What is the “Beacon of Maracaibo”?

There are some pretty cool places around the globe to explore fascinating weather! A location I want to visit is the Beacon of Maracaibo! Encompassing Lake Maracaibo and the Catatumbo River in Venezuela, along with the adjacent Caribbean Sea, a unique atmospheric spectacle unfolds almost daily for this part of the world that takes lightning to another level!

It’s really the relentless nature, though, for a sky painted with lightning that makes this place so interesting to investigate. We are talking about observing thunderstorms nearly every day of the year that develop like clockwork by evening and persist several hours at a time. Impressive to say the least. Just imagine living with hours of thunder and lightning every night!

The Beacon of Maracaibo (also dubbed Catatumbo Lighting) has been documented to exist for hundreds of years, too. European sailors first entering the region in the late 15th and 16th centuries noted routine overnight lightning events to be quite a reliable indicator where Lake Maracaibo was located, hence the reference as a guiding beacon.

What special circumstances give rise to the Catatumbo Lightning phenomenon? It comes down to a fantastic alignment of mountainous terrain surrounding Lake Maracaibo interacting with the prevalence of tropical warm waters that enter the lake from the Caribbean Sea from the north. The tropical waters keep abundant lower atmospheric moisture available and the local terrain provides the necessary lift for moisture to rise and condense into deep cumulonimbus clouds.

However, the daily reliability of thunderstorms, though, is manifested by the topographic configuration surrounding the lake and proximity of the Caribbean Sea being ideal for the formation of a north-to-south oriented nocturnal low level jet of strong winds over the lake. As faster northerly winds develop above and parallel to the surface during the overnight hours, a continuous feed of warm and moist air becomes directed at and then forced up the mountainous terrain bordering Lake Maracaibo to ultimately initiate ongoing thunderstorm genesis!

Photo Credit: Jonny William Malloy