Have you heard of Hector? He’s a thunderstorm and he emerges every day around 3pm. If you want to meet him you’ll need to travel to the Tiwi islands, around 70km north of Darwin, Australia, during the build-up season (September to December) or rainy season (January through to March). Hector is so reliable that locals set their clocks by him.

The conical shaped Tiwi islands play a significant role in triggering Hector each day, helping to funnel the sea breeze rapidly upwards, convecting the warm and humid air up as much as 20km into the atmosphere, creating a deep and impressive cumulonimbus thundercloud. During the second world war pilots used to use Hector as a reliable navigation beacon on their journeys between Australia and Papua New Guinea.

Today Hector is loved by meteorologists because his clockwork appearances make him easy to study and help us understand the factors that influence thunderstorm development. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology are especially fond of Hector and have made a great explainer video. Meanwhile, photographer Murray Fredericks has made it his mission to capture Hector’s many dramatic shapes and moods on film, camping out on the Tiwi islands and watching Hector emerge against the flat backdrop of the Arafura Sea.



