Nature’s Spectacles: 35 Rare Weather Phenomena to Marvel At

Fresh snow absorbs sound, lowering ambient noise over a landscape because the trapped air between snowflakes attenuates vibration. That's why it gets so quiet when it snows.

A "Zud" is a Mongolian term for extreme winter weather that often kills livestock and causes famine. In 2010, 8 million head of livestock were killed by a zud.

Thunderstorms can trigger so many asthma attacks that emergency services can become overwhelmed. This phenomenon is called “thunderstorm asthma.”

When the deadliest tornado touched down in 1925 Missouri, people were taken by surprise. This was because the word 'tornado' was banned from US weather forecasts since the late 19th century due to hysteria. This mentality shifted after the tornado killed 675 ill-prepared residents.

Typhoon Longwang was the deadliest tropical cyclone to impact China during the 2005 Pacific typhoon season.

In 1970, an estimated 500,000 people were killed in one night when tropical cyclone Bhola hit the densely populated Ganges Delta region of East Pakistan.

In 2003, California's largest wildfire was started by a lost hunter who had made a fire to signal rescuers, and as a result, 15 people died.

In 2016, Anchorage, Alaska was so snow-starved they actually had to import 7 train cars full of snow for the starting section of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

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.