Nature breaks records all the time but there are events so unique that they deserve their own list.

Some are creepy. Like when fog killed thousands in London and the aftershocks of an earthquake rattled Washington State for a century. When not making people run for their lives, the weather can also brew events like electrical lakes and rain that lasts for a million years.

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10 The Lighthouse Of Catatumbo

During Colonial times, navigators relied on the Lighthouse of Catatumbo to find their way. It flashed white, blue, purple, red, and orange lights. But the disco show did not come from a tower. It came from lighting.

The Lighthouse of Catatumbo is the name given to an area near Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. Roughly 1.2 million lightning bolts zing the place every year, making it the most electric region in the world.

Some people love to call the Lighthouse by another name—the Eternal Storm. Some also claim that the lightning has no thunder. Neither legend is true. Lake Maracaibo only gets flashy about 160 nights of the year but then things get impressive. One can expect to see 280 strikes per hour. The reason behind the “silent lightning” is simple. Most people are standing too far away to hear the thunder.

Nobody knows why this patch in Venezuela is so volatile. The leading theories suggest that the lightning could be attracted to uranium deposits and methane in the area or that humid air has something to do with it.

9 Smoke That Stayed For 6 Months

When the Australian fire season settled down in 2020, the relief was palpable. The scale of the bushfires and the damage had been immense. To understand what had happened, scientists studied the disaster from all angles but those who gazed upwards found a couple of interesting things.

The fires had pushed more smoke into the atmosphere than anyone had expected. In fact, it was a record for any bushfire. To put it into perspective, the last time something ejected so much smoke was in 1991 when the second-largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century occurred in the Philippines.

The smoke produced by the Australian fires also circled the Earth, having departed from the eastern coast and arrived back at the continent from the west. The journey took two weeks which was a speed record for an event that size.

Smoke also stay in the atmosphere for a few days or weeks. The 2020 fire plume stayed for 6 months.

8 The Coldest Cloud

Scientists love to measure stuff, even the temperatures of clouds. In 2018, they found one for the record books. The world’s coldest cloud was hovering over the Pacific Ocean and it was messing with satellites. Indeed, the cloud was so frosty that normal weather satellites could not take its temperature.

An infrared sensor aboard a NOAA satellite did the honors.

The cloud, which was part of a severe thunderstorm, measured minus 167.8 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 111 degrees Celsius). The reason for this extreme number was partially explained by a phenomenon called “overshooting tops.” This is when the top of a cloud overshoots the lowest layer of the atmosphere and enter the next layer, a bitterly cold realm known as the stratosphere.

The Pacific cloud had an overshooting top. But even the stratosphere’s freezing nature could not explain why the top of this storm was 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) colder than any other cloud on record.

7 The Longest-Lasting Aftershocks

In 1872, a big earthquake shook central Washington State. The epicentre was never located and for decades, scientists wondered why Entiat, a town in the area, kept experiencing earthquakes after the 1872 event. It was over a century later, so nobody thought that these might be hundreds of aftershocks.

That view changed as seismologists began to find aftershocks all over the world that lasted longer than expected. Aftershocks also behave differently from earthquakes and after researchers gathered data on the 1872 quake, the subsequent shakes matched aftershocks in almost every way.

The Entiat phenomenon could be the longest-lasting aftershocks in the world. They have been going strong for nearly 150 years and counting.

6 The World’s Largest Storm

Typhoon Tip is not a household name. But as the world’s biggest storm, Tip deserves a mention. Born over the Pacific ocean, it grew into a Super Typhoon. With a diameter of 1,380 miles (2,220 kilometres), it officially became the top dog of all storms. Besides its record size, Tip also surged with unsurpassed intensity.

The good news was that the typhoon lost some of its power before it slammed into Japan on October 19, 1979. The bad news? It was not enough to avoid disaster.

Almost 90 people were killed and hundreds were injured. The flooding caused countless mudslides and destroyed 20,000 homes. A gasoline tank also exploded and torched a US Marine Corps base, injuring dozens more and claiming the life of another victim.

5 The Truth About Beijing’s Sandstorm

In 2021, gale-force winds scooped up sand from the Gobi desert and moved through Mongolia. The huge sandstorm caused 341 people to go missing and killed at least 6. Then it arrived at the capital of China. The city of Beijing faded away as the sandstorm hid skyscrapers and turned the skies orange.

But the news agencies had it wrong. This was not a sandstorm.

It was a dust storm. The difference sounds insignificant but in reality, the situation was alarming. Dust consists of smaller bits than sand, stay in the air for longer and can be inhaled far deeper into the lungs. This was bad news. When the dust arrived in Beijing it mixed with the city’s terrifying air pollution levels and turned the storm into a thick toxic haze.

4 Black Sunday

During the 1930s, the community living across the Great Plains in the US was familiar with something called “black blizzards.” These dust storms were so dense that they darkened everything around them. But in 1935, a storm bestowed April 14 with an ominous title and also gave the region its famous name—the Dust Bowl.

Black Sunday started out like any other day. But then a blizzard arrived. It soon became apparent that this one was different and people began to panic. The dust storm was a beast that measured 1,000 miles (1,609 miles) long. It blocked out all light including street lamps. Families sheltering at home could not see each other in the same room. Precious farming land was destroyed, a lot of animals died, and one man was blinded. People were trapped inside their cars for hours.

The aftermath of the storm inspired federal aid. But despite being offered money and advice by the government, many families gave up farming and left the area.

3 The Tri-State Tornado

In 1925, a deadly tornado cluster touched down in the United States. Twelve major twisters appeared over a large area but one was about to take destruction to a whole new level. Called the “Tri-State Tornado,” it tore through 3 states and left behind the longest track made by a twister—235 miles (378 km).

The statistics were horrifying. The tornado’s diameter swelled to more than a mile (1.6 km) and it sped along at 70 miles per hour (113 kilometres per hour). It destroyed 164 square miles (425 square kilometres) of land and wiped out 15,000 homes. In today’s estimates, the damages totalled $1.4 billion.

The storm was never graded but most experts believe that the Tri-State Tornado was an EF-5. On the tornado scale, an EF-5 is the biggest and the most dangerous thing you can ever hope not to see. Whatever its true grading was, the Tri-State Tornado remains the deadliest tornado in US history. The death toll numbered 695 people including 69 students who attended some of the 9 schools the tornado hit that day.

2 London’s Killer Fog Solved

London is a foggy place. But in 1952, the fog turned on everyone. The haze, which appeared in December and stayed for 5 days, hospitalized over 150,000 people.

For decades, the deadly fog remained a mystery. But in 2016, researchers agreed that they had enough evidence to blame one of the earliest suspects in the investigation—burning coal. Tests showed the air pollution caused by coal emissions led to chemical changes in the weather that ultimately laced the fog with sulphuric acid.

At the time, the death toll was thought to be 4,000 people. Tragically, the real number was closer to 12,000. Thousands of animals also perished in the fog. It remains the worst air pollution event in Europe’s history.

1 A Million-Year Rain Storm

The Triassic era came to an end around 233 million years ago. During that time, raindrops began to fall leading to a storm that would last for a million years. This deluge became known as the Carnian Pluvial Episode (CPE).

What opened the floodgates, so to speak, had always been a mystery. But in 2020, a study found the two likeliest suspects—climate change and volcanoes going nuts. Truly, the eruptions went beyond epic. They left behind lava fields that stretched uninterrupted for thousands of miles.

There was a lot of death. The downpour killed a third of all the species that lived in the sea. Meanwhile, on land, countless plant and animal groups became extinct as well. But the study also found that the CPE created the world as we know it today. It changed the environment so much that new species emerged, including some of the first coral reefs, reptiles, trees, and the dinosaurs that would rule the earth for the next 150 million years.

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When it comes to world records, it is as if they are made to be broken. As if there is a never-ending bar set in place challenging humanity to always up the ante. No matter how remarkable, weird, or dumb we may find them, there is always something fascinating about setting records and the people that manage to break them.

It is even more remarkable when many of these record breakers are people who have not been alive on Earth for very long. So who were some of the youngest people to ever break a world record? What circumstances put them in a position to be able to break those records? In this list, we will cover ten of the youngest world record setters and breakers.

Related: 10 World Records That Have Never Been Broken

10 Tucker Roussin

When talking about young people breaking records, it does not get much younger than 24-week-old unborn child Tucker Roussin. In 2013, Tucker’s mother was 20 weeks pregnant when doctors discovered her fetus had a rare heart condition called a pericardial teratoma. This condition results in a tumor growing on the sac lining of the heart. In Tucker’s case, this tumor was rapidly growing to the point that it was almost as big as his heart already! Doctors decided that he would have to undergo open-heart surgery while still in his mother’s womb.

Doctors also estimated Tucker only had one more week to live. Tucker’s parents went to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for their expertise in the complicated procedure. A team of surgeons there were able to miraculously complete the surgery by carefully pulling only Tucker’s chest and arm through an insertion made in his mother’s uterus. The tumor was removed, making Tucker Roussin the youngest person ever to undergo open-heart surgery. And one might say a very nail-biting one at that! Tucker was born 14 weeks later.!^[1]

9 Julian Pavone

Julian Pavone from Detroit, Michigan, became the youngest professional drummer at just four years of age, claiming the title with his 20th live performance in 2009. He started drumming at just three months old while sitting on his father’s lap. His father also fed his son’s interest by having him practice every day. Julian has appeared on shows such as The Opera Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, The Maury Show, Inside Edition, The Today Show, and The Tonight Show, where he also performed.

Julian is also a record-setting inventor, receiving a patent for his very own inventions. The Abracadabra Stain Cover-up (at age 4) and Julian’s Drum Gloves (at age 7). He didn’t stop there, though. Along with these, he created his self-made snack brand—Julian’s GO Bars—and founded his own company called the Bizzy company, aimed toward helping other young aspiring artists and entrepreneurs to achieve their goals. Remarkable accomplishments that would take years or decades for most to reach!^[2]

8 Arham Om Talsania

Many who seek to become computer programmers find themselves in college for four years to obtain a degree in the field. This was not the case for six-year-old Arham Om Talsania from Ahmedabad, Gujarat, in India. He set the world record for becoming the world’s youngest computer programmer.

At the early age of two, he started using tablets, developing his interest in computer programming through gadgets, video games, and solving puzzles. He even started to create his own small miniature games once his father taught him programming basics. His father also taught him how to code. It was with this newfound knowledge and skill that he earned his world record title by completing the Python programming language exam.

Arham broke the record a day shy of his 7th birthday. Not too shabby of an early birthday present to himself at all! Arham aims to use his talents to become a business entrepreneur in the future and help the needy. Putting his technologically savvy intellect to good use for the benefit of the world.^[3]

7 Greta Thunberg

As the ones who will inherit Earth in the future, it is no secret that young people, in general, are quite wary of the worsening environmental issues happening all across the world. A study conducted from 2015 to 2018 showed that 51% of those between age 18 and 34 believed global warming would pose a threat in their lifetime.

Enter young Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, who broke the 90-year-old record for the youngest TIME person of the year award at just 16 years of age. Since 2018, she’s been making big news and getting a great deal of media attention for her activism and climate change protests, skyrocketing her name to celebrity status.

At the age of seven or eight, she first became aware of the dire climate situation and took it upon herself to do something about it. Her deep concern for the well-being of the planet took her from small acts such as turning off the lights to save power at her family home to a month-long strike from her school. She also went from participating in protests on the streets to having a large enough platform to demand actual change from world leaders and the laws passed that affect the climate.

And her efforts paid off. Her initial school protest started a worldwide movement called “Fridays for Future,” a movement consisting of many widescale protests worldwide. Her many supporters, including high profile world figures and politicians, are rallying behind her to make a global change.^[4]

6 Aashman Taneja

Aashman Taneja is a dedicated student of Taekwondo. This first-grader at Oakridge in Hyderabad, India, broke the Guinness World record for the most full contact knee strikes nonstop for an hour. Over 1200 knee strikes nonstop at just five years old. Incredible!

Aashman was first inspired by his sister to take up Taekwondo. Ten-year-old Myra is also a three-time world record breaker in Taekwondo. Aashman first began training alongside his sister in the martial arts at just four years old. He has a great amount of passion for the sport and maintains a strict regimen of practicing his kicks for an hour 4 days a week while also attending special training with his Grand Master, Jayanth Reddy.

While earning achievements in his favorite sport, he is still able to balance his life out by getting good grades in school and doing other fun hobbies such as rock climbing and drawing.^[5]

5 Roxanne Downs

For many women and girls alike, flipping through magazines is a favorite pastime many of them may have started at a young age. Whether looking for their favorite celebrities or desiring to be just like the supermodels within the pages, magazines have always seemed to cater to young girls. In the case of Australian Roxanne Downs, she not only took to this hobby, but as so many other girls do, she also sought to make her own contributions by becoming the youngest magazine editor at the young age of eight.

Her father, Michael Downs, says Roxanne had always done well with reading and writing in school. Roxanne was a social bee in tune with the type of interests her peers talked about, which would help her navigate what would cater to girls in her age group. So when tween girl magazine It GiRL started looking for editors within their target audience, Roxanne seemed like the perfect girl for the job. Her role would consist of such tasks as attending launches, creating editorial concepts, market research, writing monthly editor’s letters, and reviewing the magazines before they were ready to print. She shortly received her world record title after six months of editing for It GiRL.^[6]

4 Montannah Kenney

Montannah Kenney became the youngest female to summit Mount Kilimanjaro in March of 2018—she was just shy of her eighth birthday. She and her mother, Hollie Kenney, reached the top of Uhuru Peak summit in a little over a week. They accomplished the feat all while persevering through inclement weather conditions such as nonstop rain and snow, along with breathing thin air from high altitudes and very low visibility.

The mother-daughter climbing duo originally set their trek for 2019, when Montannah would be nine years old. They knew Montannah would need a special permit to climb as there is a minimum age requirement of ten. So they planned their trip. However, they soon got word of the then-current record holder of the title, eight-year-old Roxy Getter. This accelerated their plans once Montannah said she wanted to beat the record.

They trained relentlessly on hour-long hikes and made sure Montannah got her special permit so she would be allowed to bypass the age requirement. When asked about her motivations, her biggest one wasn’t the chance at being a world record-breaker. For her, it was most important to do it in remembrance of her late father, who died when she was just three years old. For her reaching the summit of Kilimanjaro meant being a little bit closer to her father in heaven.^[7]

3 Ritaj Alhazmi

As a young girl in Saudi Arabia, Rita Alhazmi became entranced in the world of writing fiction whenever her parents would take her to libraries and learning workshops. She was hooked on the creativity of making any idea possible through imaginative writing. She decided to give it a shot herself and wrote a three-novel series called Treasure of the Lost Sea, for which she signed a publishing contract in 2020. She has also received awards for the books: Treasure of the Lost Sea, Portal of the Hidden World and Beyond the Future World. The first two were released when Ritaj was only 11.

She wants to push the envelope to cater books toward the interests of her age group more accurately. In her own words, she believes, “I think that the books for my age are still not enough. We need more books that speak to us.”

Although fiction is what had initially inspired her to become a writer, she is also inspired to write within the nonfiction genre as well. In particular, a book called How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates inspired her to do this. She hopes to one day receive a Nobel prize by inspiring other young people to write and strive to reach their goals.^[8]

2 Zara Rutherford

Piloting solo around the world is no light task, to say the least. Take the example of Amelia Earhart. Arguably the most famous female pilot in aviation history. She mysteriously disappeared and was declared dead at the age of 41 in her attempt to become the first woman in aviation to fly around the world. In the spirit of Amelia Earheart, 19-year-old Belgian-British pilot Zara Rutherford beat the world record for the youngest woman to fly solo around the world in 2022. The previous world record holder was 30-year-old American aviator Shaesta Waiz, who accomplished her trip in 2017.

Her flight was not without its challenges. She faced the harsh winter in Europe with freezing temperatures in Siberia. On the other side of the spectrum, she met heatwave temperatures in Indonesia. Other natural obstacles such as fog, smoke, wildfires, and a typhoon added much delay to her flight as she would have to wait those out to continue flying safely again. Often, she would even fear for her own life while encountering these situations—all while battling homesickness as well.

Although it was not all gloom for her. She encountered many different peoples and cultures, having visited five continents and 41 nations in her travels! Although it was initially estimated for her to complete her journey in three months, the number of obstacles she dealt with left her occasionally grounded for weeks at a time. Nevertheless, she persevered and completed her journey when she landed in her home country of Belgium after 155 days.^[9]

1 Malala Yousafzai

Malala Yousafzai was born on July 12, 1997, to a Pakistani diplomat and activist, Ziauddin Yousafzai, in Swat Valley in Pakistan. She grew up under the oppression of the Taliban and the sexist abuse toward females from the military. She became known for her activism against the Taliban and speaking out on the mistreatment of females in her region.

She first received an opportunity to do this when members of the BBC Urdu website sought out the experiences of a young school girl due to the political violence in the region and the lack of rights girls had when it came to getting an education. She began telling her experiences and everything she had witnessed through writing blogs. However, due to the political unrest and the religious fundamentalist movement in the region, many did not approve of her outspokenness against them. So she eventually became a target.

One day a masked man followed her onto her bus home, demanding to know which girl was her. The man shot her, and the bullet passed through her head, nearly missing her brain and left eye. But she survived miraculously. Her story inspired the world. She became a heroine for women’s rights and a figurehead in the fight against sexism. In 2013, she gave her first speech since she was shot to the United Nations demanding the right of education for every child. She became the youngest to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October 2014, two years after she had been shot.^[10]