Some weather events go far beyond rain or snow. From fish falling from the sky to glowing lights above storms, Earth’s atmosphere holds strange secrets. This list explores 12 of the most unusual weather phenomena ever recorded:
1. Rain of Fish (Yoro, Honduras)
In Yoro, Honduras, people see fish fall from the sky during heavy storms between May and July. This amazing event is called Lluvia de Peces, or Rain of Fish. It has happened for over 200 years and usually follows strong rain and wind. After the storm ends, hundreds of small, blind fish are found on the ground.
Scientists think the fish may come from underground rivers or hidden caves that overflow during storms. Locals believe it is a miracle, connected to a priest’s prayer long ago.
Every year, Yoro celebrates with a festival where people gather, cook the fish, and enjoy music and traditions. It remains both a scientific puzzle and a treasured cultural event.
2. Blood Rain (Kerala, India, 2001)
In 2001, parts of Kerala, India, experienced a strange and stunning event. From July to September, red-colored rain fell in several areas, turning clothes, buildings, and streets crimson. The first reports came from Kottayam and Idukki, where people described loud thunder followed by red rain.
At first, many thought it was a sign from the heavens. But scientists began investigating. They found the rainwater had millions of tiny red particles. Early theories suggested these might be alien cells. However, later studies showed they were spores from a type of algae called Trentepohlia.
These spores, carried by wind into storm clouds, mixed with rain and fell to the ground. While science has solved much of the mystery, the loud booms are still unexplained.
3. Ball Lightning
Ball lightning is a glowing sphere that sometimes appears during thunderstorms. It can float, move through walls, and vanish after a few seconds. Although people have reported it for over 800 years, including a case in England in 1195 and one on a plane in 1963, scientists still do not fully understand it.
Some experiments, like one in 2012 in China, captured it on video and even recorded its spectrum. This helped link it to elements in soil, like silicon and calcium. Other studies have tried to recreate it in labs using microwaves or electrical sparks over water.
4. Volcanic Lightning (Ruang Eruption, 2024)
In April 2024, Indonesia’s Mount Ruang erupted with powerful explosions that sent ash 19 kilometers into the sky. This eruption triggered over 16,000 lightning strikes in just one day. Some moments saw as many as 42 strikes each second. Volcanic lightning happens when ash, ice, and gases rub together, building static electricity like when you shuffle on carpet and touch metal.
Near the volcano’s vent, ash particles collided and created sparks. Higher up, ice formed and added even more charge. Satellites and sensors tracked the lightning, helping scientists understand how eruptions and weather interact. Partial flank from this eruption also collapsed into the ocean, prompting evacuations of 12,000+ residents on Tagulandang Island.
5. Thundersnow: Winter’s Electrical Storm
Thundersnow is a rare event where a thunderstorm drops snow instead of rain. You might see lightning flash through falling snow and hear thunder, although it’s softer than in summer. This happens in only 0.07 percent of storms around the world.
It forms when cold air moves over warmer lake water or during big winter storms. Strong updrafts carry ice and snow high into clouds, where electric charges build up. When the charge gets strong enough—over 3,000 volts per meter—lightning strikes.
Famous events include the 1993 Superstorm and a 2025 Midwest blizzard that had 16,000 lightning flashes. Thundersnow is dangerous for planes, roads, and buildings, but it also helps scientists understand how storms work in freezing conditions.
6. Frost Quakes
Frost quakes, also called cryoseisms, happen when water in the ground suddenly freezes and expands. This creates pressure that cracks the soil or rock, causing loud booms and shaking that can feel like an earthquake. These events are most common in places like Minnesota, Ontario, and Finland during cold winters with little snow cover.
For example, in January 2025, Minnesota saw temperatures fall from 18°F to −8°F in two days. That sharp drop caused several frost quakes. In 2023, a similar event in Maine led to over 50 emergency calls.
Although frost quakes are not dangerous, they are surprising. Scientists are now using temperature and soil data to better predict when they might happen.
7. Virga
In early 2025, a powerful dry microburst in West Texas brought virga into the spotlight. This ghostly precipitation, which evaporates before reaching the ground, often looks like streaks dangling from clouds.
Although it never touches Earth, it can trigger sudden wind gusts, called microbursts, that endanger planes and damage buildings. In 2022, Nebraska saw a rare heat burst linked to virga. Temperatures jumped from 75 to 91 degrees Fahrenheit in just minutes.
Virga also plays a role in storm development by spreading tiny ice crystals that help form new clouds. It is not just an Earth phenomenon either. Space probes have observed virga on Venus and Jupiter as well, making this beautiful mystery a truly planetary event.
8. Morning Glory Clouds (Australia)
Each spring, students, scientists, and glider pilots gather near Burketown to witness one of Earth’s rarest cloud formations—the Morning Glory.
In September 2023, satellite data from Himawari-9 captured a 300-kilometer-long roll cloud sweeping over the Gulf of Carpentaria. These massive clouds, sometimes over 1,000 kilometers long, form when cool sea breezes meet warm, dry air from the east.
This unique collision creates gravity waves that roll across the sky. Pilots often use the updrafts to glide for hundreds of kilometers. While the exact timing of their appearance is still hard to predict, recent advancements in radar and satellite imaging are improving forecasts.
However, the first systematic study occurred in 1979, when researchers used light aircraft and weather balloons to profile the clouds’ structure.
9. STEVE and Sprites (Upper Atmosphere)
In March 2024, a dazzling STEVE display was seen as far south as Montana during a geomagnetic storm, sparking renewed interest in upper-atmosphere phenomena.
STEVE appears as a narrow purple arc, while sprites show up as fleeting red flashes above storms. Both occur high above Earth but for very different reasons. STEVE forms from fast-moving ionized gas during solar storms. Sprites, on the other hand, are triggered by powerful lightning. They last under a second, but STEVE can glow for nearly an hour.
Although researchers understand more now than when STEVE was first identified in 2016, many mysteries remain.
10. Meteotsunamis
Not always visible but certainly powerful, meteotsunamis are becoming a growing concern for coastal communities. These rare, tsunami-like waves are triggered not by earthquakes but by atmospheric forces like squalls and rapid pressure changes.
In 2022, the Hunga Tonga eruption sent pressure waves across the Pacific, creating meteotsunamis detected as far as Japan. More recently, in June 2024, Malta saw a 60 cm surge caused by gravity waves. In the Great Lakes, a 2018 meteotsunami generated six-foot waves in Lake Michigan, damaging infrastructure.
As climate patterns shift and extreme weather becomes more common, scientists expect these events to occur more often, especially in places with steep underwater slopes or enclosed bays.
10. Fire Tornadoes
In recent years, fire tornadoes have emerged as a frightening symbol of extreme wildfire behavior. During the 2018 Carr Fire in California, a fire tornado with 143-mile-per-hour winds caused eight deaths and destroyed entire neighborhoods.
Two years later, the 2020 Loyalton Fire led to the first official fire tornado warning ever issued by the National Weather Service. These events form when massive wildfires create towering pyrocumulonimbus clouds that generate real tornadoes.
Unlike smaller fire whirls, fire tornadoes can stretch hundreds of meters wide and last much longer. As climate change intensifies heat and drought, scientists warn that we may see more of these rare but deadly phenomena in the coming decades.
12. Megacryometeors (Spain, 2000)
Although skies were clear in January 2000, more than 50 large ice chunks fell unexpectedly across Spain. Some weighed over 6 pounds. These mysterious ice falls damaged cars and startled entire communities. Scientists later named them megacryometeors. Unlike regular hail, they formed without storms. One of the biggest landed in Chilches, measuring 20 by 26 centimeters.
Recent research has linked these events to changes in the upper atmosphere. Cooling at the tropopause—possibly caused by global warming—may create ideal conditions for ice to grow and fall.
After 2000, similar cases happened more often, including a 400-kilogram chunk in Toledo in 2004.
The Bottom Line
These rare weather events strike mysterious chords in us. While science continues to explain many of these phenomena, others remain unsolved. For curious minds, they offer exciting opportunities to explore meteorology, climate, and how changing weather may shape our future in unexpected ways.
