World’s Most Unusual, Rare Natural Phenomena

You’ve heard of Aurora Borealis, and mirages in the desert; natural phenomena that make our world interesting. Well, there are some natural phenomena that you most likely have never heard of or even seen. Occurrences which are either rare or isolated to a single location. If you think nature is boring, you should look again. There is no need to explore further than this planet to find some weird or unexplained events!

Sailing Stones – Sailing stones are natural, geological phenomena in the baked desert of Death Valley. Large rocks (up to hundreds of pounds) move by themselves along the dirt ground, leaving smooth tracks behind them. Scientists have tried to explain their movements through winds and surface ice but those theories cannot explain why different rocks starting side by side move in different directions at different rates. Plus, rocks will move along a path and suddenly switch directions, stop or burst ahead. Let me just say, “whaaaa?”

Mammatus Clouds -These clouds are the weirdest looking clouds I’ve seen (in pictures). They are ominous looking, bumpy, globular shaped, and indicate the onset of a storm. Individual formations can remain static for many minutes at a time.

Blue Holes– Blue holes are pretty much what they say, holes in the ocean caused by giant and sudden drops in underwater elevation, hundreds of feet deep. From above, they look exactly like dark blue circular punctures in the ocean. They are mostly oxygen deficient, due to the lack of water circulation, thus they are pretty devoid of sea life.

Giant Snowflakes – Giant snowflakes, as large as 15 inches (reported in 1887) but more commonly between 2-6 inches, have been seen over the years. These giant snowflakes contain hundreds of snow crystals sticking together as they fall. Conditions have to be perfect for this phenomenon to occur, with the right temperature for stickiness and a lack of wind to break them up.

Honduras’ Rain of Fishes – The Rain of Fishes is a common yearly event between the months of May and July. Dark clouds roll in followed by lightning, thunder, heavy rain and wind for a couple hours. Once stopped, hundreds of living fish are found on the ground, waiting for people to take them home to eat. Raining fish have been seen elsewhere occasionally. In Louisiana, 1947, in a one-hour span, thousands of freshwater fish fell in a 70,000-80,000-square-foot area. No unusual weather preceded the event.

Morocco’s Climbing Goats -You will not believe this until you see it. Google this to see images of many normal-sized goats standing on the tips of branches in the Argan trees of Morocco. The goats climb the trees in search of the fruit, since food is scarce on the ground.

Denmark’s Black Sun– In the marshlands of Denmark up to a million migrational starlings gather in huge flocks and form tight formations in the sky together. The movement of the flock in the sky has been likened to a dance and seems to literally block the sun.

Ball Lightning– These atmospheric electrical phenomena has been considered a mystery over the years. Reports of spherical shaped floating “lightning balls” ranging from pea sized to meters wide have circulated, with varying descriptions of their behavior. Some accounts even state that ball lightning has entered buildings.

Penitentes – These natural phenomena are snow formations that occur at high altitudes like mountain glaciers, in severely cold locations. They are thin spikes of hardened snow or ice, closely spaced together, up to 2 meters tall. They look like a sea of upside-down icicles and can cover a vast area.

Fire Whirl – Also known as a fire tornado, a fire whirl is a rare natural phenomena that occurs under specific air and current conditions, sometimes during brush fires. A raging fire can sometimes develop a swirl and rise vertically, creating a tornado-like column of fire.

Waves of Fog – In 2008, an odd storm over the Badlands in South Dakota produced some amazing fog. The fog was literally in gigantic waves passing over the land. Google “waves of fog Badlands,” to see the amazing images.

Fire Rainbow – When the sun is high and it’s light passes through certain cirrus clouds, sometimes a beautiful spectrum of color is produced, seemingly inside the clouds. The rainbow of color looks like a burning fire, due to the thin, wispy shape of the clouds.