THE MOST BIZARRE METEOROLOGICAL PHENOMENA

Giant Ice Bombs

Getting caught in the rain is not a fun thing because you end up wet. However, getting caught in a hailstorm can seriously injure you if the hailstones are big. Exceptionally big hailstones are called ice bombs. One such ice bomb weighted 80 pounds!

Thundersnow?

While thunderstorms are usually connected in our minds with warm climates or at least summer, there is such weather phenomenon as “thundersnow.” This storm takes place in late winter or early spring because that is when warm mass of air is topped with cold one. However, there is another important ingredient that distinguishes between a usual thunderstorm and a thundersnow. While the air below should be warmer than the air above it, the air below also has to be cold enough for snow to form.

Gravity Wave

Liquids have amazing qualities, one of them is being a balancing force. Gravity waves are waves generated in the fluid medium in order to restore the force of gravity or buoyancy. For example, if the water has been “deformed” by an object that fell into it, it is gravity wave’s responsibility to restore calm on the surface. However, because the clouds also consist of fluids, this kind of waves can also appear in the sky.

Diamond Dust

Diamond dust is a type of a fog, a ground-level cloud. When it gets extremely cold, the fog contents become ice droplets. Most often this phenomenon is observed in Arctic and Antarctica.

Katabatic Winds

The phenomenon called Katabatic Winds (from the Greek “katabaino” which means “to go down”) is a kind of wind created due to differences in air pressure. High elevations, for example in Greenland, California, or fjords or Norway, create such inconsistencies in pressure. The speed of this type of wind can reach up to 13 feet per second.

Mammatus Clouds

This type of clouds forms in sinking air, while most clouds usually form in rising air. For a mammatus to form, the sinking air must be cooler than the air around it and have a lot of liquid water or ice inside. The cloud sinks with the air, and the result resembles cow udders.

More Than One Sun (Illusion)

Even on a clear, sunny day, there are weather phenomena waiting for us. If the Sun is low and cirrus clouds are high in the sky, sometimes you can see three suns shining in the sky. These two additional suns are an optical illusion created by refracted sunlight.

Seismoluminescence

Lights in the sky before large earthquakes sounds like one of the paranormal hoaxes. However, in 1811, one such event was reported by eyewitnesses during the massive quake in New Madrid, one of the largest earthquakes in North America. Another such occurrence happened in 2008 minutes before an 8.0 earthquake in Sichuan, China. Scientists are still trying to figure out how and why these lights appear.

Green Flash

Most of the time you can witness this phenomenon at sunset, but sometimes it can appear during the sunrise too. If one observes the Sun, it is possible to see it briefly change color into green. This lasts for a second or two, which is why it is termed a “flash.”

Fire Rainbows

This phenomenon, albeit the name, is neither a fire nor a rainbow. It got its name because there is a spectrum of colors, and it looks like a flame. In reality, this phenomenon is an ice halo formed in high level cirrus clouds. The halos are usually so big the arc looks parallel to the horizon.

St. Elmo’s Fire

This phenomenon has been in records for a long time. Pliny the Elder, one of the Roman’s numerous historians, wrote about this sight back in the first century A.D. St. Elmo’s Fire appears during thunderstorm and is somewhat like lightning, but not quite. It consists of ionized gas, or plasma, and while lightning is a movement of electricity from one point to another, St. Elmo’s Fire is sparkling of electricity in one place. If you look at a street lamp during a thunderstorm, there is a chance you will be able to see blue flames dancing around the lamp.

Donuts… Made of Snow

The initial reaction when you see a snow donut on a hill is “someone had a lot of fun here.” However, this is a natural phenomenon. When the snow reaches a certain elasticity and the temperature is just right, instead of a snowball on the hill, the snow falling off a cliff or tree becomes doughnut-shaped.

Supercell Storms

Usually found in arid climates such as high plains of the United States, supercell thunderstorms are an incredible sight to see. They can be called “daddies” of all thunderstorms due to the area they cover – up to 20 miles in diameter! Most commonly, these storms can be observed in the Tornado Valley in the US.