50 Interesting Facts about Rare Weather Phenomena

In 1955, a thunderstorm in Belgium set off 40,000 pounds of buried explosives left over from the World War 1 battle of Messines. Luckily, the only casualty was a single cow.

The 1999 North Carolina “Tornadocane” was a supercell thunderstorm that produced multiple tornadoes, 165mph wind gusts and formed an “eye” on the radar.

Sundog is an atmospheric phenomenon that gives the viewer an impression that there are multiple suns in the sky.

On February 27, 1717, a series of massive snowstorms began in New England. A week later, 95% of the deer population had died and many single-story homes were completely buried.

In June 2008, a tornado hit Kansas State University's campus destroying only one building, their Wind Erosion Lab.

During the Great Flood of 1993, a 23-year-old man named James Scott removed sandbags from an Illinois levee in order to strand his wife on the other side of the river so that he could keep partying. He received life imprisonment for “intentionally causing a catastrophe.”

The "Solar storm of 1859" was so powerful that telegraphs continued to operate after being disconnected, auroras were seen in the tropics, and miners in the Rockies thought the sun had risen early.

1 inch of rain equals approximately 12 inches of snow.

Tsunamis in non-seabound lakes exist.

The Great Blizzard of 1888 was one of the most severe blizzards in the American history. It brought on 50 inches of snow in several states and a total of 200 ships were destroyed.