Animals 'dressed' in scarlet hues
As we know, the weather can be unpredictable and there's always something happening in the sky, be it a breathtaking sunset or a ferocious thunderstorm. However, some meteorological events would surprise the most seasoned weather watchers and even scientists. But what are they? From fire tornadoes to sundogs, this gallery features some of the world's strangest and rarest weather events that were fortunately caught on camera.
Curious? Click on and be amazed.
Fallstreak holes are thought to appear when the water temperature in the clouds is freezing but it hasn't formed ice.
When ice crystals do form in Fallstreak holes, it can lead to water droplets evaporating and leaving a huge hole behind.
Snow donuts or snow rollers are formed the same way as a snowball. The wind picks up some snow and rolls it across the ground, where it gathers more snow before stopping. Snow rollers get their distinctive look because the thinner layers blow away as they form.
Snow donuts are rare because they require perfect weather conditions. The snow needs to be wet enough, but not so much so that it sticks to the ground.
Fire tornadoes, or fire whirls, are vortices that suck in gases and combustible materials. They're most common in large-scale wildfires, and the temperature inside them can reach over 1,832 degrees Fahrenheit (1,000 degrees Celsius).
Microbursts are smaller versions of downbursts. Downbursts are the opposite of a tornado in that they produce downward rushing winds that spread out quickly once they hit the ground.
Sprites are a type of cold plasma discharge that occurs above a thundercloud as a way of balancing out the positive lightning charges released between the cloud and the ground.
Sprites occur at about 16,400 to 19,685 feet (50 to 90 kilometers) above the earth so images of them are rarely captured.
Twin tornadoes are formed from the same storm supercell. Two funnels can be visible if a new tornado forms while the other dies out or when one funnel is so strong that another less powerful funnel can form from the vortices being generated by the first.
Twin tornadoes are rare, and you can wait 10 to 15 years between each one.
Nacreous clouds, also known as mother-of-pearl clouds, form in very cold conditions and at high altitudes. As sunlight passes through the water droplets, it diffracts, creating a beautiful spectrum of colors. In December 2023, a rare sighting of nacreous clouds occurred in the UK.
Kelvin-Helmholtz waves occur when two different layers of air are moving at different speeds. When the upper layer of air is moving at a higher speed than the lower level air, it may form the top of an existing cloud layer into a wave-like rolling shape.
Waterspouts are tornadoes that form over water or move from land to water. Fair weather waterspouts are a less dangerous type of waterspout, they are very weak and only last a few minutes.
Sometimes waterspouts suck up fish and frogs from bodies of water before "raining" them down to the ground again. In 1957, thousands of small fish, frogs, and crayfish fell from the sky during a rainstorm in Alabama.
A white rainbow, or a fog bow, is similar to a rainbow but appears in foggy conditions rather than rain. When the sunlight passes through the fog water droplets, they appear white rather than colorful.
Noctilucent clouds are clouds of icy dust that form around 30 to 54 miles (50 to 86 kilometers) above the surface of the earth. They're seen at night time, on clear summer nights.
Noctilucent clouds may also be a warning sign of climate change because much of the moisture needed to form them comes from methane, a greenhouse gas. As methane pollution has increased, noctilucent clouds have become more common.
Ball lightning usually occurs near the ground during thunderstorms. Scientists aren't sure what causes ball lightning, but explanations include air or gas behaving abnormally and high-density plasma phenomena.
Morning glory clouds look like enormous tubes in the sky. They can measure up to 600 miles (965 kilometers) long and are most likely to be observed in Australia's Gulf of Carpentaria.
It's thought that morning glory clouds are formed when an updraft of air pushes through the clouds, causing their distinctive tube-like appearance.
Large hailstones, or ice bombs, fall from the sky during severe thunderstorms. They’re formed from normal-sized hail that collects water droplets that freeze as they fall.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the world record for the largest hailstone belongs to an 8-inch (20.3 cm) hailstone that fell in South Dakota in 2010.
Mammatus clouds have a large water or ice content which creates their unique, bubble-like appearance. The presence of these clouds usually means severe weather is on the way.
Lenticular clouds form on the side of a mountain when moist air flows downwards and then stabilizes. While they appear calm, they're known for producing turbulence.
Supercells are a type of convective storm that consists of a rotating updraft called a mesocyclone. They often produce heavy hail, violent thunderstorms, and tornadoes.
Supercells can occur anywhere in the world, but they're mostly found in the Great Plains area of the US, known as Tornado Alley.
Green flashes are an optical phenomenon that you can see shortly after sunset or before sunrise. They often take place over the sea, when light is refracted through layers of the lower atmosphere. The green flashes last only a moment or two.
Sun halos appear when ice crystals in thin cirrus clouds reflect sunlight, creating the illusion of a ring around the sun.
Like sun halos, sun dogs are formed when the sun is close to the horizon and there are thin cirrus clouds high in the sky. When the shafts of light are vertically aligned, they create sun dogs—spots of light that appear on either side of the sun.
Sundogs were spotted across the midwest and northeast United States in January 2019 during a polar vortex (a large pocket of very cold air).
Sources: (Science Focus) (Ovo Energy)
See also: The northern lights: nature's most beautiful phenomenon
In pictures: rare and unusual weather phenomena
Rare weather events caught on camera
LIFESTYLE Natural phenomena
As we know, the weather can be unpredictable and there's always something happening in the sky, be it a breathtaking sunset or a ferocious thunderstorm. However, some meteorological events would surprise the most seasoned weather watchers and even scientists. But what are they? From fire tornadoes to sundogs, this gallery features some of the world's strangest and rarest weather events that were fortunately caught on camera.
Curious? Click on and be amazed.