Realest and craziest natural phenomena around the World

Moonbows, also known as lunar rainbows, are amazing yet rare natural occurrences that happen only with the right weather and the right astronomical conditions. This perfect time happens when the moon’s light is reflected and refracted off water droplets in the air. To be precise, the full or almost-full moon should first be low enough in the dark sky to hit its light on the water droplets present in the air, opposite the moon’s direction.

Think about when you were a kid and watching a cartoon where a small snowball transforms into a huge one as it rolls down the snow-covered hill. You can actually see that in real-life and these huge snowballs called snow rollers or snow donuts just need to be formed from light, sticky snow with help of the wind’s sculpting abilities. According to the National Weather Service, the snow on the ground must be icy and crusty, preventing falling snow from sticking. About an inch of loose, wet snow must accumulate, along with strong winds to scoop it up. These rollers can grow as large as a foot in diameter.

The so-called fire rainbows or firebows aren’t really created from fire and it’s not even a rainbow. These “rainbows” are actually iridescent clouds caused by clouds of water droplets of nearly uniform size that diffract light and separate it into different wavelengths or colors. This phenomena happens usually in newly formed clouds.

Brinicles are long ice fingers that slowly form under the sea until it reaches the seafloor and freezes the ground including the creatures along its way. This happens when the salt-heavy brine accumulated within the frozen sea ice leaks out and flows down freezing the surrounding water, forming a descending tube of ice.

Catatumbo lightning can be witnessed in the Lago de Maracaibo/Catatumbo River region in northern Venezuela, South America. It’s not that different from the usual electrified thunderstorms found around the world, except for the fact that this storm just happens in the same place night after night, and it happens for almost half the year. Catatumbo Lightning is produced by thunderstorm complexes that form due to diurnal wind patterns influenced by the mountains that surround the area.

Nacreous clouds can be seen in places with temperatures of below–85°C and that includes high mountain ranges which induce gravity waves in the lower stratosphere. These cloud sheets slowly undulate and stretch as the waves evolve. Although they seem harmless due to their iridescent pastel colors, nacreous clouds are considered to be the most destructive to our atmosphere. The sad truth is, their presence encourages the chemical reactions (caused by CFCs) that break down the ozone layer.

 

Lenticular clouds are stationary lens-shaped clouds that form on high altitudes, normally perpendicular to the wind direction. On mountains where the air flows over, large scale standing waves form right at the downside creating what we see as lenticular clouds. Lenticular clouds shaped like bells are formed when air is forced upwards a mountain peak, cooling and saturating with moisture, and finally having its molecular water condense into cloud droplets.

The Morning Glory cloud is a rare meteorological phenomenon that is only known to occur in the southern part of the Gulf of Carpentaria in Northern Australia. This cloud is a roll cloud that can reach up to 1,000 kilometers long and often 100 to 200 meters above the ground. Morning Glory clouds are formed due to the mesoscale circulation associated with sea breezes that develop over the Cape York Peninsula and the Gulf of Carpentaria. If you want to see these odd clouds, you can visit Burketown in Northern Australia from late September to early November.

A rainbow is formed caused by reflection, refraction, and dispersion of light in water droplets brought by different forms of airborne water such as rain, mist, and dew. When the water droplets aren’t from the usual forms that create a rainbow but from a fog instead, then you’ll have a chance to see a fog bow. Though similar to a rainbow, a fog bow has only very weak colors.

There’s a light show happening and thank all the clouds and the cold weather for a spectacular show. Columns of light that beam upwards the sky are formed with the help of the plate-shaped ice crystals normally only present in high clouds. These crystals reflect the light back downwards and thus, they form the show that we call “light pillars”.

The skypunch, better known as the fallstreak hole, is a large circular or elliptical gap that can appear in cirrocumulus or altocumulus clouds. This hole in the sky is caused by water droplets that remain colder than 0°C but refuse to freeze. However, some of the droplets in the group of unfrozen water start to freeze and drop off, allowing the rest of the water to follow. This happening leaves a large almost-circular hole in the cloud.

A maelstrom is a powerful whirlpool created when moving water twists and turns. It’s not really new to see this in lakes and rivers, but when it happens in an ocean and your cruise ship takes that route, then that’s already something serious. Maelstroms can suck in ships and can be created by sinkholes and tsunamis. One of the most popular maelstroms in the world is the Moskstraumen in Norway.

Unusual lights glow and drift gently through the sky, over the valley of Hessdalen, Norway. It seems to be an unidentified object at first but after years of study, it’s found out that the rocks in the valley are rich in zinc and iron on one side and copper on the other. This discovery has led to a theory that the lights are lit up by the electricity that flowed through the rocks and the electromagnetic field lines explain why these lights move around.

A ball lightning was an unexplainable atmospheric electrical phenomenon described to be like exploding balls that vary in diameter and often associated with thunderstorms. So far, it’s found out that the elements present in the soil during the occurrence of ball lightning were silicon, iron, and calcium. This discovery created the theory that the ball is caused when lightning strikes the ground and vaporizes some of the silicate minerals in soil.

You see a tornado, but this time it’s entirely made up of fire. Fire whirls are so rare yet crazy that it’s almost unbelievable to see one watch it calmly. Fire whirls can be formed in two ways: when a tornado spins close to a forest fire, or when a heavy concentration of heat is generated in a small area.

Supercells