There are natural phenomena that you do not know about, because they rarely occur or because you are in a geographical location where such abnormalities do not occur. These phenomena are either very strange or very magnificent, and witnessing them once can leave a strong impression on us, forever unforgettable.
Rare and amazing natural phenomena
- Tornado
A tornado is a phenomenon in which a very large and extremely powerful vortex appears on the surface of the water, capable of sucking anything that falls under its control and sinking it to the bottom of the water. The first described tornado was in Moskstraumen (Netherlands), caused by two very strong ocean currents. The seabed is where the two underground water currents intersect, manifesting as those two ocean currents.
- Fire rainbow
The term “fire rainbow” can be misleading. It is essentially a circumhorizon arc. It is mainly an ice halo, due to the ice crystals in the clouds located very high in the sky. This display of colors is not very rare, often seen in the latitudes in the summer, but rarely in Central or Northern Europe.
Of course, it does not form like the rainbows we usually see. Light passes through the hexagonal ice crystals vertically and passes through the nearest horizontal base. When rearranged in a straight line, it makes the entire cloud glow with seven rainbow colors.
- Waterspout
A waterspout is a column of water that rises from the surface of the water, linking each block together to form a stratus cloud.
Usually they are weaker than tornadoes on the ground, but there are also much more powerful waterspouts that sweep water into the sky with great speed and great power.
They can be tornadoes or not tornadoes. When they are not tornadoes, they are weaker and less dangerous because the wind speed is less than 30 m/s. In the tornado type, the tornado is the “core” of the tornado. The amount of water carried by the tornado is very large and if you have witnessed it once, you will never forget it.
The “cousin” of the tornado is the “snowspout” or “icespout”. The “snowspout” is formed when a tornado occurs during a snowfall. It is so rare that people have only taken 6 photos of it so far.
- Raining fish in Honduras
This phenomenon is extraordinary. Yet for more than a century, it has rained fish once a year.
Every year, between May and July, a dark cloud appears in the sky, followed by thunder and lightning and heavy rain lasting 2-3 hours. After the rain, people go out to the street and catch hundreds of fish that are still alive, struggling on the ground, which of course will become the proud dish of the lucky ones.
The reason is not explained, but everyone thinks that strong winds and whirlwinds have carried the fish up to the sky, traveling up to 200 km. All of them are not sea fish, but freshwater fish. National Geographic magazine sent a team to survey. They found that they were not local fish, and all of them were blind, so they hypothesized that these fish live in some undiscovered underground river. Come to Honduras in the summer, who knows, you might be lucky enough to catch one.
- Moonbow
You have probably seen rainbows after the rain many times, but have you seen a rainbow at night? Rare but true. People call it “moonbow” (in English called moonbow, lunar rainbow or white rainbow). Of course, the light emitted by the Moon is weaker than the Sun, so the naked eye cannot see the color (or is very faint), making the moonbow just a white crescent-shaped halo.
The greatest opportunity for you to admire the moonbow is on the full moon night or the 16th lunar day when the moonlight is brightest, the sky is cloudless and rain falls right in front of the moon.
- Ice spike field
Ice crystallizes into sharp blocks growing together to form a giant ice spike field, only seen at high latitudes. The height of the ice spikes varies from a few centimeters to 2 meters or more. The pure white, shimmering ice spike field has fascinated many researchers since Darwin’s time. This great naturalist first saw and described them.
The mechanism of ice spike field formation is quite complicated, due to many factors: the melting process of ice in one place, sublimation in another place makes the ice surface uneven. The wind pushes the difference, making the ice surface more and more concave and convex. The uneven solar radiation reflected on the concave and convex surface contributes to the difference to the extreme, making this place a deep bottom, that place a sharp peak, gradually forming an ice spike field.
- Supercell
Supercells are rotating air-water currents sucked up from below in a large thunderstorm. They can appear anywhere in the world, lasting 2-3 hours, sometimes splitting into two storms in opposite directions.
Supercell thunderstorms often produce hail, or very heavy rain, very strong winds and when directed downward, they carry large ice pellets.
- Round icebergs
The phenomenon of perfectly round icebergs floating on the water surface rarely occurs, only seen in areas with very slow water flow and cold climates such as Northern Europe and America.
There are two types of icebergs, depending on the conditions of formation.
The first type forms in conditions of no rain, temperatures below 0oC for many days in places where rivers bend in arcs. Due to the impact of moving forces, it causes the edges of the iceberg to break, then erode over time, becoming perfect circles.
The second type looks even more beautiful. They are also basin-shaped icebergs, formed in the middle of the river. Sometimes there is water in the middle of a large round iceberg, looking like a pond floating in the middle of the river.
- Egg-shaped ice
Round ice eggs covering the beaches of Hailuoto caught the attention of netizens late last year. According to CNN, the phenomenon is formed when the sea water near the shore breaks up the soft ice. The melted snow sticks together and accumulates in the supercooled water, then the waves cause the ice to spin around and form smooth balls. Jouni Vainio, an ice expert at the Finnish Meteorological Institute, said the phenomenon is not common, but can happen once a year under the right weather conditions.
- Tubular clouds in the Gulf of Carpentaria
The only place where this rare phenomenon can be predicted and observed regularly is the Gulf of Carpentaria in Australia. Tubular clouds can be up to 1,000 km long, 1-2 km high and are usually only 100-200 m above the ground. This phenomenon usually occurs from late September to early November when the humidity in the air is high combined with strong sea winds.
