4 rare acts of nature that seem unrealistic until seen/ First Post

Hello community, I recently got interested in the cryptocurrency market which landed me in this site and after reading what it was all about decided that it was a good concept to take part of. The contribution content that I have planned is creating 4-of articles of facts and curiosities of a certain theme that I hope will enlighten or help learn something you didn’t know about. I really appreciate all the help and criticism I can get, as I may do some mistakes as a starter. Hope you enjoy the read and thanks for your interest! Now for the post:

4 rare acts of nature that seem unrealistic unless seen

4- Sky punch

source

A sky punch is the natural phenomena where a big cloud, or groups of them form a large hole in the center due to evaporation. The real name of the phenomenon is a fall streak hole and it is visible when the temperature of water in the clouds is below freezing, refusing to form into ice without a trigger. If the right conditions are met ice crystals start to form and when they expand enough, they fall and evaporate creating the smudge of clouds below the hole.

It is not known what starts the trigger effect naturally, but experts found that an aircraft passing at high speeds trough the specified cloud will trigger the effect.

3- fire rainbows

source

Fire rainbows, despite their name are neither made of fire (thankfully) and unrelated to rainbows. The effect occurs in clouds giving them a bright array of colors mostly green, red, yellow and blue. The conditions for the event to occur are the position of the sun must be close to 60 in elevation or higher and a cloud with ice crystals. When the sunlight hits the ice crystals in the right direction the refraction of light forms the colored effect.

Fire rainbows are said to predict earthquakes, as pictures of high magnitude earthquakes have been taken with colored clouds before the seismic activity starts. Some examples are Sichuan, China(2008) and Chile (2010). It is not known if seismic activity is related to the fire rainbows.

I managed to snap one long ago on my way home and although the effect pales in comparison when seen on person, the picture captures the color show rather clearly. There were no earthquakes that day.

2- Sun dogs

source

On a cloudy sunset, maybe you noticed that the sun suddenly decided to bring down two bright spots perfectly oriented to the side down with him, giving the impression that the sun just split into 3 pieces. The Sun dog, or known in meteorology as parhelion are two bright spots in each side of the sun that are part of a halo due to the interactions of light and clouds. the halo which circles the sun is very dim except mostly on the sides, which gives the pattern of the bright spots perfectly aligned with the sun. They can happen in every place and in every time of the year, but mostly are very dim to spot. The effect is made when the ice crystals from a cold cloud high in the air are plate shaped facing the ground, which in turn reflect the light downwards giving the shining spots effect. The effect is more clearly seen on the horizon.

A sun dog appeared before the battle of Mortimer’s cross in England, 1941. Edward lV of England from house York convinced his scared soldiers that the three suns where the three sons of the Duke of York watching over them, giving a Morale boost to secure a victory over the Tudor forces.

1- Lighting sprites

source

These red to orange colored tendrils of lightning could be very shocking to see (pun not intended) if you just happen to casually see one without knowing what it is. To spot the phenomenon a thunderstorm must be available, as thunderstorm clouds are the responsible for the event as a lot of electric energy is needed to produce the sprite. The electricity is formed and spewed out from the top of the cloud going up instead of the traditional lighting that goes downwards, and some sprites can be so massive that the international space station has captured them from space. Some bigger sprites resemble a jellyfish, with the high electrical energy at the top forming the body and the lighting tendrils materialized from the cloud resembling the tentacles. The sprites happen fast, close to 1/10 of a second and how this specific type of lighting is formed is yet to be discovered.

Have you seen any of these acts of nature? Had other rare sights of nature you would like to share? Tell us about it in the comment section!
*All photos in the post are not mine unless stated, source available with the photos provided.