Five of the Strangest Weather Events

Ready for weather that sounds made up, but really happens?

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The quick answer

Weather is built from a short list of ingredients: wind, water, heat, pressure and electricity. Mix them in an unusual way and you get something that sounds like a tall tale. Here are five from Thunder's strange weather files.

Five files

Thundersnow
Thunder and lightning in the middle of a snowstorm. It happens when a winter storm has strong rising air, just like a summer thunderstorm. Falling snow muffles the sound, so the thunder is a soft, deep thump.
Waterspouts
Spinning columns of air over a lake or the sea. Many form in fairly calm weather under puffy clouds. Others are true tornadoes that happen to be over water.
Giant hail
Hailstones grow by being tossed around inside a storm and collecting layer after layer of ice. The stronger the updraft, the longer they stay up and the bigger they get. Some end up wider than a grown-up's hand.
Dust storms
Strong winds rushing out of a thunderstorm can scoop up a wall of dust that rolls across the land. Day turns orange, then brown, then nearly dark.
Raining fish and frogs
For hundreds of years people have reported small animals falling from the sky. Scientists think strong winds or waterspouts may lift tiny creatures from ponds and drop them somewhere else. Individual stories are very hard to prove, so this file stays marked 'possible'.

Thunder Tidbits

The largest hailstone measured in the United States fell in Vivian, South Dakota, in 2010. It was 8 inches across, about the size of a volleyball, and weighed nearly two pounds.
Streetlights sometimes switch on at lunchtime during a thick dust storm because their sensors think it is night.
Thundersnow is rare enough that some meteorologists get very, very excited when they finally hear it.

Words to know

Thundersnow: A snowstorm with thunder and lightning.
Waterspout: A spinning column of air and mist over water.
Updraft: Air rising fast inside a storm.
Haboob: A giant wall of dust pushed along by thunderstorm winds. The word comes from Arabic.

Try it: Slice a hailstone (the pretend kind)

Make a layered ice ball. Freeze a spoonful of water in a small cup. Add a spoonful of water with a drop of food coloring and freeze again. Repeat with different colors. Ask a grown-up to help you cut it in half. Real hailstones have rings like this, and each ring is one trip through the storm.