The Most Bizarre Weather Phenomena in the World

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[John_Fugazzi]

Sprites were a kind of group secret among pilots for decades. They admitted to each other that they had seen them but felt if they reported something that looked like a giant jellyfish with long red tentacles, they'd be fired. Modern cameras finally proved them right.

[lord_vexon]

Hey Simon, I've been a long time viewer of TopTenz and love the content you create on this and your other 50 Channels. It is amazing that you are able to make such amazing videos on so many channels as often as you post. I love your content so much thank you for making me happy.

[sally]

Simon’s beard is getting more and more legendary!! It’s fun to watch random videos from any of the channels and trying to date them according to beard growth (without looking at the date of the video).

[davidthill]

I’m from a small town in Illinois and we actually experienced snow donuts about a decade ago. During a particularly awful blizzard, our small lake outside of town chips if they froze over, and within two days massive snow donuts had appeared all across the lake. The ice was so thick that even some people walked out onto the ice and took a snow donuts home with them as evidence to show their families. It has never happened before or cents and it was an incredible bit of strange weather news in our town

[Damoinion]

My mother and I had a small ball lightening sphere in the kitchen once in the early 1970's.
It appeared just off the surface of the metal chimney of the old converted coal range.
It floated randomly around the room for what felt like forever but was probably only 10 seconds then dissipated with a really loud popping thump.
Scared the absolute hell out of both of us!
I was about 11 at the time.

[blueandgreenslacks]

I’ve seen the green flash. I was at Swamis Beach in Encinitas, CA. Everyone on the beach was talking about it and I consider myself very lucky to have witnessed the phenomenon.

[tracymilne]

My uncle was in the Merchant Marine during WW2 and his freighter was struck by St Elmos’ fire on a run to Britain! Lit up like a Christmas Tree in a sea of black he remembered all the vessels around him quickly steaming away to get as far as possible from this obvious target! Luckily no U-Boats were nearby and a later storm instantly dissipated the scary incident!

[raecyrulik]

I remember the winter when we had those (I live in Cleveland, where you got the video of them from). They were so freaky & showed up EVERYWHERE that year, including all over my stepbrother's yard!

[twocvbloke]

If that clip of the ball lightning is real, that's pretty cool, and scary, but cool... :P

[BackYardScience]

I've been lucky enough to witness doughnut snow happen in real time. I was speechless for several minutes it felt like. As a kid, I was amazed and freaked out.

[righty-o]

Hail is no joke. I've only experienced very small hail. Maybe the size of an eraser on the end of a pencil. But when it's falling out of the sky at terminal velocity with some wind behind it. It friggin hurts, especially on your face. I can only imagine what golf ball size or bigger would be like. I've seen videos, but to experience it personally is completely different

[LaurieAnnCurry]

We were blessed to see two spectacular sunset green flashes at our favorite beach in Naples, Florida. When the weather was perfect crowds of people would make their way to the beach each evening JIC there’d be a flash. Lovely experience.

[wncjan]

When I was about 8 or 9 I experienced a ball lightning. I was visiting my grandparent during a thunderstorm. Suddenly a ball lightning passed trough an open window, slowly moved across the room and dissolved when it hit the opposite wall, leaving a burned mark.

[graffffik]

4:20 having seen one less than 20 feet away before I can positively say it can be freaky when you do not know wtf it is - The one I saw was about basketball size and red going extremely slow with sparks flying out of it. I did not know what it was till years later and had enough time to watch it slowly come down till it took out a powerline. This was before cellphones alas could not take a picture of it. Most people will never see it in person outside of videos.

[Nipplator]

My favorite thing to see isn't exactly caused by the weather, but it is close to St. Elmo's fire. It's the sparkling ring of plasma formed by the rotor tips atomizing fine sand, called the Kopp-Etchells effect in honor of two fallen soldiers, and is quite attention grabbing the first time you see it. Just the slight issue of highlighting the helo during its most vulnerable, literally forming a glowing bullseye during the rotor operating speed run up.

[alwaysdriveing]

I was working in west Texas when a dust storm blew up. As it hit us it started sprinkling rain. So it was literally raining mud on us. That was one of the odder weather events I have encountered.

[christineparis]

When my husband and I were in a very old house that we rented when we saw ball lightning. At the end of a thunderstorm, lightning hit our old metal chimney, bounced to a metal lamp in the bedroom right next to the bed we were in and "popped" with a big flash. We couldn't figure out what it was at first, but it was definitely a ball that burst into the bedroom and flashed so brightly it lit up the entire room for a second. Even our roommate saw it from the other room....

[markstott]

You missed my favourite: Thundersnow. I've only experienced it once but I won't forget it in a hurry. I'd driven up to Dob Park, about a mile and half above my home town of Otley and had to pull over as a blizzard descended. I got out of the car just to wander down the lane. I rapidly returned to the car as strikes started hitting the fields around me. It looked amazing if rather terrifying. It was also rather loud. I'm just glad that I have experienced it at least once.

[janneaalto]

Never seen ball lightning myself, but my dad tells of a time one travelled through the yard of his childhood home and cut a water hose into tiny pieces.

[siggy]

Snow donut feels a bit off, seems more like a snow cinnamon roll 😅