A caver browsing Google Maps for caves in the remote Australian outback has just uncovered one of the most shocking weather discoveries of the year. What began as a routine exploration turned into an earth-shattering find – a massive tornado scar stretching across the Nullarbor Plain in Southern Australia.
The Strange Scar That Could Change Our Understanding of Tornadoes
A man casually searching Google Maps, looking for caves and karsts, when he stumbles upon an enormous scar on the landscape, too perfect to ignore. That’s exactly what happened to a caver exploring the Nullarbor Plain, a vast, desolate area in Southern Australia.
What appeared to be a mere oddity on the map turned out to be an 11-kilometer-long scar, with widths ranging between 160 and 250 meters. This wasn’t some ran;dom pattern in the desert – this was the unmistakable sign of a violent tornado that had passed through the region.
The scar first appeared between November 16 and 18, 2022. However, it was only recently that scientists, led by Matej Lipar, an adjunct research fellow at Curtin University, realized its significance. “The scar had been missed by everyone, including weather stations in the area. It wasn’t until the caver pointed it out that we started connecting the dots,” Lipar explains.
A Tornado Nobody Knew About
The tornado, which no one even knew had occurred, has now made international headlines. Tornadoes are a rare but known phenomenon in Australia, and despite a few documented cases in the region, no one had anticipated this particular event. The Nullarbor Plain, devoid of human settlements and infrastructure, is an area where tornadoes can go unnoticed – leaving no visible damage to alert the public or weather systems.
The scar, according to Lipar and his team, was created by a ferocious tornado that likely had wind speeds reaching over 200 kilometers per hour. “When we analyzed the cloud imagery from that time, it became clear that this was not just a small event. The marks left by the tornado, especially its cycloidal patterns, were consistent with a tornado of F2 to F3 strength on the Fujita scale,” Lipar says.
F2 and F3 tornadoes are incredibly powerful, capable of causing significant damage to buildings and infrastructure. Yet in this remote area, no one was there to witness it or report the damage.
Source: Severe Thunderstorm Archive/Australian Bureau of Meteorology
How Google Maps Uncovered a Hidden Disaster
You may be wondering, how exactly did scientists confirm that this scar was the result of a tornado? The answer lies in the power of modern technology. Google Earth’s satellite imagery and cloud data allowed scientists to trace the scar back to a precise window of time: November 16–18, 2022. This was when a cold front swept across the region, bringing with it tropical moisture that created the perfect storm for a tornado to form.
The evidence was all there. When Lipar’s team dug deeper, they found a pattern of blue circular marks near the scar, suggesting pools of water that had accumulated following heavy rainfall. These patterns indicated that a violent weather event had occurred, and a closer look at weather station data confirmed it: A tornado had passed through.
Why This Discovery Matters More Than You Think
This discovery might seem like a small weather oddity to some, but to scientists, it’s a game-changer. The Nullarbor Plain, with its vast, uninhabited expanse, is an area where tornadoes often go undetected. The lack of human settlements means that there are no eyewitnesses or infrastructure to report or document such events. As a result, many tornadoes in remote areas go unrecorded.
Only three tornadoes had ever been documented in this region, and the potential for others to form without anyone noticing is high. “This tornado could have been part of a larger trend of unseen tornadoes in the Nullarbor Plain,” Lipar suggests.
The research team believes that this discovery underscores the importance of using satellite imagery and other modern tools to detect and study tornadoes in remote regions where traditional monitoring systems can’t reach.
