The most unusual weather events: frog rain and locust tornado

Rain, wind, thunder and lightning are common and common phenomena for us. However, under certain circumstances, they can lead to strange, scary and completely unbelievable phenomena. We bring to your attention a selection of the most striking cases when talking about the weather will not be banal at all.

Darts chair

The most powerful tornado that hit the town of Joplin in the US state of Missouri in 2011 scattered piles of wood and garbage around the outskirts, and also deeply stuck a kitchen chair into the outer wall of the store. At speeds of over 320 kilometers per hour, the legs crashed into the wall like flying spears. If the store was selling furniture, it would be a good advertisement.

Frogs from the sky

Frog rains are perhaps one of the most frequent “strange” weather events. The reason for this is water tornadoes, which suck in not only water, but also what is in it in wind turbulences. One of the last such cases occurred in Serbia in 2005, when a tornado roughly pulled thousands of frogs from their cozy ponds, and then threw it from the sky to the nearby city of Odzaci.

Bloody rain

In 2013, raspberry rain fell in the coastal Indian state of Kerala. The reason was the spore of red algae, which probably brought from the ocean into the rain clouds by strong winds. Unusual rain stained clothes and gathered in puddles that looked like blood stains.

Locust tornado

In 2014, the photographer shot a tornado of insects (probably locusts) more than 300 meters high near Lisbon (Portugal). Small whirlwinds can draw in midges, but large insect tornadoes usually arise due to optical illusions or the behavior of the swarm itself rather than the weather.

Wind mail

The ascending tornado flows can lift pieces of paper and other light objects to a height of more than 6000 meters and carry them for kilometers. Such winds are in Kansas. Of course, Ellie’s trailer in real life would hardly have raised such a tornado. But in 1915, a personal check from Great Bend, Kansas, flew about 320 kilometers to Palmyra, Nebraska. The longest recorded flight by Tornado Airlines.

Based on materials from Popsci.com