSEGeography undergraduates who asked me to check out this fire who said "I am so surprised by this wildfire. It suddenly becomes so real when it happens near my friend"
Source of imagery @NASAEarth: worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/?v=103.4572515…
Imagery from today (22 August 2022) and 2019 (17 August 2019)
🛰️
Read 6 tweets
Dr Thomas Smith 🔥🌏 Profile picture
Aug 21, 2020
New paper out this week @ELSenviron led by @feliciahmliu. We discuss the many contrasting narratives of oil palm plantation sustainability issues in the media of Indonesia, Malaysia, & Singapore. [1/]
Link: authors.elsevier.com/a/1bbrp5Ce0rdV… Image
We revisit the media coverage of the 2016 @peatlandsociety congress, held in Kuching, Malaysia. Many scientists were surprised by how the congress was heralded as a 'green light' for the development of tropical peatlands. [2/] Image
It was headlines like these that were most concerning. Having sat through days of science presentations, many of which highlighting unsustainable deforestation, drainage, and plantation practices; the headlines did not seem to reflect the content of the conference. [3/] Image
Read 11 tweets
Dr Thomas Smith 🔥🌏 Profile picture
Jul 21, 2020
New spatial analysis of wildfires across the Arctic in May/June 2020, and how they compare to the satellite record (2003-2020). What is burning? Are there peat fires? What about permafrost? 🔥🛰️thread in collab with @m_parrington @CopernicusECMWF #ArcticFires [1/9]
The Arctic Circle is an ecologically arbitrary line, so I also investigated fires burning north of the treeline, using @NSIDC's tundra & boreal forest boundary, a better representation of the Arctic Zone. May/June 2020 saw 10x more fires than 2003-18 average for this zone. [2/9]
Using a Global Landcover dataset, we see corroborating evidence that the spike in fire activity in 2019/20 occurred in both the boreal forest (tree cover) and tundra (herbaceous & shrub cover) ecosystems of the Arctic Circle [3/9]
Read 10 tweets
Dr Thomas Smith 🔥🌏 Profile picture
Jul 25, 2019
#ArcticFires have been burning for 6+ weeks, starting earlier than usual & releasing more CO2 in June/July than any year in the 17-yr record.

A crucial question is whether these fires have ignited peat soils. This THREAD takes a closer look.



[1/7]
Peat fires are important because they burn carbon that was sequestered over 1000s of years. Unlike a grass/forest fire, emissions cannot be treated as carbon neutral. Once ignited, peat burns for a long time and is difficult to extinguish.
SOURCE: publish.csiro.au/wf/pdf/WF17084

[2/7]
Thanks to raw fire data from @m_parrington (red dots = Jun/Jul 2019 fires) and PEATMAP (green shaded areas) (sciencedirect.com/science/articl…), we can establish that this year's fires are definitely burning on known peatlands.

[3/7]
Read 8 tweets
Dr Thomas Smith 🔥🌏 Profile picture
Jul 18, 2019
These Arctic fires have been burning for over a month now. This thread takes a closer look at what might have caused these fires, what exactly is burning, & why we should be concerned... [🛰️images are from the same location in the Sakha Republic, Russia🇷🇺, 65–70°N]
[THREAD 1/9]
Taking a closer look at these fires, some are clearly preceded by an outbreak of tall cumulonimbus clouds (thunderclouds🌩️). We can tell these are tall cumulonimbus from their bright white tops [image 1], and cold cloud top temperatures (–100°C) [image 2]
[2/9]
Each of these clouds will have been a short-lived thunderstorm providing many lightning strikes & gusty winds (ideal conditions to ignite a fire). Rain will be patchy with some areas wet and others dry. There is evidence of many lightning strikes across Siberia recently.
[3/9]
Read 10 tweets
Dr Thomas Smith 🔥🌏 Profile picture
Jul 3, 2019
What is happening with wildfires in the Arctic? This tweet from @m_parrington got me looking at the @NASAEarth imagery, and it really is 'unprecedented'; a word that we should not use lightly.
[THREAD 1/4]
At least 5 of these fires appear to be bigger than 100,000 hectares (these are megafires). The landscapes on fire appear to be peat bogs in Siberia, most north of the Arctic circle.
[2/4]
This animation shows a fire burning at 69.1°N, 138.2°E, from 19th June through to 28th June. At its largest on 28 June, it extends 50 km × 25 km (125,000 hectares)
[3/4]
Read 6 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(