As the days get longer and the sun shines brighter, you’ll notice more than just a change in your wardrobe. Those 10 ways your brain actually rewires itself in warmer weather are backed by solid science, and they affect everything from how you feel to how you decide. Let’s dive into the fascinating neural tweaks that come with spring and summer.

10 Ways Your Brain Changes In Warmer Weather

10 Your Mood Improves—Thanks To More Sunlight

Sunlight does more than just brighten your Instagram feed; it rewires your chemistry. When natural light hits the retina, it triggers a cascade that cranks up serotonin production in the raphe nuclei of the brainstem—a neurotransmitter that keeps mood steady, emotions balanced, and impulses in check. Researchers have consistently observed that folks soaking up higher levels of daylight report fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety, even when temperature is held constant.

Take patients with seasonal affective disorder, for example. Light‑therapy sessions alone—without any medication—have produced dramatic mood lifts. MRI scans reveal that the prefrontal cortex lights up after a sunny stroll, especially when paired with light exercise. Scandinavian schools now mandate brief sunlight breaks in spring to boost children’s mental health, and the hormone‑regulating HPA axis also calms down under brighter conditions, lowering cortisol spikes.

9 You Become More Social and Extroverted

Warmer days do more than melt ice cream; they prime the brain for connection. Elevated serotonin and dopamine activity in regions like the ventral striatum line up with spikes in extroversion and sociability. Even introverts find themselves more eager to attend gatherings, strike up conversations, or flirt under sunny skies.

Smartphone analytics back this up: call logs, text frequencies, and geolocation data all jump during daylight hours in warm months. Physical warmth also nudges non‑verbal cues—people smile more, make stronger eye contact, and adopt open postures. Dating apps see a surge in activity, and lab experiments show that participants exposed to sunny images before a social game become noticeably more cooperative and expressive than those shown gloomy scenes.

8 You Make Riskier Decisions

Heat throws a wrench into your brain’s self‑control circuitry. When temperatures climb, the body redirects energy to cool itself, leaving fewer resources for the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex—the hub of deliberation and long‑term planning. The outcome? Faster, bolder moves and a higher chance of slip‑ups.

Evidence from a Psychological Science study shows investors trade more aggressively on unusually warm days. Traffic data links heatwaves to spikes in speeding, road rage, and aggressive driving. Even judges hand down harsher sentences when it’s hot outside, likely because irritability dampens executive function. From impulse‑fuelled shopping sprees to ill‑timed text messages, the brain’s thermostat can tip the balance toward chaos.

7 Your Sleep Patterns Shift—Sometimes for the Worse

The brain’s internal clock, or circadian rhythm, leans on daylight and temperature cues to time melatonin release. In spring and summer, longer daylight and toasty evenings push melatonin onset later, nudging the sleep‑wake cycle forward. This creates a phenomenon called “social jet lag,” where your biological clock is out of sync with work or school schedules.

Without cooler nights, the body struggles to drop core temperature enough for deep, slow‑wave sleep, leading to fragmented rest. Wearable data from cities lacking widespread AC shows an average loss of nearly an hour of sleep during heat spikes. Sleep‑deprived brains suffer from poorer memory recall, reduced emotional regulation, and heightened stress sensitivity. Interestingly, people tend to dream more vividly in the warm months, likely due to increased REM activity from lighter, interrupted slumber.

6 Your Appetite—and Cravings—Change

When the mercury rises, the brain flips a switch from “food‑seeking” to “hydration‑seeking.” Higher temperatures suppress ghrelin, the hormone that fires up hunger, while boosting vasopressin, which signals thirst. The result? A natural dip in appetite and a craving for cold, water‑rich fare—think fruit, smoothies, salads, and frozen desserts—rather than heavy, heat‑raising meals.

Research in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows a 10‑15% drop in daily calorie intake during summer, especially from fats and starches. Brain scans reveal that reward centers light up more for icy textures in the heat, while spicy, greasy foods elicit a muted dopamine response. Outdoor dining trends echo this shift: ice‑cream sales soar, soup sales slump. Even alcohol hits harder when you’re dehydrated, leading to quicker intoxication and harsher hangovers, which further tweaks drinking habits.

5 You’re More Sensitive to Smells and Sounds

Warm weather turns up the volume on your senses, especially smell and sound. Higher temps make the olfactory epithelium more active, and volatile molecules drift more readily, intensifying scent perception. The limbic system—your brain’s emotion‑memory hub—processes these stronger aromas, making fresh‑cut grass, blooming flowers, and distant BBQ smoke feel especially vivid.

Sound perception gets a boost, too. A 2018 study found that listening to springtime noises like birdsong or flowing water triggers greater activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and ventromedial prefrontal cortex, regions linked to mood and relaxation. However, heat‑induced discomfort can also make people more reactive to loud chatter, honking, or construction noise, especially in urban settings. This heightened sensory processing helps explain why music festivals feel so immersive, yet some attendees can feel overwhelmed.

4 You’re More Likely to Fall in Love (or Think You Are)

Warm weather sets the stage for a classic “misattribution of arousal” trap. Sunlight, dopamine spikes, and the physical heat of summer can make the brain mistake physiological excitement—sweating, flushed skin, faster heartbeat—for romantic attraction. This can spark fleeting infatuations that feel intense but may fade once the season changes.

Classic research had participants cross a shaky suspension bridge versus a stable one; those on the wobblier bridge were far more likely to call an attractive researcher afterward. Modern data shows higher success rates on dating apps, spontaneous flirting, and a rise in short‑term romances during spring and summer, followed by a spike in breakups as autumn arrives. The feelings are genuine in the moment, but the heat‑driven chemistry often doesn’t endure.

3 Your Creativity and Problem‑Solving May Improve

Moderate warmth—roughly 70‑75°F (21‑24°C)—acts like fertilizer for divergent thinking, the type of cognition needed for brainstorming and novel solutions. Natural light and gentle outdoor temps fire up the default mode network, a brain region tied to imagination, internal reflection, and idea generation. Participants who took a springtime walk outscored those who jogged on a treadmill indoors on creativity tests.

This boost likely stems from reduced seasonal depression strain plus a richer multisensory backdrop—more colors, movement, and ambient sounds. Companies like Google and IDEO have even designed seasonal creative spaces to harvest this effect. While extreme heat can erode focus, the sweet spot of mild warmth fuels innovative thought.

2 You Become More Generous and Cooperative

Sunny, mild days make people kinder, more open, and more inclined to collaborate—far beyond a feel‑good myth. Harvard and UC Berkeley researchers discovered that on warm, bright days, individuals are more likely to help strangers, donate money, and volunteer time compared with cold or overcast conditions. Functional MRI scans show heightened activity in the ventral striatum and medial prefrontal cortex—areas tied to reward and social cognition—when people act generously under warm weather.

In one field experiment, bakery patrons were more prone to hold doors for strangers when the sun was shining and temperatures were pleasant. Another study noted a 14% rise in cafe tipping rates during spring versus winter, even though service quality stayed constant. Evolutionarily, seasonal abundance encouraged sharing, and the brain’s reward circuitry now translates that mood lift into tangible kindness.

1 You Process Emotions Differently

Temperature directly tweaks how the brain reads facial cues, tone, and empathy. In warm settings, people tend to interpret neutral expressions as positive and show sharper emotional accuracy toward others’ moods. The anterior cingulate cortex—central to emotional evaluation and conflict resolution—shows increased blood flow in warm rooms, especially when social signals are present.

Studies from the University of Colorado reveal that participants judged strangers as more trustworthy and friendly in a warm environment versus a cool one, even when viewing identical video clips. Emotional mimicry, like automatically smiling when someone else smiles, also rises in heat, indicating heightened non‑verbal attunement. This may explain why spring and summer foster faster group bonding, stronger team dynamics, and intensified emotional contagion at concerts or protests.

Throughout history, humanity has tried to bend the forces of nature to its will. Agriculture is a prime example: we learned to grow food on our own terms instead of hunting endlessly. Yet the weather remains a stubborn opponent, dictating harvests, wars, and daily life. In this top 10 crazy roundup, we dive into the most out‑there schemes ever dreamed up to control the skies.

Why the Top 10 Crazy Weather Experiments Matter

10 Shoot And Be Noisy To Stop Hail

A hailstorm can easily destroy fields of crops. Even in ancient times, some people realized that they couldn’t pray away the hail. In fact, ancient Roman legal code called the Twelve Tables prohibited superstition in the fight against hail. Technically, it didn’t say anything about fighting hail with weapons and sound, though.

This started a tradition despite laws to stop people from doing so. In 789, Charlemagne (aka Charles The Great), king of the Franks, had to forbid people from ringing church bells and exhibiting prayer tables every time there was hail.

Later, people moved to firing arrows at the clouds. When gunpowder became widespread, cannons, muskets, and rifles were used. In 1750, the Austrian Empire made this illegal. However, by 1886, they seemed to have given up and were conducting their own anti‑hail experiments by firing big mortars at the clouds.

9 Plant Forest, Burn, Repeat

In 1836, James Pollard Espy, the US government’s first official meteorologist, devised an answer to the question of how to cause storms: set stuff on fire. His theory was that storms are created by hot air rising in columns (which produces rainfall).

He wanted a forest stretching north to south in the western US. Sections could be burned if rain was requested by farmers. This idea was rejected by the government despite his polite request for a 966‑kilometer (600 mi) stretch to use as a test. Some scientists pointed out that forest fires happen all the time without creating rainfall, which didn’t help his case.

However, some people were worried that Espy’s method would be successful and give power to the federal government to control the weather. Senator John Crittenden of Kentucky noted, “And if he possesses the power of causing rain, he may also possess the power of withholding it.”

Essentially, they thought Espy was going to turn into a crazed weather dictator with government approval.

8 Blowing Up Government Money

At least one man was given money by the US Congress to carry out his weather experiments. In August 1891, Robert St. George Dyrenforth traveled to Midland, Texas, with $9,000 worth of an arsenal, including massive kites, 3‑ to 6‑meter‑tall (10‑20 ft) balloons, mortars, six kegs of blasting powder, and 230 kilograms (500 lb) of manganese oxide.

The plan: Blow up the sky with exploding kites and balloons.

Initially, things went well because no big newspapers sent reporters to check on Dyrenforth. He was taking credit for rain that happened far away from his site and even for showers predicted by the Weather Bureau. The Sun described it as “a great success” despite never having been there.

In 1892, Congress gave Dyrenforth another $10,000, but his luck ran out. In October 1892, his nighttime explosions in the Washington, DC, area around Fort Myer produced nothing in the diverse community but “profanity in 17 different languages.”

By December, Dyrenforth had moved to Texas. There, the media started turning against him. A San Antonio newspaper wrote that his plans had “gone up like a rocket and come down like a stick.” After that, Congress refused to give him the remaining $5,000 in his budget, which ended his adventure.

7 The Rainmaking Gun

The Steiger Vortex gun, designed by Albert Steiger, was a 5‑meter‑tall (16.4 ft) metal device shaped like an ice cream cone. The gun was designed to produce vibrations that destroyed hail and caused rain. It was used in Austria to protect wine‑growing regions.

Clement Wragge, a government meteorologist in Australia, was impressed by this and decided to bring the technology back to his homeland. Six guns were placed in Charleville in September 1902. Despite firing repeatedly at two‑minute intervals, no rain was produced. In fact, the only thing dampened was Wragge’s career in meteorology.

6 Melting The Ice Caps

In this era of climate change anxiety, we are often told that we should be concerned with the melting of ice caps and the poles. Back in the day, though, they wanted to declare outright war on these things.

Writing in The Atlantic Monthly in 1877, N.S. Shaler had nothing but hate for the poles, describing the cold weather they brought as “ruthless as Huns, slaying and scalping all the creatures of summer like barbarians as they are.”

In his opinion, we needed to reroute the Pacific Ocean’s warm Kuroshio Current through the Bering Strait. This would cause arctic temperatures to rise by 16.67 degrees Celsius (30 °F), and we wouldn’t have to deal with winter anymore in North America.

5 Move The Earth

In late 1912, the North Pole and the South Pole were still considered the enemy. According to The New York Times, we needed to end “the iceberg menace.” The Titanic had sunk in April of that year, so maybe the hostility was understandable. Carroll Livingston Riker, an engineer from New York, had a $190 million plan.

He wanted to reroute the Gulf Stream by building a 320‑kilometer (200 mi) jetty eastward from Newfoundland. This would have obstructed the cold Labrador Current and moved it eastward to meet the Gulf Stream (which was moving northward) in deep water. The jetty would have had 9 meters (30 ft) of rocks upon it.

Warm water is lighter than cold water, so warm water would have been able to travel farther—approximately 645 kilometers (400 mi) north to warm those currents as well. According to Riker’s theory, this would have melted Greenland’s heavy ice cap and shifted the Earth’s axis.

Nothing came of these plans, and the poles were safe for another day.

4 The Nuclear Solution

In 1945, Julian Huxley, a cofounder of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), spoke at a conference in Madison Square Garden about using nuclear bombs as “atomic dynamite [for] landscaping the Earth” (melting the polar ice cap).

This was extremely inappropriate for two reasons. First, the US had just dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan, killing over 100,000 people. Second, this conference was about arms control, which leaves us somewhat doubtful that the participants wanted to drop more nuclear bombs.

3 Build A Huge Dam

Although Russia is a huge landmass, a lot of it is covered in ice or is inhospitable due to the extreme cold. During the Cold War, the Soviets planned to build a massive dam from their eastern coast to Alaska. This was another attempt to direct the Gulf Stream up north and warm the Arctic. In this case, it would have opened up more landmass for the Soviets to use.

Even crazier, the Americans almost agreed to this plan despite being in the middle of the Cold War. The Soviets argued that everyone was likely to benefit from a warmer climate. The idea was floated to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists who brought up the matter in the 1960 presidential debates.

Then‑Senator John F. Kennedy responded that it was “certainly worth exploring” in the context of greater cooperation.

2 Grand Theft Cloud

In 2018, Iran accused Israel of stealing water from clouds before they reached Iran. At that time, Brigadier General Gholam Reza Jalali, head of Iran’s Civil Defense Organization, declared, “We are faced with the cases of cloud theft and snow theft.” He also referred to a study which had concluded that all highlands above 2,200 meters (7,200 ft) from the Mediterranean to Afghanistan—except for those in Iran—had received snowfall.

Fortunately, Ahad Vazife of the Iran Meteorological Organization stepped in to stop this from escalating into a full‑scale diplomatic war at a time when the two countries were at odds over Syria. Vazife pointed out that if countries could hijack clouds, then the US would not have been suffering from a water shortage. According to Vazife, the Americans would have just stolen someone else’s rainfall.

1 Burning Up The Sky

Sometimes, seemingly crazy ideas can work. During World War II, the Royal Air Force (RAF) invented the Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operation (FIDO) system to allow their planes to take off in foggy conditions.

FIDO worked by running pipes with burners around airfields. These would be fed by tanks of petrol, causing flames to shoot up and raise temperatures enough to disperse fog. It allowed the RAF to get planes airborne and attack German forces that were still grounded by the fog.

The operation ran from 1943 to 1945 but was discontinued due to the costs. The RAF had burned over 380,000 liters (100,000 gal) of petrol per hour to operate FIDO. The project remained dormant until 1959 when the last system was removed from RAF Manston.

Weather is notoriously unpredictable, and the phrase “10 images terrifying” perfectly sums up why we never know what the sky will throw at us next. One moment a cheery weatherman assures us of sunshine, the next we’re stuck in a hailstorm that leaves dents on our car and a story to tell. Below we count down ten of the most jaw‑dropping weather moments ever caught on camera.

10 Images Terrifying: A Glimpse Into Nature’s Fury

10 Rain Bomb

Back in 2016, storm‑chaser Bryan Snyder was recording a time‑lapse over Tucson when he witnessed a spectacular phenomenon known as a “rain bomb,” or microburst. A massive column of water plummeted from the storm clouds, creating a violent downdraft that can generate winds up to 150 mph—enough to snap trees cleanly from the earth.

These rain bombs typically appear across the Midwestern United States and can be either wet or dry in nature. Though they usually last only about ten minutes, their sheer size and intensity make them look terrifyingly dramatic.

9 Gargantuan Hail Stones

Libya, a North African nation famed for its arid climate, rarely sees much rain. Yet in October 2020 a powerful upper trough swept across the Mediterranean, delivering a storm that produced truly gargantuan hailstones.

The resulting hailstones were so massive that photographs resembled scenes from a disaster movie, with some individuals holding the enormous ice pieces in both hands. Researchers believe these hailstones set a continental record for Africa and may rank among the largest ever documented worldwide.

The event left a lasting impression, reminding us that even the most desert‑like regions can unleash colossal frozen projectiles under the right atmospheric conditions.

8 The Big Wind of 1839

The image above captures what is considered the worst recorded storm in Irish history. On 6 January 1839, a hurricane—sometimes classified as Category 4 or even Category 5—smashed into Ireland, claiming roughly 500 lives there and an additional 300 in the United Kingdom.

Just a day earlier, a massive snowstorm blanketed the island, leading residents to assume the drifts would linger for days. Yet, on the 6th, the sun broke through, and the snow vanished. In western Ireland, an eerie silence fell, and voices seemed to travel unusually far when spoken.

That bright, sunny interlude was short‑lived. Dark storm clouds rolled in, and the wind surged to hurricane force. Animals were lifted like rag‑dolls, and terrified locals scrambled for shelter inside the old Parliament House.

Since that historic onslaught, no comparable storm has struck Irish shores, making the 1839 event a singular chapter in the nation’s meteorological annals.

7 The Great Ice Storm of 1998

From 5 to 9 January 1998, an ice storm ravaged northern New England, northern New York, and southern Canada, heavily influenced by a strong El Niño pattern that dominated the 1997‑1998 winter season.

The storm knocked out power for five million people, felled 11 000 hydro poles in Ontario alone, caused 35 fatalities, and inflicted roughly $3 billion in damage. Around 300 000 farm animals perished in the bitter cold.

Dubbed the Great Ice Storm of 1998, the event was actually a combination of five smaller ice storms, prompting the deployment of 16 000 Canadian military personnel—the largest mobilization since the Korean War.

In 2014, scientists revealed that pregnant women’s stress during the ice storm altered the genetic expression of their children, potentially increasing risks for asthma or diabetes later in life.

6 Typhoon Haiyan

In November 2013, Typhoon Haiyan barreled into the Philippines with wind speeds soaring to 313 km/h. In some locales, the storm dumped a staggering 281 mm of rain within just 12 hours, while towering 7‑meter waves battered the coastline.

More than 7 000 people lost their lives, and around 6 million were displaced. Haiyan remains one of the deadliest typhoons on record and was the most powerful storm of 2013, earning a Category 5 rating at landfall and causing devastation across the Philippines, Palau, Vietnam, and China.

5 Satan’s Storm

Describing Texas as hot is an understatement, but on a fateful night in 1960, residents of central Texas experienced heat on a scale that seemed apocalyptic. Just after midnight on 15 June, a burst of scorching air struck the area near Kopperl, instantly scorching crops and driving automobile radiators to boiling.

The heat burst emerged as the final collapse of a thunderstorm over Kopperl. With no precipitation, super‑heated air plummeted at 121 km/h, pushing temperatures to nearly 140 °F (about 60 °C).

Terrified families wrapped children in soaking wet towels and sheets, fearing the phenomenon signaled the onset of Armageddon. The event quickly earned the moniker “Satan’s Storm” and cemented its place in Texas folklore.

4 Black Sunday

On Sunday, 14 April 1935, Central Plains residents rejoiced at a sunny day after weeks of relentless dust storms that had ravaged farms and destroyed over five million acres of wheat. Their brief respite was shattered when a 1 000‑mile‑long black cloud thundered in at roughly 60 mph, overtaking anyone who tried to outrun it.

People wandering off roads were blinded by the choking dust, while others huddled in abandoned structures for four hours, praying the plume wouldn’t suffocate them. Seventeen individuals died from dust pneumonia and suffocation, and countless birds fell dead as the darkness finally lifted. Black Sunday was a hallmark of the Dust Bowl era, which left more than half a million people homeless.

3 Volcanic Tornado

May 2018 brought chaos to Hawai‘i’s Big Island when Kilauea erupted spectacularly, spewing massive molten rocks and forcing the evacuation of about 2 000 residents. By 27 May, 24 fissures were releasing lava, creating towering fountains that reached up to 230 feet.

These soaring lava fountains gave birth to a rare “volcanic tornado.” Intense heat caused air to rise rapidly, forming a vortex that could snatch chunks of lava and hurl them around, amplifying destruction. In 2014, similar volcanic tornadoes swirled above Iceland’s Holuhraun eruption, surrounded by poisonous sulfur‑dioxide clouds.

Despite the danger, scientists and journalists were eventually persuaded by police to leave the volatile lava fields, underscoring the perilous nature of such phenomena.

2 Central China Floods

Between July and November 1931, China endured one of the deadliest natural disasters of the 20th century. After years of drought, an unusual sequence of heavy snow followed by torrential rain inundated the nation, overwhelming the Yangtze, Yellow, and Huai rivers.

Several cyclones compounded the deluge, causing the rivers to burst their banks. Survivors faced typhus, cholera, and extreme desperation, leading some to resort to cannibalism, infanticide, or even selling family members to survive. Millions more perished from starvation as entire rice crops were wiped out.

Estimates place the death toll at roughly four million. Experts believe that better flood‑control measures could have mitigated much of the catastrophe.

1 Joplin Tornado

When tornado sirens wailed across Joplin on 22 May 2011, many residents either ignored them or hesitated to seek shelter, partly due to a history of false alarms. Daniel Fluharty, then working at a Pizza Hut, stepped outside with coworkers to catch a glimpse of the storm.

What they saw was a monstrous EF5 tornado so massive that a clear funnel was invisible; they initially mistook it for a thunderstorm. One coworker ushered patrons into a walk‑in freezer for safety, while veteran Christopher Lucas, who attempted to aid others, tragically lost his life and was later hailed as a hero.

The multi‑vortex tornado claimed 161 lives and inflicted $2.8 billion in damage, marking it as one of the most devastating tornadoes in U.S. history.

Nearly every ancient polytheistic culture had gods of the weather. Most of us are aware of Thor, the god of thunder, but there were gods of the wind and rain and lightning and more throughout North and South America, Africa and Asia. Weather has always fascinated and confused mankind. And even today, when we can explain it all with science rather than the whims of all-powerful beings, there are still phenomena that pop up every so often to baffle the best of us, some of it not strictly weather at all.  So with that in mind, let’s check out 10 of the freakiest weather phenomena in the world.

10. The Kentucky Meat Shower

Rest assured, it does not routinely rain meat anywhere in Kentucky. But that doesn’t mean it never happened. And when you learn the whole story, you’ll wish it just was meat rain because that’s far less disgusting than the truth of this perplexing event.

There was a day back in 1876 when the people of Olympia Springs were treated to a show of meat from the heavens that was said to be fairly substantial in size. One witness described it as a “horse wagon full” which was not a literal measurement, just an 1876 way of saying “a lot.” It covered a space 100 yards by 50 yards. 

So the people came out to see the meat, which fell in small chunks and scraps. A few brave and/or foolish souls opted to taste test the meat as well to see if they could figure out what it was. 

The meat was sent for analysis and while most locals lost interest, one scientist did come up with an explanation. The meat was from vultures. Which is to say they ate it and then, as they took flight, they vomited it across the town. 

Turns out vultures, when panicked, will throw up everywhere. This makes them lighter and allows for a quicker getaway. Based on the condition of the meat, the theory fits the details. 

9. Watermelon Snow

Watermelon snow sounds like it should be delicious, but we recommend not putting it in your mouth should you ever see it. It’s less of a tasty, refreshing treat than it is snow laced with algae called Chlamydomonas nivalis. Unlike most algae, which is happy to grow in stagnant water or ponds, this kind just likes snow. And while technically you can survive eating small quantities of it, you’ll probably get diarrhea for your troubles. 

It’s usually what’s known as a summer snow algae, meaning it flourishes in snow that stays in high altitude places into the summer months when lower altitude regions are enjoying warmer weather. It forms reddish pink streaks or pockets through the snow that can be mistaken for blood. The red part actually protects the algae from UV radiation.

8. Star Jelly

There’s a good chance you could market a product called Star Jelly as a breakfast food, but that’s neither here nor there. In real life, star jelly owes its origins to a potential cornucopia of sources thanks to the fact humans tend to lump mysterious slime all into the same category. 

While folklore suggested it fell from the sky (hence the name), the fact is star jelly may come from numerous places and some of it could potentially be dangerous. It may be as simple as the oviducts of frogs or gelatinous, aquatic Bryozoa clustered together. Some times of fungus may form into jelly-like clusters, especially if they’re rotting, and even slime molds fit the bill.

7. Atmospheric Rivers and Lakes

A relatively new discovery, atmospheric lakes and rivers are very much like what they sound like. The concept of atmospheric rivers is a little older than lakes and they are pretty remarkable. Able to reach lengths of 1000 miles while stretching 400 miles across, an atmospheric river is a stream of water vapor in the atmosphere that can dump a heck of a lot of water when they come down. Up to the equivalent of 25 Mississippi rivers. If that’s a little too intense for you, then there’s the more recently discovered atmospheric lake. 

Similar to an atmospheric river but not as fast moving, an atmospheric lake is a vast pool of water vapor in the clouds. It is, in effect, a lake in the sky. Unlike the river, which sounds very intense, an atmospheric lake discovered over the Indian Ocean was believed to have enough water held within it to create a puddle 620 miles wide, but only a couple of inches deep. They move in areas with almost no wind at all and form in equatorial regions near coastal areas. They can also last nearly a week as they slowly float along, bringing rains to often very dry and arid places.

6. Sun Dogs

Anything with a name like a sun dog has to be at least a little bit cool and luckily this rare phenomenon really is. You have to be very lucky to find a sun dog as conditions need to be exact. The right angle is needed, in this case 22 degrees. There have to be ice crystals in the atmosphere inside of cirrus or cirrostratus clouds. If the clouds and you, the viewer, are in the right position, then what you get is a sun dog or mock sun.

The effect of a sun dog is that the sun looks to be surrounded by a massive halo of light and, on either side of it at the halo’s edge, another sun is visible. Depending on how it’s viewed, they can appear to have spikes or coronas coming off of them.  So three suns together, with the other two often appearing a little smaller than the actual sun overall.

5. Condo Fog

Man made climate change is a hotly debated topic these days, but if you still weren’t sure that humans can affect the weather, then take a look at condo fog for the most visual example of this that you’ll ever find. 

Famously occurring in Panama City, Florida, condo fog is what happens when hot, moist air hits a man-made wall of condominiums. It rolls in off the Gulf of Mexico and then, breaking against the wall of apartments, it rises into the air and cools down, creating a wave of white fog. 

Air cools by about one degree celsius for every 100 meters of altitude it gains. The condos forced the air up about 50 meters to get past them, but that half degree temperature drop was enough to make it condense into clouds. Once it hurdles the building, the temperature changes back and the clouds evaporate, leaving the condos and just the condos enshrouded in mist. 

Though it’s interesting to see it happening over buildings, it’s very similar to the phenomenon that leaves mountain peaks covered in fog as well. We just accept it as more normal when we see it on mountains and not buildings along the coast. 

4. Steam Devils

A dust devil is what happens when a patch of dry ground heats up more than the ground around it and the rising air begins to circulate like a sort of weak tornado, bringing the dust up off the ground with it. It’s not the most common phenomena but many of us have at least heard of it. It’s not the only weather devil out there, though. The much rarer but equally stygian steam devil is in some ways the opposite of its dusty cousin, occurring over bodies of water or damp ground rather than dusty patches of land. They’ve been observed forming on frosty grass when the sun hits it and begins to warm the frozen surface to create the temperature difference needed. 

Like a dust devil, it’s formed when conflicting air temperatures create a vortex. In this case, the water on which a steam devil forms is typically warm when a blast of colder air reaches it. The warm, moist air from the water rises into the cold air and begins to rotate, drawing up water vapor from below. They usually don’t grow very tall, often just a couple of meters in height. 

3. Lluvia de Pecas

Animal rain is a weird phenomenon to be sure, but there’s so many articles on it these days that it’s easy to stumble on explanations. Typically, the reason things like fish and frogs fall from the sky is related to waterspouts sucking animals out of a body of water and displacing them elsewhere or just flash floods, making it look like they fell after a storm. But the fish rain known as lluvia de pecas in Yoro, Honduras, works a little differently.

Yoro has the distinction of enjoying regular fish rain. It happens once or twice a year and has been witnessed by teams from places like National Geographic. Or, at least, in part it has. They couldn’t confirm the fish falling from the sky, but they did see fish on the ground. 

The small, silvery fish that appear are not a local species. They also appear to be blind. That has led some to speculate that they populate an underground river and, during particularly violent storms, they are forced to the surface during floods and left on the ground. This would account for why they are always in the same place rather than all over, such as if a waterspout was depositing them.

2. Blackbird Shower

History is riddled with tales of animals falling from the sky. The lluvia de pecas is just one example of many. It rains frogs and also tadpoles. Spiders have been known to fall like rain and maggots, too. And in 2022, hundreds of yellow-headed blackbirds fell from the sky over Chihuahua, Mexico. 

Unlike many of the animal rain events that have happened in the past, the blackbird incident was caught on camera, so you can see it happen firsthand and it’s pretty dramatic. The birds crash like someone dropped them by the bucket load and sadly, many of them didn’t survive the fall. But why did it happen in the first place? Frogs at least have an excuse for falling when they get up into the air, but birds can fly. 

Though it’s just a theory, the most plausible explanation seems to be that the birds were “flushed,” which is to say a large, predatory bird likely swooped at the flock and, in a panic, they all dove as fast as their little wings could carry them. The result was an ill-timed escape that saw too many hit the ground too fast.

1. The Chi’yang Event 

Weather can be terrifying and deadly. It’s said that the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 killed between 8,000 and 12,000 people. In 1970, the Bhola cyclone may have killed as many as 500,000 people. Around 20 people per year are killed by lightning in the United States. And a few people have even been killed by hail. But what about some other devastation from the sky? How deadly is it when it rains fire?

In the year 1490, the people of Ch’ing-yang, China, were witness to what is now believed to be an exploding asteroid. At the time, however, it was considered a rain of rocks peppering the countryside with death and destruction.

It’s believed at least 10,000 people died in the event. The stones that fell were said to weigh between 1 and 1.5 kilograms. In more understandable terms, some were supposed to be the size of water chestnuts while others were the size of goose eggs. But they were also falling from space and their speed must have been incredible.

Historical reports of the incident are considered to be reliable and there is precedent for objects breaking into many thousands of pieces, which could explain the death toll if it happened in a populated area.