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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
April 19th, 2008 at 5:16 am
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 pissed 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)
April 19th, 2008 at 5:30 am
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)
April 19th, 2008 at 5:43 am
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 shit. More effective than frogs. Scary but as an added bonus, you can infect everybody behind the walls.
April 19th, 2008 at 5:47 am
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…..”
April 19th, 2008 at 5:52 am
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/
April 19th, 2008 at 5:54 am
warrrreagl: I am envious! I have only ever seen 6 of these things – I am missing out!
April 19th, 2008 at 6:09 am
Number 1 was interesting, not sure I ever heard about it. Sounds creepy to me.
April 19th, 2008 at 6:09 am
Ooh, fire rainbows and mammatus clouds look cool!
The “belt of venus” on the other hand, I see that most evenings…
April 19th, 2008 at 6:18 am
Is the non aqueous rain photo real?
April 19th, 2008 at 6:19 am
#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.
April 19th, 2008 at 6:19 am
Meaning is it real or from a film/movie?
April 19th, 2008 at 6:21 am
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.
April 19th, 2008 at 6:37 am
way cool list!!! I have seen many of the fire whirls, they are very common in large fires such as grass or forest fires.
April 19th, 2008 at 6:38 am
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!?!?!
April 19th, 2008 at 6:40 am
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
April 19th, 2008 at 7:03 am
Jamie: I guess I’m not THAT far ahead of you – I’ve seen 10 of the 20 phenomena.
April 19th, 2008 at 7:07 am
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.
April 19th, 2008 at 7:16 am
Awesome list, great photos!
April 19th, 2008 at 7:19 am
This is actually really cool. I saw a documentary in ball lightning once…scary stuff.
April 19th, 2008 at 7:20 am
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)
April 19th, 2008 at 7:30 am
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.
April 19th, 2008 at 8:15 am
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!!
April 19th, 2008 at 8:19 am
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.
April 19th, 2008 at 8:20 am
I’ve seen #20 and the green flash before, they are awesome! Great list!
April 19th, 2008 at 8:41 am
In #18, you say that Venus is a star….
April 19th, 2008 at 8:47 am
Ravyn: ah indeed – thanks – I did that in the editing.
otay: that should be fixed now.
April 19th, 2008 at 8:51 am
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…
April 19th, 2008 at 9:39 am
all better now, thanks Jamie
April 19th, 2008 at 9:42 am
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.
April 19th, 2008 at 9:45 am
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.
April 19th, 2008 at 9:45 am
*fish rain, those were fish not frogs >.
April 19th, 2008 at 9:57 am
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!
April 19th, 2008 at 10:05 am
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!
April 19th, 2008 at 10:17 am
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
April 19th, 2008 at 10:22 am
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…
April 19th, 2008 at 10:39 am
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.
April 19th, 2008 at 10:42 am
Cedestra: you are most welcome – I thoroughly enjoyed processing this list – great selection of pics.
April 19th, 2008 at 10:55 am
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.
April 19th, 2008 at 11:04 am
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?
April 19th, 2008 at 11:32 am
the green light thing is the sickest
April 19th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Sun dogs are pretty amazing too!
April 19th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Wow – Saturday’s are sure quiet around here!
April 19th, 2008 at 11:59 am
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?
April 19th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
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.
April 19th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
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…
April 19th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
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.
April 19th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
#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”
April 19th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
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!
April 19th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
carpe_noctem: I haven’t received your email yet.
April 19th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
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.
April 19th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
excellent list .
I am so glad that I can get my daily listverse fix on this little iTouch screen…
Beautiful picts.
Thank you
April 19th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
The picture of the fire rainbow is magnificent to say the least.
Thank you for this list, Cedestra!
April 19th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
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.
April 19th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
jfrater: that’s quite strange, do you want to try emailing me? my email is zanny_bowden_ at hotmail.com
April 19th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
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)
April 19th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Awesome list.
April 19th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
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 !!!
April 19th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Is it a cloud or a UFO… http://taskboy.com/lectures/AlienAbduction/01_Introduction/lenticular_clouds.jpg
I love these things!
April 19th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Fo Real, List Biscuit!
April 19th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
In Pirates of the Caribbean, there’s an entirely different explanation for the green flash.
April 19th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
for number 3; what movie is it when it says something about
looking for the green flash above the horizon?
i want to say pirates…
but im not sure?!
April 19th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
mom: I was going to comment about the chinook winds too, as I am from northern AB as well (Westlock)
April 19th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Right, the Green Flash was featured in the third Pirates movie.
47. BrotherMan
No, I know exactly what you’re talking about. It’s a feeling of static electricity (if you’re sensitive to that feeling) and a metallic taste in the air. I can also tell when it’s going to snow, different taste, though.
April 19th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
what about the amazing weather phenomenon where every time i wash my car it rains? I think its called Karmas Hatesmeus
April 19th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
wow i love this list. Found it on stumble, I have not seen any of these but would love to know where to find them.
Thanks so much for this list!
April 19th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
Why isn’t the poster here even *crediting* the photographers of these beautiful images? This is shameful.
The Aurora Borealis was photographed by Joshua Strang and I hope that he or one of the many other peoples works who’s copyright you infringed sues you for every ad dollar you’ve ever made on this site.
April 19th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
One of the rarest cloud formations occurs in New Zealand over the southern alps. Called the ‘Taieri Pet’ it is a altocumulus lenticular billow cloud made of ice crystals in the upper atmosphere. This is the cloud that gives New Zealand its Maori name Aotearoa (Land of the long white cloud). As a glider pilot I use similar smaller cloud formations to soar over 10 000 feet. Steve Fossett was trying to use this cloud to take a glider to over 100 000 feet (Perlan Project)!
Mammatus is seen hanging off low stratus rain clouds. The fire whirl demonstrates the way thermals work – a whirling mass of air breaks away from a heat source and rapidly rises to its dew point where it forms a cumulus cloud (or a cumulo nimbus, pyrocumulus or an anvil cloud if it is really powerful). These clouds are massive, contain huge shear energy forces and often internal lightening, and large hail stones – you do not fly through them!
April 19th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
What about a haboob? Those are pretty sweet… although not that rare depending on where you live, so maybe not a big enough deal to include in the list. I still think they’re pretty impressive. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, here’s a picture:
http://www.janpronk.nl/image/DSC02131.jpg
April 19th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
NON-AQUEOUS RAIN!!!! WTF.
April 19th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
wow, if i saw the mammatus clouds overhead i believe prayer would be the most natural response. holy crap those things are creepy looking. they look like they have so much texture that they are about to fall out of the sky and smush anyone underneath.
April 19th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
I’ve seen the fire rainbow!
April 19th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Lani: Ah, but have you tasted the Fire Rainbow?
April 19th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Nice job ripping off all of the photographs without giving any of the photographers credit. Maybe you have a nice DMCA takedown request in your future?
April 19th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Wow, I’d have to go along with warrrreagl here…I’ve seen many things on this list regularly and didn’t realize they were unusual–especially 9, 6, and 17. I’m certain geographical location plays a part in what we’ve seen.
It will be nice that I can now appreciate what I see regularly–as a kid I used to sit in my backyard and sketch the sunset, especially on days like #17….*sigh*
April 19th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Cedestra and/or Jamie …i’m sure will provide credit where and if its due on the photographs. regular listers understand that sometimes lists lose something in translation from submitter to being posted. such could be the case here. also regular listers who also frequent forums are well aware Jamie’s not feeling well so if there are indeed credits due..it might have slipped past him.
really wish people who pop in out of nowhere and have no history w/ the site and/or forums would take a minute to understand they are guests on site that has an established community of commenters and list submitters. we ‘get it’.
so try not to be so quick to judge. stick around and do some more reading. acquaint yourself w/ the site. the lists. the community. the forums. before you start accusing people.
April 20th, 2008 at 12:02 am
Cyde Weys: it might be more constructive if you tell me which photographs are an issue – simply threatening does no one any good.
April 20th, 2008 at 12:25 am
Jfrater: How about every one of them? Seriously, could you ask a less useful question? The photographs were clearly not created by the author of the list and *none* of them are attributed.
I mentioned the author of one of them in my post above because I knew who the author was. The rest all appear to be similarly pilfered. A quick search turns up another example: The ‘Mammatus Clouds’ is “Looming Presence, available for sale by its author, Jorn C. Olsen, … which would have been obvious had someone not photoshopped the copyright notice out of it.
In most cases providing attribution won’t make your usage permissible under copyright law but it would at least be a step in the direction of common decency.
Cyn, Don’t be so quick to assume I was so quick to judge: I spent a little while looking around on the site and didn’t find a single list that wasn’t full of unattributed material clearly copied from elsewhere. Of course, mistakes get made and should be forgiven… but the sort of systematic disregard for copyright and attribution that is going on here deserves a little criticism.
April 20th, 2008 at 12:33 am
Gregory Maxwell: thank you for naming those two images. I would like to mention that I have not photoshopped any copyright notices out of images – so I presume that the original host of the mammatus clouds did so. I will put attribution by the ones you mention and am happy to do so for any that people can point me to the creator of.
April 20th, 2008 at 12:41 am
Oh – by the way Gregory Maxwell – in your first comment (the one where you said you hoped I got sued) – the Joshua Strang image is in the public domain – at least according to Wikipedia – a site you are very familiar with.
April 20th, 2008 at 1:03 am
Solensdrottning: that photo is amazing! Thanks for posting it. Is it dangerous when those storms come in?
April 20th, 2008 at 2:02 am
wind in adriatic is bura, not bora
April 20th, 2008 at 2:07 am
Great list.
Little nit-picks Re: 7 Non-aqueous Rain
- “Rare and yet real, cases exist of rains of animals or insects instead of water.” Aren’t insects animals?
- “This has occurred occasionally throughout history, from the Biblical times up to recent history. Meteorologists are still unsure of the cause.” What do you mean by Biblical times? Why don’t use something like Ancient History or Before the Common Era?
April 20th, 2008 at 2:22 am
Alejandro: valid point on the animals/insects – thanks. By Biblical times I am referring to the time before Christ – the general 6,000 years covered by the Old Testament. I don’t use BCE on this site as I am happy with the AD/BC assignment that we have used for the last couple of thousand years and see no reason to de-sacralize the assignment
April 20th, 2008 at 2:24 am
tomislav: according to wikipedia, it is “bora” in English: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bora_%28wind%29
In Croatian it is Bura, but most of our readers are English
April 20th, 2008 at 4:15 am
I’m 80% sure I saw ball lightning. Or it was just a UFO. It was me and 2 other people (the 4th person was looking down and missed it all, hahaha). We were on a hill at about 12-1am, and we looked up and saw a small round object that was white (but more like the greeny/bluey white you get from TVs) about 750m in the air away. It moved quite fast if I remember correctly, darting, and then disappeared as it went behind the hill. Total duration: 5 seconds. Later that day (or was it earlier?) there was a bit of ash falling. Whether this was related or not, who knows. But I was freaked by the experience, and I should really get around to finding the picture I drew the day after. It’s still reasonably vivid in my mind.
April 20th, 2008 at 4:16 am
Oh, and how about frogs inside the coal? That is INSANE.
April 20th, 2008 at 4:17 am
Mammatus Clouds look fake–even when you see them in real life! I was out in the Gold Coast hinterlands one late afternoon, and for about 10 minutes the clouds formed into these lovely ball-y clouds, before disintegrating. It was really quite stunning.
April 20th, 2008 at 5:30 am
Under 5.Katabatic Winds: “…the Bora (the Adriatic Sea)…” you misspelled… its Bura, not Bora!
April 20th, 2008 at 5:47 am
Niko: geez – you only had to read 4 comments above to see my explanation. In Croatia it is called Bura – in the English speaking world it is called Bora.
April 20th, 2008 at 6:35 am
in reference to photo from #68 … IF I SAW THAT THERE WOULD BE ME ON THE FLOOR WITH MY HEAD BETWEEN MY LEGS
April 20th, 2008 at 6:41 am
Bill Candler: I can totally appreciate your comment
April 20th, 2008 at 7:14 am
xdarkhorsex; I lived in Grand Centre Alberta. Near Cold Lake.
April 20th, 2008 at 8:01 am
re: #68, #80
jfrater,
It’s dangerous to drive in for sure, and it’s no fun to be outside. Everything gets absolutely filthy. It’s usually accompanied by very strong winds, which creates a HUGE mess. So, the worst effect it has is pulling small branches off trees, maybe ripping a couple shingles off the roof… So no, not that dangerous. Just a pain to clean up after.
April 20th, 2008 at 8:06 am
Oh, and just because everyone’s making a big deal about it, the photo credit in #68 goes to Dijana Kostovic-Vlahovic.
April 20th, 2008 at 10:57 am
This is here by, one of my favorite lists ever!! Well done!
P.S. Fire whirls look freakin’ awesome!
April 20th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Fire Whirls!!! AMAZING!!! I would really like to see that sometime!
April 20th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Great list with fantastic pictures. I have pictures of most of these phenomena and the only one of mine that is clearly a better picture than what you have shown are my pictures of virga. Yes people mammantus clouds are real and each of the 4 or 5 times I’ve seen them they are awe inspiring. I am glad to have seen all of these with the exception of #s 1,2,3,7. Hopefully some day.
April 20th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
I was on the golf course one time when some Mammatus clouds rolled in…fucking epic.
April 20th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
I left crediting or not crediting totally up to Jamie when I submitted my list. I did not doctor any photos and I’m sure Jamie didn’t either, since that’s what they looked like when I chose them. I wanted to choose high quality pictures that showed a great example of what I was talking about.
I’m willing to bet that Jamie, being the sound-minded and intelligent person he is, would rather credit the artists’ works in question rather than “get his ass sued”. When posters make heated comments, like Gregory Maxwell, it does nothing but make the poster look like an ass. Constructive offerings work much better.
Gregory Maxwell, you’re friend is a great artist. His photo was chosen carefully and not altered. You’re best bet would be to go to the original website source that stole his picture and doctored the copyright notice out of it, which, if you’re not just trolling for a day, I can provide for you.
April 20th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
are you serious? raining animals.. several cases through history..scientists can’t find a cause??
could you be more explicit about these several cases? was it frogs every time or some other animals made appearances?
…
sheds new light on the expression “to rain cats and dogs”
April 20th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Very interesting list. I only hope to see these someday.
April 20th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Very fascinating list….raining animals??! Scary!
April 21st, 2008 at 3:00 am
If I’m not mistaken, once that happened and dropped cans over people.
April 21st, 2008 at 3:12 am
Jono: wow – that would be a sight!
April 21st, 2008 at 4:31 am
I saw a fire rainbow here in New Jersey, and just happened to have my camera with me. Never had seen it before!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ferretface/2206117017/
April 21st, 2008 at 5:27 am
malena992:
The most common occurrences of strange “falls” are fish falls and frog falls. I believe other critters have been reported from time to time, but most often it’s fish and frogs.
However–falls of inanimate objects occur as well—nuts, seeds (if you can call them inanimate) and the like.
The odd thing about these falls is not only how they happen—but that oftentimes they involve SINGLE species of fish or frogs, or single varieties of seeds or nuts. (or what have you). If true, this makes theorizing about why these things happen even more difficult–after all, a whirlpool or vortex of some kind would surely not be so selective.
Go on line and look up “Fish Falls” or “Frog Falls,” or “Fortean” for more info. (Charles Fort was a journalist in the 20s and 30s who collected stories of oddities like these).
April 21st, 2008 at 7:15 am
When I was 12, ten coeds, our teacher and me were covered by a heavy tiny forgs rain mixed with some big water drops coming from nowhere, they hit the floor (covered with short grass, we were at open country) and start to jump. They were really, really small, the size of my 12 y.o. little finger nail. Every body thinks is was some kind of fantasy, but we are pretty sure it happends.
April 21st, 2008 at 7:30 am
Great list. How about parahelia (commonly known as “sun dogs”)?
April 21st, 2008 at 11:15 am
I find it really hard to believe that Fire Rainbows are “extremely rare”. I’ve seen them countless times here in California, more often than I’ve seen Halos.
April 21st, 2008 at 11:32 am
What i find fascinating is the raining frogs (animals) bit – makes the story of the 10 plagues of Moses against egypt seem not so far fetched.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:44 pm
I’m almost certain i’ve seen ball lightning when i was younger.
I remember waking up during a thunderstorm and going over to my window to watch it (always loved thunderstorms) and i saw something that was almost the spitting image of the picture shown in front of my window and then it disappeared. I was on the second floor so it didnt really cause any damage around that I had noticed, and I though I might have dreamt it or something, but that picture kind of makes sense.
April 21st, 2008 at 6:18 pm
I’ve only seen 4 of these. When we were on our way to a large city near our house, me and my dad saw noctilucent clouds. They kind of freaked me out because I didn’t know why they were lit up, but my dad knew what they were and I remember him telling me that I should feel lucky for seeing them because they don’t happen that often.
April 21st, 2008 at 7:21 pm
I’ve seen moon bows twice; both times it was incredible – I could only stand and stare in awe. Growing up in Wisconsin we saw the aurora fairly often but it is still worth standing outside in pitch darkness for hours to see. We had a mammatus cloud formation here in northwest Arkansas this past month after one of our innumerable storms – it was truly something.
April 22nd, 2008 at 3:58 am
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raining_animals
good list of all occurences there, but it doesnt include the time butter rained on galway (ireland) in the mid 19th century!
April 22nd, 2008 at 6:49 am
an amazing list!
I’ve barely seen any of those, maybe two or three, german weather isn’t too exciting. I really want to see an aurora though!
this is a great site about the physics behind some of these phenomena, especially about halos, with some wonderful photos as well:
http://www.atoptics.co.uk/
April 22nd, 2008 at 7:13 am
Great list! I’ve seen most of these at one time or another, and thought they were really awesome then. Too bad I didn’t have a camera.
April 22nd, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Wow! Beautiful. Speaking of the Aurora Borealis, one night,30-something years ago, while driving a dark empty stretch of highway between Iowa towns, I suddenly noticed bright and pulsating streaks of lime green smearing the night sky. Those of us on that stretch of highway pulled our cars over and stood on the shoulder gaping. I had vaguely heard of the ‘northern lights’ but I was at a loss to explain what I was seeing. Alien invasion did cross my teenage mind as a real possibility. I drove home and roused my family out of bed at midnight to see what I was seeing. Turned out later that a very large kiln had exploded in another town.
April 22nd, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Ball lightning is also known as a Foo Fighter…wonder why dave grohl choose it for his band…
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Paraphelia was mentioned: #18.
I know one theory on it raining animals, as in the case of frogs in particular, is that the eggs of frogs are scooped up and when they hatch or gain a certain weight due to growth, they fall.
April 24th, 2008 at 6:27 am
In that case, wouldn’t it be raining tadpoles?
April 25th, 2008 at 7:16 am
I’m surprised the lenticular cloud didn’t make the list. That is one of the neatist formations I’ve ever seen. But, yes…these are spectacular!
April 25th, 2008 at 11:00 am
You should mention the fata morgana (after the illusions Morgan Le Fay of the Arthurian legend would create to lure the knights to their fate). Similiar to desert mirages, they appear on polar ice fields. Some report to see forests. I have seen what appeared to be a city. Very eerie. Very beautiful and aptly eclept, fit for any legend.
April 25th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Thanks so much for posting these amazing photos.
April 25th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Those things are amazing. my favorite thing was the moonbow. I cant believe that those things are true.
What did you think of them?
April 25th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Those things are amazing. my favorite thing was the moonbow. I cant believe that those things are true.
What did you think of them?
April 26th, 2008 at 4:44 am
I’ve witnessed anti-crepuscular rays twice in my life and they were really cool because I knew what it was that I was seeing. Aren’t they fairly rare?
April 26th, 2008 at 4:52 am
I believe you are mistaken regarding picture #18. If you scrutinize the wispy “clouds” in this photo you will notice that they are identical to jet contrail exhaust. The aerosols and unburnt fuel form the familiar “oil rainbow”. This man-made phenomenon can be observed on the coldest and hottest of days any time during the year. Nature takes second place in this one. Sorry.
April 26th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
COLOURFUL!!! neva heard or seen anything like it
April 26th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
I find noctilucent clouds and the Aurora Borealis especially beautiful.
April 27th, 2008 at 10:49 am
Mine 2!lol
May 1st, 2008 at 11:59 pm
#7 Are you kidding me?
Besides #7, wonderful shots!
May 12th, 2008 at 8:01 am
very cool! I didn’t know some of these things existed. I’m from KY, tried to see the moonbow but wasn’t lucky that night.
May 17th, 2008 at 7:55 am
I find it really hard to believe that Fire Rainbows are “extremely rare”. I’ve seen them countless times here in Oregon, more often than I’ve seen Halos, but they truly amazing none the less.
May 17th, 2008 at 7:56 am
Fire Rainbows they truly amazing none the less. they are almost as amazing as #13
May 23rd, 2008 at 4:12 am
We are doomed.
May 26th, 2008 at 4:23 am
i have a few pictures of a luminescent (?) or fire cloud. at first i thought it was chemicals in the air but had to look it up on the internet.
it was odd to see
June 5th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
I honestly think if I saw the mammatus clouds, I’d either crap my pants or make a run for the nearest cathedral. That stuff LOOKS like the wrath of God!!!
Spooky!
June 13th, 2008 at 11:41 am
I haven’t seen any of these. How sad is that? *will now endeavour to see them all*
carpe_noctem – you’re somewhat atheist? How does that work?
Either you believe in a higher being or you don’t…..I’m agnostic myself…
June 15th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
My fave: Lenticular clouds over mountains. Fascinating. Lots of times people thought they were flying saucers.
June 30th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
This non aquatic rain is a fake pic guys! I have tried to find another variant of such a picture but was unable to get….everywhere the same picture comes…..if this was true there would have been lots of pictures available for this phenomena….This picture is tampered and is a crap!
July 13th, 2008 at 1:27 am
*experiencing weather phenomena daily
August 20th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
I very much enjoyed these pics, would love to learn more about weather phenomena. Thanx
August 28th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
About a month ago we got a really bad storm, and after it, there was this huge ass rainbow across the sky. It was a full arch, it was amazing. My neighbours and I were out taking pictures of it. I couldn’t get the whole thing on my phone, I had to take it in parts. But it was aroudn 6-7 at night, the sky was this funky pink colour, kind of like the milk after you eat Froot Loops, and directly across from the rainbow was the sun setting. so awesome! I went in my car and put on Across the Rainbow Bridge by Amon Amarth and just watched it until it went away. Coolest thing ever!
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:57 pm
We had clouds that looked like Mammatus Clouds in NZ yesterday!! it was on the news and everything… haha…
September 10th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Enjoyed all the photos some very unusual. Where can I send a couple of photos that I don’t understand what they are. I took them during a lightening storm but they are not lightening. If you know where I can send these photos to see if anyone knows what I took pictures of… please let me know Thanks
September 29th, 2008 at 2:54 am
Anyone with more info about “non-aqeous rain?” I’m a little skeptical about it. The image about it looks somewhat questionable (photoshopped) to me. Sorry…
October 10th, 2008 at 5:08 am
these photoes are very wonderful and amazing
i liked these photoes
and thats are great information
October 20th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
the fire rainbow is spectacular, I saw it once at a ski resort. I’ve also seen the belt of venus most recently just a couple weeks ago at band camp, the halos I’ve seen several times, Virga and Sun Pillars I see about once a week, unless I understand them wrong, and I believe I might have seen the mammatus clouds once or twice…
October 23rd, 2008 at 12:47 am
i had a book that mentioned non-aqeous rain. it was so hard to believe. probably if it was raining fish a small tornado or gust of wind or something picked them up and made it “rain”
October 28th, 2008 at 11:14 am
i find weather fasinating no matter what the severity
November 22nd, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Mammatus Clouds! OMG!!! my new favorite!!!
Ohh, I’ve seen haloes before.
November 30th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
This list awsome but I have only seen the colored moon out of all of these
December 22nd, 2008 at 4:58 am
learning new things each time i visit
December 26th, 2008 at 12:37 am
okay. a ring around the moon. that’s not on here. is that considered a halo? because i see this all the time where i’m from and i always wonder what causes it. someone please put an end to my curiosity. =]
January 9th, 2009 at 9:04 am
Hippie.
Yeah, it’s a halo formed by ice crystals high in the atmosphere. We get them all the time around here too.
January 29th, 2009 at 5:38 am
Are ball lightnings confirmed to exist?
February 11th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
jfrater~~ LOVE THIS LIST!!im a long time site vister but first time poster.. of all the listers i tend to like your lists the best. keep up the fantabulous work!!! ♥
March 1st, 2009 at 7:33 am
Hey I’m in 6th grade and we’re making myths in english about stuff like this… THIS IS SOOO AWESOME!!!!!!!!
Does it actually rain fish (or whatever that is)?? that is really… weird and cool!!! How did u get those shots??? wow… All 20 are awesome!!!
March 1st, 2009 at 1:00 pm
wow those shots r pretty kool =) im silly apples friend. yea we r studying this kinda stuff in our class =) how did u get all those awesome pictures????
March 2nd, 2009 at 9:50 am
OMG these pics r da bomb! wow… that sounded lame:). Ok so I am BFFLS with silly apple and spazzy eraser and we TOTALLY ARE doing this in class. So….. these are cool:)
March 16th, 2009 at 9:54 am
OMG, the fire rainbow has got to be the bridge to fairyland!
May 1st, 2009 at 7:43 am
I am Libby and I am a retard but btw this information was H E L P F U L!!!
May 7th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
None of the photographers are credited. And some of these are just false. The only two times that raining animals had been “documented” was in the bible (not the most accepted historical record) and a claim in France that it rained frogs, which was never proven.
I’m not trying to be an ass or anything, but it is important to accept a level of responsibility for information posted on the internet as reference material. It seems, judging from your language, that you aren’t an expert in the field of weather, but more like you compiled a list of information from other (UNCREDITED) sources on the internet. If you’re going to do that (which is fine), then it’s considered customary to put where you got your information, who took the photos you used, and make sure you verify your info against other sources. If you can only find a record of something as weird as animals falling from the sky in one place, then it’s fake. Get your shit together.
And for all you sixth-graders out there reading this information as you would a textbook, go poke around. There are tons of legit, trustworthy sites that will provide you with reliable facts that are still incredibly cool – discovery.com, for example. Enjoy.
May 7th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Jiblets: Why can’t you try searching? http://books.google.com/books?id=SP6JmM70J8cC&pg=PA195&lpg=PA195&dq=Raining+minnows,+storm&source=bl&ots=oDoLutg48P&sig=FIFplfcmhlrGJQYYaaA4wBx6Ge4&hl=en&ei=oHIDSqynJZvAtwf80biBBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=18
May 7th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Jiblets: this is an entertainment site. I have no obligation to do the things you seem to think essential. On the Internet nothing is “customary” – you do what you like – such as create a site like this and allow people like to comment on it.
So – having said that, please tell me which items on this list are fake. As for raining animals:
http://www.wafb.com/Global/story.asp?S=6771977 (rain of worms)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3582802.stm (BBC report on a rain of fish)
May 8th, 2009 at 10:17 am
Beautiful. I used that fire rainbow as my desktop for quite awhile. I’m pretty sure it came from Northern Idaho. I also second (third or whatever) lenticular clouds. Here are some that formed over Mt. Rainer in Washington: http://www.komonews.com/weather/blog/35631614.html
June 5th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Haloes RULE!!!
June 11th, 2009 at 11:54 am
very helpfull for my homework and quite interesting (~8
June 21st, 2009 at 5:54 am
glupost
June 21st, 2009 at 5:55 am
ništa nevalja
July 4th, 2009 at 6:49 am
bueno te digo que esto esta bueno pero te cogo