#meteorological phenomena

[g-h-o-s-t-2000]

lightning strikes on earth

[archivist-crow]

On this day:

FROZEN FROGS FALL

On June 16, 1882, hailstones and pieces of ice splattered down at Dubuque, Iowa. Monthly Weather Review reported, "The foreman of the Novelty Iron Works, of this city, states that in two large hailstones melted by him were found small living frogs." Many other ice chunks also contained living frogs. The chunks were between one inch and seventeen inches around the middle. A few of the pieces were only half an inch in length, and others were the size of a baseball. The biggest icicle weighed nearly two pounds. Weathermen were puzzled. It was noted that the objects were not technically hailstones, but a conglomerate of large hailstones that presented a knobby kind of appearance. Such pieces of hail could have been created only if the ice had floated or hovered somewhere in order to establish the crystallization. The weatherman couldn't explain how the frogs came to be in the hailstones.

In 1864, in Pontiac, Canada, falling pieces of ice between half an inch and two and a half inches in diameter were found to contain small green frogs. The most extreme case of an animal enclosed in ice falling from the sky was recorded in Bovington, Mississippi. A six-by-eight-inch gopher turtle dropped from the sky during a hailstorm. It was entirely encased in ice.

Text from: Almanac of the Infamous, the Incredible, and the Ignored by Juanita Rose Violins, published by Weiser Books, 2009

[dame-de-pique]

T. C. Manning - Omaha Tornado Cloud, March 23 1913

[aestheticschaos]

The Solomonar aesthetic

Romanian folklore creatures series - I

The Solomonar is a wizard who is believed, in Romanian mythology, to control clouds and rain. They are able to call a hailstorm, to cure diseases and to master the highest knowledge about the Universe. They were not supernatural creatures, but rather humans who learned special abilities, described as tall people, wearing white capes and magic tools around their waists. The knowledge is transmitted from a master to disciple, taken at birth from the ones born bearing a particular birth mark, taken into forests or in caves to learn the art and craft of wizardry, which they will use to fight against the dark forces of nature and of the human spirit. The wizard “schools” are at the “end of the earth”, sometimes called “the other realm” and they teach mostly astrology, fortune telling, mastering all meteorological phenomena. Solomonars have a special book in which all their knowledge and power is gathered. This is the book they use during their apprenticeship and only one out of seven apprentices becomes a Solomonar. Some legends say that in the caves they are trained by the devil himself, so actually evil beings, descending into villages to beg for help even if they don`t need anything, and where they are not treated well they invoke the hailstorm. In other places they are good wizards, using their knowledge to kill demons and punish the sinners.

[g-h-o-s-t-2000]

an ocean of dreams last time limit the past devours us

[theenglishnook]

Virga is rain or snow that evaporates before reaching the ground, cooling the air below. Both meteorological wonder and poetic symbol, it fascinates with its ghostly presence and hidden impact.

VIRGA

[aspiring-weird-old-man]

Noctilucent clouds my beloved

[timespanner]

A 'blue hole' to the Northern Lights

A little-known meteorological phenomenon makes a tiny village in Arctic Sweden one of the best places on Earth to consistently see the Aurora Borealis.