The science of weather is a fascinating one; but even more so are the flukes and irregularities that can occur within our world. This is a list of 20 of the most amazing and unusual of those anomalies.
A rainbow is caused by the Sun shining on moisture droplets, most commonly in a post-rain atmosphere. A moon bow is much rarer, only seen at night when the moon is low and full to almost full. One popular place to see moon bows is at Cumberland Falls in Kentucky, as pictured above.
Mirages occur when light is refracted to produce an image of an object or the sky where it is not. It is most commonly seen on hot surfaces, such as the pavement or a desert.
Like rainbows, haloes are formed around the Sun due to moisture (in this case ice crystals) being refracted from the Sun’s rays in the upper atmosphere. Sometimes two or more areas of the circle or arcs surrounding the Sun will be brighter, forming what are called Sun Dogs. Haloes can also form around the Moon, and occasionally around the brighter stars and planets like Venus.
The belt of Venus is a phenomenon that occurs during dusty evenings when a band of pinkish or brownish sky will appear between the sky and the horizon.
Noctilucent clouds are atmospherically high clouds that refract light at dusk when the Sun has already set, illuminating the sky with no seeming light source.
Also known in the southern hemisphere as the Aurora Australis, the Aurora Borealis are charged particles from the Sun that have reached the Earth’s upper atmosphere and become excited. They are more typically seen closer to the poles and during the equinoxes of the year. [Photo taken by Senior Airman Joshua Strang. Large scale public domain copy here.]
Due to different atmospheric issues, the moon will occasionally appear tinged with a color, such as blue, orange, or red. Excess smoke, dust, and eclipses can cause the moon to change color.
These odd-shaped clouds are often associated with a storm front, especially one involving a thunderstorm. It’s not completely understood how they form. [Image copyright Jorn Olsen, available for purchase here.]
This weather phenomenon is luminous plasma that appears like fire on objects, such as the masts of ships or lightning rods, in an area that is electrically charged during a thunderstorm. This occurrence was named the after St Elmo, the patron saint of sailors.
A fire whirl is either a tornado spinning too close to a forest fire or a whirl created from too much heat in the area.
Another heat related phenomenon, pyrocumulus clouds form from the fast and intense heating of an area to create convecture, which in turn creates a cumulous cloud. Volcanoes, forest fires, and nuclear explosion (in the form of a mushroom cloud) are all prime causes of pyrocumulus clouds.
Sun Pillars occur when the setting sun reflects off high, icy clouds at different layers. It creates a pillar of light that reaches high into the sky. It is also possible to see moon pillars.
Linked closely to haloes, diamond dust is a fog made of frozen droplets.
Rare and yet real, cases exist of rains of animals instead of water. This has occurred occasionally throughout history, from the Biblical times up to recent history. Meteorologists are still unsure of the cause.
Virga is when ice crystals in clouds fall, but evaporate before hitting the ground. They appear as trails from clouds reaching for the surface, sometimes giving the cloud a jellyfish-like appearance.
These are winds that carry dense air from a higher elevation to a lower elevation due to gravity. They are known locally as the Santa Ana (southern California), the Mistral (Mediterranean), the Bora (the Adriatic Sea), Oroshi (Japan), Pitaraq (Greenland), and the Williwaw (Tierra del Fuego). The Williwaw and winds traveling over the Antarctic are particularly hazardous, blowing over 100 knots at times.
A fire rainbow is an extremely rare phenomenon that occurs only when the sun is high allowing its light to pass through high-altitude cirrus clouds with a high content of ice crystals.
Also known as the Green Flash. This occurs very briefly before total sunset and after sunrise. It appears as a green flash above the sun that lasts very briefly, generally only a few moments. It is caused by refraction of light in the atmosphere.
This is a very rare phenomenon that involves ball-shaped lightning that moves much slower than normal lightning. It has been reported to be as large as eight feet in diameter and can cause great damage. There are reports of ball lightning destroying whole buildings.
All refer to phenomena that occur in the upper atmosphere in the regions around thunderstorms. They appear as cones, glows and discharges. They were only discovered last century, because of their placement and their very brief life-span (they last less than a second).
Contributor: Cedestra
Amazing list! I’ve seen some of these before, but a lot of these are incredible! Fire Whirls look kinda scary… I can’t imagine a flaming tornado being much of an improvement on either fire or a tornado… But fire rainbows look amazing! I think one explanation scienists give for non-aqueous rain is that sometimes fish etc get sucked up by offshore hurricanes, typhoons and the like, and then are carried to land when they fall… That makes considerable more sense than got getting *****ed off and throwing animals at us (although i always felt that the frogs falling from the sky part of the plagues was actually due to several hundred Jewish people with catapults)
Some of these are really cool! I’ve always wanted to see the Northern Lights, now I have to add fire rainbows and noctilucent clouds! Back in a college Anthropology class, my professor said that some indigenous tribe “believed in ball lightning”. I don’t think she knew what to do when I told her that it’s a real phenomenon!
Oh, and I’m not accusing you, but the picture for Mammatus Clouds looks totally fake! If I looked up and saw something like that, I’d probably freak out!
(also, 20 & 19 need some editing)
Cedestra; Excellent list.
I lived in Northern Alberta when I was a kid, saw many of these phenomena. The katabatic winds in the Prairies of Canada are called “Chinook”. Rolls off the rocky mountains onto the plains.
Watching air freeze is kind of impressive. We had -50 F weather where we lived. Lots of Halos, Diamond Dust and Virga. Of course the northern lights. We can also see them where I live now.
What causes the green flash thing?
carpe_noctem; Good Morning. Good effort. You’ll be a regular before you know it. I’m pretty sure the catapult’s were used for plague infested bodies, blankets, and *****. More effective than frogs. Scary but as an added bonus, you can infect everybody behind the walls.
I’ve seen so many of these things and never thought of them as unusual – just the way things are supposed to be. Thanks for nudging me to appreciate what is all around me and taken for granted.
And speaking of appreciating things, Lord, please deliver me from ever being such a lunatic moron as to post a comment on a list and tell someone who worked hard and diligently that “I can’t believe you left out…..”
Okay – I have made some corrections to the grammar of the list
Sorry for not doing it before posting!
robneiderman: I suspect it just a high def version of a photo – here is another (non HD): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Mammatus-clouds-Tulsa-1973.png
They are also mentioned on the rare clouds list: http://listverse.com/science/10-rare-cloud-formations/
warrrreagl: I am envious! I have only ever seen 6 of these things – I am missing out!
Number 1 was interesting, not sure I ever heard about it. Sounds creepy to me.
Ooh, fire rainbows and mammatus clouds look cool!
The “belt of venus” on the other hand, I see that most evenings…
Is the non aqueous rain photo real?
#16 is beautiful! I would do anything to see that. #2 is a bit harder to believe but it sounds kinda cool, if it doesn’t kill me.
Meaning is it real or from a film/movie?
lola: to be honest – it looks fake to me – but I don’t think there are any real photos of it actually happening – just of the aftermath.
way cool list!!! I have seen many of the fire whirls, they are very common in large fires such as grass or forest fires.
Awesome List!! Long time we had a scientific list!..About the non-aqueous rain…its raining fishes in that picture and they are “unsure” whats causing it!?!?!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3582802.stm here is a site with more information on the non-aqueous ran phenomenon
Jamie: I guess I’m not THAT far ahead of you – I’ve seen 10 of the 20 phenomena.
I’ve only seen 2 of these on a regular basis – the Haloes, and the Belt of Venus and like Warrrreagl, I have not considered them to be out of the ordinary. I appreciate what Mother Nature has to offer, but perhaps I should look to the skies more often.
Awesome list, great photos!
This is actually really cool. I saw a documentary in ball lightning once…scary stuff.
Mom: haha thanks. I knew about the throwing of plagued things, it’s not particularly pleasant hey… And lord of the rings was actually accurate, they used to chuck in the heads of captives… I’m somewhat atheist though, so i don’t think frogs just spontaneously materialising is the greatest example of how they fell from the sky! And if you look at the sun as it sets, you see pretty much every colour conceivable from red all the way through to blue after it’s set. Since green is pretty much directly in the middle of the spectrum (turns out pH meters follow the rainbow too…) the green wavelengths of light are only seen for a very brief period of time, before the sun sets and it turns to blue.
I’m not exactly from the coldest country in the world, so there aren’t too many frozen air particles drifting around, but the belt of venus occurs pretty frequently over Sydney Harbour (and it’s always beautiful) and every now and then we get pyrocumulous clouds out in the bush. Even so, i’ve only seen 7 of these, including the green ray, which i was so proud of myself for seeing! Can’t wait to go to a colder climate and see what else i can muster up! (the Aurora Australis was one of the most beautiful things i’ve ever seen)
Wonderful list! Best this week in my opinion, it was very interesting. I have only seen 5 of these though. I have seen the Northern Lights which are beautiful.
This is an Awesome list!!!!! I love weather phenomena. This list is now high on my favorites on this site!!
The pictures are all wonderful.
Very well done Cedestra!!
hmmmm….listverse keeps signing me out. I have seen 8 of the 20 on this list. Something i find beautiful is on very cold winter nights is any light source appears to “shoot” a beam of concentrated light straight up into the air.
I’ve seen #20 and the green flash before, they are awesome! Great list!
In #18, you say that Venus is a star….
Ravyn: ah indeed – thanks – I did that in the editing.
otay: that should be fixed now.
ravyn: even though you’re technically correct, in antiquity planets were referred to as wandering stars, so even though they’ve got nothing to do with giant balls of plasma (which is the modern definition of a star), it’s not altogether incorrect insofar as common understanding goes to label the planets of our solar systems as stars…
all better now, thanks Jamie
carpe_noctem; the color wavelength thing makes perfect sense. I should have figured it out by myself. Or paid more attention in Physics class.
ps; my last physics class was 14 years before you were born.
Sorry, I quickly edited the list before sending it in- thanks for correcting everything!
As crazy as some of these look, the only “fake” picture on here is the frog rain. I took that from a site that was poking fun of London weather, I believe. The mammatus clouds photo, as far as I know, was real. Perhaps extremely photoshopped, but real.
I myself have only seen about 7 of these, including the Aurora Borealis, twice. Once was just south of Iceland on a trip to France and the other was a fluke when it hit northwestern Massachusetts, where I was living at the time.
*fish rain, those were fish not frogs >.
Oh, how I loved this list! I wonder if one could see moonbows at Niagara Falls, but then it’d be hard since they always shine colored lights on it at night.
I’ve always wanted to see Aurora Borealis, and now I am adding Noctilucent clouds, the green flash, and fire rainbows to my list! I think I’ve only seen the Belt of Venus before, but I might have seen Virga and not known what it was.
The Mammatus clouds are freaky! I think I should like to see those as well.
Well done, Cedestra!
I get the feeling the mammatus cloud photo is real, but i find it unlikely the street poles would be in it as well, i would’ve thought that it would be a high atmospheric thing, but it still seems legit enough…
Mom424: Haha fair enough, well i had my last physics lesson about 5 months ago (i can’t tell you how happy i am that i’m finally free from school forever…) and i’m thinking of either doing medicine or advanced science at uni… It’s funny how much the teaching syllabus has changed in 30 years though, every time there’s a new development they chuck it in the teaching course, so they always end up excluding heaps of really important basic stuff, but oh well… I’m not a nerd, i swear!
Thank you, Miss Destiny, and everyone else who liked the list. I must say, though, that Jamie did some heavy editing on this list. It needed it, very much so. So, thank you, Jamie, for sparkling up my list
Cedestra: your lists are definitely some of my favourites on the site! You seem to have similar tastes to me! I’d attempt to get something published, but i don’t think i really have anything much to talk about…
Thanks for giving me a name and explanation for some of the weird stuff I’ve seen in the sky. I’ve gotta say the noctilucent clouds are one of the weirdest things to see first hand, because while they don’t sound like the craziest thing on the list, it’s really disconcerting to see a cloud hanging out in the sky that’s just glowing independently.
Cedestra: you are most welcome – I thoroughly enjoyed processing this list – great selection of pics.
My mother used to tell the story of how, when she was a little girl in the 1930s, her house was “visited” by ball lightning, apparently passing right through their kitchen during a storm. I vaguely recall her saying something about it having burned a trail along the floor… and then it just “popped” and wasn’t there anymore.
I’ve seen some of the things in this list (good one, by the way, Cedestra) but I’d dearly like to live my life having seen ball lightning–even if only once. I’m still reeling from having seen a spectacular display of the Northern Lights last year. But ball lightning–as terrifying as it might seem, I’d love to see that.
this isn’t exactly a weather phenomenon but i always found it interesting: when the ground is covered in snow, and everything else for that matter, every bit of light from the moon to houselights are reflected from the snow and nighttime almost seems as bright as day. If your ever out at night in the middle of winter stop and take a look, its quiet and serene and you just have to see it to understand what i’m saying.
anyone else ever notice this?
the green light thing is the sickest
Sun dogs are pretty amazing too!
Wow – Saturday’s are sure quiet around here!
I know, where is everyone! Just because it’s saturday night and some people have social lives doesn’t mean the rest of us have anything else to do! Jfrater, did you get my email?
Randall; I’m not so sure I want to see ball lightning. I mentioned before that my mother experienced it in Belgium when I was a baby. So early ’60′s. It came in through the window, hovered and then kind of popped out of existance. Scorched the ceiling and all the lightbulbs in the house exploded. My mom is now terrified of storms/lightning of any sort. There is nothing I enjoy more than sitting on the porch watching the storm advance across the water. I wouldn’t want anything to interfere with that.
I did have regular lightning hit real close to me before though. Luckily I was in the car so I didn’t die. I swear to god that bolt was like 15′ wide. My eyeballs actually flexed in response to the brightness. The air smelled burnt; ozone I assume.
Jamie; It’s because no one is at work. They aren’t getting paid to indulge their Lv addiction. (I wish I was – I’d be rich) If I wasn’t so damn ill I wouldn’t be here either. I hear my gardens screaming for attention.
Mom424: I think the burnt smell when lightning strikes is actually nitrous oxides, but i’m doing my best to stop sounding like a know-it-all geek…
carpe-noctem; No don’t stop – I would prefer to be corrected than wrong. I think I even understand. Nitrous oxides from the combustion of Nitrogen? Most prevalent gas in our atmosphere?
By the way I don’t think you’re entirely correct on the CFC thing. It is partly responsible for ozone depletion and not innocuous. CO2 is a bigger threat to our atmosphere though.
#39 simuun: That is why people who ski and snowboard wear sunglasses.
Two or three years ago I read about the “smell” of electricity. I am not saying that I have a 6th sense when lightning or storms are about to take place, but I can literally “smell” when there is high levels of electricity present in the air, be it static or otherwise.
The sensation is similar to when you touch the positive pole of a battery to your tongue.
It is hard to explain to someone who has not sensed this type of “phenomenon”
Mom: yep, when you burn nitrogen in air it forms nitrogen oxygen, so lightning, geysers and volcanos are the big sources of that, pretty much anything really hot! I think that CFCs may be partly responsible for depletion, but (i think) we’re lacking any significant data to say that ozone depletion coincides with CFC use. I admit that it would make a great deal of sense however. And i definitely agree about CO2. Most people seem to get conflicting views from all those little cartoons about greenhouse gases, but they’re just as much to blame!
carpe_noctem: I haven’t received your email yet.
Excellent list, Cedestra. I’m so happy to see a nature list again after all the media-related ones. Incredible photos too!
No.7 is hilarious.
excellent list .
I am so glad that I can get my daily listverse fix on this little iTouch screen…
Beautiful picts.
Thank you
The picture of the fire rainbow is magnificent to say the least.
Thank you for this list, Cedestra!
Love this list!!! So interesting. I’ve seen 9 of the 20. I see the fire rainbow pretty regularly, I always thought it was cool, but I don’t think its really that rare, atleast not in these parts. I’ve also seen mammatus clouds once and they did look like they were very low in the sky. It was insane!! They weren’t nearly as defined as the picture here, but still hella cool.
jfrater: that’s quite strange, do you want to try emailing me? my email is zanny_bowden_ at hotmail.com
haha. reading #1 made me think that if someone saw it, before last century when they were discovered, they were like “did you see that?” and they’re friend would be like “what?” so they thought they were on drugs (since it lasts less then a second)
Awesome list.
Wow some of them look wonderful especially the mammatus clouds!!!, I live in Quebec so I’ve seen aurora borealis 2 or 3 times and Haloes, colored moon and Virga a few times as for the belt of Venus it happens a lot, my mom use to say that when it happended the next day will be amazing !!!
Is it a cloud or a UFO… http://taskboy.com/lectures/AlienAbduction/01_Introduction/lenticular_clouds.jpg
I love these things!
Fo Real, List Biscuit!
In Pirates of the Caribbean, there’s an entirely different explanation for the green flash.