15 Weird Natural Phenomena To Remind You How Awesome Nature Is

Earth is just amazing and it brings us numerous natural surprises that won’t fail to keep us in awe. Somewhere outside your door, there are always stunning things happening in nature that you don’t get to see every day. Some of these natural phenomena are rare and unbelievable but they do happen indeed.

Apart from the breathtaking and the rare, some of these weird phenomena will make you appreciate just how wonderful our planet is.

#1. Double Rainbow

A double rainbow is just like any regular rainbow but this awesome natural phenomenon happens when the sun occasionally reflects in a raindrop twice.

#2. Striped Iceberg

As water melts and eventually freezes again, particles like dirt can get trapped in between those layers of ice, resulting in a striped surface.

#3. Fire Rainbow

This natural phenomenon happens when sunlight hits on frozen ice crystals that are found in high-altitude cirrus clouds.

Scientists refer to this phenomenon with its more formal name, the circumhorizonal arc.

#4. Columnar Basalt

It looks like it’s man-made but it’s actually a natural occurrence.

These columns are mostly hexagonal-shaped and they form as thick lava cools off rapidly.

#5. Raining Animals

Waterspouts (or tornadoes formed over a body of water) cause little animals to be carried to far distances before they are dropped somewhere near you.

#6. Asperatus clouds

These gloomy clouds usually appear before a thunderstorm after its gust front has blown through.

Under the right conditions, the deep thick waves of cloud develop giving this bizarre formation.

#7. Green Flash

This optical phenomenon can be observed very briefly (for about two seconds) after sunset or before sunrise.

#8. Nacreous Clouds

These clouds are extremely rare to catch but they do happen during the dark hours after sunset or before dawn.

They may be wonderful to look at but these clouds are destructive to the atmosphere since they contribute to ozone hole formations.

#9. Gravity wave

Any disturbance in the atmosphere, like a thunderstorm or an updraft, can result in a gravity wave.

#10. Moeraki Boulders

These large spherical boulders found in New Zealand were formed from 60-million-year-old sea sediments.

#11. Bioluminescent Red Tide

Under the right conditions phytoplanktons in the ocean reproduce rapidly, resulting in this thick "red tide" layer.

In some parts of the world, there is a bioluminescent variety of the algae, Noctiluca scintillans, which gives this gorgeous glowing view of the waters.

#12. Foxfire

In late summer, this eerie and almost magical glow can be seen in the forests.

These bioluminescent mushrooms thrive in moist, rotting barks.

#13. Snow Rollers

This natural phenomenon happens when a thick layer of snow falls on top of an ice layer.

Under the right conditions, chunks of the snow break off and start rolling, picking up more snow along the way.

#14. Catatumbo Lightning

Known as everlasting storm, this non-stop lightning occurs specifically in the mouth of Catatumbo River in Venezuela.

#15. Sun Dogs

Sundogs are formed during extremely cold weather when ice cyrstals drift in the air at low levels.