In a year that rivers are in Arizona running black with slightly muddy and red “blood snow“staining the Antarctic Peninsula, you might not be surprised to learn that some of the waterfalls in southeast Australia have run backwards.
Local news agency 7NEWS Sydney shared an aerial video of the phenomenon on Twitter last weekend. Sure enough, as the water pours over the cliff tops of the New South Wales coast, the stream curls upwards and spits back inland. Throughout the video, the gravity-defying fog also creates a rainbow that seems to say, “Oh, the apocalypse is much more beautiful than I imagined!”
Clearly, there is a simple meteorological explanation for this reverse action: It̵
7;s just a trick of the wind.Severe weather warnings about strong winds and damaging surfing are currently in place for the Sydney, Central Coast, Mid North Coast, Hunter and Illawarra areas. Currently, a gust of 70km / h is creating some reverse waterfalls in the Royal National Park. https://t.co/OF81oZFF1j pic.twitter.com/kQIZlsOnMc August 10, 2020
Over the past several days, Sydney and the surrounding coastline have been subjected to heavy rains, strong winds, and towering waves. According to 7NEWS Sydney, weather experts recorded raging winds at 45 mph (70 km / h) in the Royal National Park south of Sydney, where the video was recorded.
Strong coastal winds are more than enough to temporarily divert the flow of the falls – and, unfortunately, they also devastate surrounding communities. Hundreds of New South Wales residents were asked to evacuate their homes for three days during the peak of the storm, 7NEWS Sydney reportedHowever, it is not due to the reverse flow. The coast’s wild weather has flooded rivers and left thousands of homes out of power.
Thankfully, the rain has finally subsided and the evacuation order has been lifted, 7NEWS reported. And the waterfalls? Capture the majestic acrobatics over the cliffs of New South Wales and into the endless blue ocean. Boring.
Originally published on Live Science.
