# Great Red Spot on Earth



## Mectojic (Aug 12, 2016)

Crazy science question:
Is it possible to have an anticyclonic storm on planet Earth, which would last for months, maybe even years?

This storm would not be red like Jupiter - I'm talking something practical, like a thunderstorm, simply extended via some means that last for a much longer period of time, moving across hundreds of kilometers.

Just a cool thought. Any scientific credibility behind it?


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## Brithel (Aug 12, 2016)

According to a brief wikipedia search the answer is no. It seems the reason that air movements last so long is mostly down to the lack of friction that comes from solid ground, with help from a layer of colder surface clouds preventing energy loss via radiation. Since Earth is mostly solid with a small atmosphere it seems unlikely for winds to retain significant energy for long amounts of time, or atleast significant enough to be compared to a Jovian storm. 
However, counter to my wikipedia guesstimates I found this article which shows a storm lasting for 150 days that reoccurs annually so Maybe it is possible. More can be read here. 
So I guess the answer is maybe? depending on the geography and the climate.


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## CupofJoe (Aug 12, 2016)

I think Bithel is right. There just isn't enough atmosphere on Earth. I heard it described as this as a rubber-band stretched around a basketball...
As for the Catatumbo Lightning. That isn't so much weather as as a set of local environmental conditions. There will be places and times were one form or another of weather lasts for days, weeks even months [there was a place in Wales where it rained every day for 75 days in a row last year, and the Atacama and Namib Deserts have years between rainfalls], but I don't think that, that is same as having one anticyclone system lasting that long.


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