12 Strange Weather Photographs: Snow Rollers, Lightning, Waterspouts, Hail

Weather produces some of the strangest pictures ever taken: a field covered in natural snow rolls, a town sleeping on a lawn to escape the heat, two boys whose hair stands on end seconds before lightning strikes. These twelve photographs span almost a century, from a 1926 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico to the 2009 ice storm in Arkansas, and each one has a real piece of atmospheric science behind it.

1–2. Snow rollers and a blizzard indoors

Snow rollers. The opening photograph shows one of winter's rarest sights. Snow rollers form when a thin layer of wet, loose snow, close to melting point, lies on a surface it cannot stick to, such as ice or crusted powder. A wind strong enough to push the snow, but not strong enough to break it up, rolls it into cylinders, the way you roll a snowman's base. Most are only a few centimetres across, some grow larger than a car, and many are hollow in the middle because the first, inner layers are so weak.

Snow drifts indoors. The interior scene, with snow heaped beside chairs and windows, was captioned as Buffalo's Blizzard of 1977. That storm hit western New York and southern Ontario from 28 January to 1 February 1977. Gusts reached 69 mph in Buffalo, wind chills fell to around −60°F, and drifts topped 25 feet in the city and 30 to 40 feet along the Ontario shore of Lake Erie. Around 29 people died, at least nine of them trapped in cars.

3–5. A heat wave, a lightning warning and a tornado

Sleeping on the lawn in Lincoln, Nebraska. In July 1936 residents of Lincoln carried bedding outdoors to escape homes that would not cool down at night. The 1936 North American heat wave killed as many as 5,000 people in the United States. Lincoln reached 115°F (46°C) on 25 July and fell only to 91°F that night, one of the warmest nights ever recorded outside the desert Southwest.

Hair standing on end. This well-known picture was taken on the summit of Moro Rock in Sequoia National Park, California, on 20 August 1975. Their sister Mary photographed brothers Michael and Sean McQuilken laughing at their rising hair; moments later lightning struck. Sean, then 12, was badly burned, and another hiker on the rock was killed. Hair lifting in a storm means the air around you is electrically charged and a strike may be imminent. The National Weather Service rule is simple: "When thunder roars, go indoors," and stay there until 30 minutes after the last thunder. See the National Weather Service’s lightning guidance.

A tornado behind the roadside. Audra Thomas stands beside a road while a large tornado moves across the land behind her, a reminder of how wide and slow-looking a big tornado can appear from a distance.

6–7. Four waterspouts and a river of hail

Waterspouts off Cyprus. Four funnels hang from a single dark cloud over the sea. Most waterspouts are the weaker "fair-weather" type, which form under developing cumulus clouds, last less than 20 minutes and rarely exceed 67 mph. In some seas, such as the Aegean, Ionian and Adriatic, up to half are tornadic waterspouts spawned by thunderstorms, which are far stronger. Boats should keep well clear.

Hail in New Mexico. After a hailstorm, runoff water can sweep hailstones into gullies and channels, piling them far deeper than the layer that fell on flat ground, which is how a summer storm leaves what looks like a snowbank.

8–9. Ice in Arkansas and ultraviolet light in Arctic Russia

Ice storm, Arkansas, January 2009. Freezing rain coats every branch and headstone in this cemetery. The January 2009 North American ice storm lasted from 25 to 30 January, left up to 2.5 inches of ice in places and cut power to about 300,000 homes in northern Arkansas alone. It killed 65 people across the United States.

Ultraviolet lamps in the Arctic. Kindergarten children in goggles stand around an ultraviolet lamp in Lovozero, in Russia's Arctic north, in a photograph by Joe McNally for National Geographic. In the sunless polar winter, a minute or two of UV light gave the children the vitamin D that sunlight normally provides for strong bones.

10–12. Lenticular clouds, a storm and a hurricane at sea

Lenticular clouds over Namibia. Smooth, lens-shaped clouds sit above the Omatako mountains. They form when moist, stable air flows over a mountain and sets up standing waves downwind; where a wave crest cools below the dew point, a stationary cloud appears. Glider pilots seek them out for "wave lift," while powered aircraft avoid the turbulence around them.

A storm over the plains. Lightning flashes beneath a huge, curved storm cloud, the classic shape of a rotating thunderstorm over open country.

Birds on the S.S. West Quechee. The final photograph, from 1926, shows exhausted birds crowding the rails of the S.S. West Quechee during a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, using the ship as a refuge from the storm.

For more weather planning, read our cold-weather guide, and for another force of nature caught on camera, watch the Tavurvur eruption video.

Related reading

• Twenty Thunderstorm Photographs: Light, Scale and Changing Skies
• Wave-Like Clouds over Nebraska
• Twenty Dramatic Cloud Images: Earth’s Skies and One Planetary Comparison
• Four Storm Photographers: Different Ways of Working with Severe Weather
• Eight Cloud Forms: A Gallery of Structure and Light

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