Unusual Weather Events You May See More Often

The majority of people are used to certain weather events, those climate occurrences like rain, thunderstorms, snow, and wind that are common in most areas and are part of the standard, seasonal weather. Some areas might see slightly different weather variations, perhaps less or more humidity, sometimes an increase in rain, and others, dryer climates. But as the Earth's climate changes, there are particularly unusual weather events you may see more often.

To gather this list of unusual weather events you may see more often, 24/7 Tempo consulted several weather-related sources. These include The Environmental Protection Agency, NASA Science, and The American Museum of Natural History. While we're on the topic of weather, click here for eight of the weirdest weather stories from history.

One of the most beautiful unusual weather events you may see more often is iridescent clouds. These clouds show off a beautifully blissful rainbow streak of colors that will remind you of a watercolor-painted portrait. In some cases, folks notice this phenomenon in soap bubbles or on surfaces of oil spills, and is becoming more common to see.

Although fire tornadoes used to be a lot rarer, they have been recorded by scientists more frequently than ever in recent years. Our tornadoes, which have also been labeled pyrogen, genetic tornadoes, are extremely scary to face off against.

They occur when smoke from wildfire begins interacting with the massive vortex of an atypical tornado. Fortunately, they only last for a few minutes at a time, but they can still be jaw-dropping to face off against at any given moment.

A microburst will occur when a column of sinking air finds itself localized in the middle of a thunderstorm. Although a microburst might just be found like another pesky and annoying detail that comes along with a typical thunderstorm, they are pretty serious. They can be life-threatening and can also cause damage to your property.

Twin tornadoes are just as haunting and scary as they sound, an event that occurs after being born from one singular thunderstorm. When twin tornadoes accidentally collide, they merge into one much more powerful and damage-causing problem. Back in the day, the idea of twin tornadoes was a rare occurrence folks didn't spend much time worrying about but now it's becoming increasingly more common.

This weird-sounding weather phenomena occurs when portions of cloud layers form into crystals that are reminiscent of icicles. When those pieces of ice start falling because they've grown large enough in size, they become what's known as a "fall-streak." When you look into the sky during a fall-streak hole occurrence, it will appear as a bizarrely shaped hole in the clouds that sort of looks like a leak.

When two layers of air are shifting at various speeds throughout the atmosphere, it's totally possible for Kelvin-Helmholtz waves to occur. This happens when the air on top is moving faster than the air on the lower level. At one point, Kelvin-Helmholtz waves were considered a rare occurrence of unusual weather, but they are starting to happen more frequently now.

When you think of a waterspout in your kitchen, you probably think of the little silver tube over your sink where you brush your teeth. In nature, a waterspout is actually much more scary to face off against. A waterspout is a tornado that successfully forms over water. Oftentimes, they start on land before moving over to a watery surface to continue wreaking havoc.

There's something beyond beautiful about noctilucent clouds, and it's easy to see the sheer beauty and bliss of this once-rare weather event. Noctilucent clouds are shining clouds in the sky, and they look breathtaking. The way these clouds shine is enough to capture just about anyone's attention.

The only reason they successfully form is because these particular clouds have extremely low temperatures. They're also filled with tons of dust and water vapor.

In the realm of science, green flashes are a bit mysterious and attention-grabbing. They successfully occur when light from the sun separates into different colors, which is a phenomenon also known as refraction. It's all due to the earth's atmosphere allowing sunlight to refract in a way that people aren't accustomed to seeing. As of now, green flashes are certainly more common than they used to be.

Nights sprites occur when electrical discharges are released into the sky above thunderstorm clouds. When this happens, cool-looking visual shapes start lighting up, flashing, and flickering in a sky that would otherwise look dark, plain, and boring.

Most people around the globe know all about hurricanes. There have been many well-known hurricanes that have wreaked havoc in different cities over the years, like Hurricane Katrina which caused massive destruction in 2005. In 2023, new studies have been published to show that rapid-onset major hurricanes are becoming far more likely in the Atlantic Ocean, as demonstrated recently with Hurricane Helene.

Some scientists widely believe that typhoons are becoming more common in this modern era due to climate change. A typical tropical typhoon occurs when the wind heavily blows into specific areas of the ocean, usually where the water is warmer and more swimmable.

The combination of cold wind and warm water creates an insane pressure level that results in a daunting typhoon. No matter how warm or swimmable an area of ocean water might be, facing off against a typhoon would probably be a death sentence to any average individual.

Ice storms are the worst, and there's no getting around it. When temperatures are so cold that rain starts freezing upon making surface-level contact with the world, it can lead to dangerous and catastrophic results. These storms can be even worse when strong gusts of wind blow ice in different directions. The safest solution to surviving an ice storm would be hiding out somewhere indoors until it's over.

Whenever an area is facing extremely cold weather conditions, it becomes possible for sundogs to appear in the sky. They are spots of light that show up in close proximity to the sun. With climate change seemingly taking over across the globe, extremely cold weather conditions are happening all the time, and sundogs are also becoming more common than they once were.

Ball lightning is a bit scarier than most other unusual weather events listed here. That's because ball lightning is what you'd call tiny spheres of lightning that randomly hover in the sky before setting things on fire. Ball lightning occurs when air or gas starts behaving abnormally, which used to be a lot rarer than it is today. It can lead to house fires, car fires, nature fires, and worse.

Not all clouds are made the same. There are a variety of different clouds, and one of those is cirrocumulus or altocumulus clouds. When it comes to cirrocumulus or altocumulus clouds specifically, hole-punch clouds occur by forming directly inside of them. Visually speaking, they look intriguing and eye-catching when you come across one.

Being stuck in an area where the weather is much too hot isn't usually comfortable for anyone. Due to climate change, record-breaking heat waves are becoming incredibly common today. One way people can stay safe during heat waves is by staying indoors where they have access to air conditioner systems.

Drinking an excess of water is also crucial. Heat waves are caused by high pressures in the atmosphere that push warm air straight to the ground for multiple days on end.

Plenty of folks don't feel fearful about the record-breaking droughts occurring in many regions since they reside in places where they have access to clean, fresh water all the time. But there are areas around the world where record-breaking droughts should be approached with a little more caution.

When a drought is in motion, it often leads to a severe water shortage. If human beings don't have access to water in a drought-ridden area, it will undoubtedly lead to death.

Heat bursts occur thanks to a combination of rapidly increasing surface temperatures, rapidly decreasing surface dew points connected to thunderstorms and massively gusty wins. The good news about heat bursts is that they usually only last for a couple of minutes. In severe cases, they can stick around for several hours.

When light gets refracted by ice crystals, it leads to an unusual weather event called light pillars. When ice crystals gradually start dropping through the atmosphere, the bright rays of the sun have a chance to reflect off of them without any effort at all.

Visually speaking, light pillars can be an impressive site to lay eyes on. Now that we have uncovered some of the most unusual weather events you may see more often, click here to uncover details about extreme weather phenomena you didn't know existed in the first place.