Natural phenomenon you have witnessed?

[Howardh]

The story of the pilot altering his course so passengers could view the northern lights makes me wonder what you have seen?

Example in the mid 10's I was sat on a beach at night in Ibiza when a huge meteorite exploded over the sea. Strangely there was no sound, and of course I couldn't photograph it as it wasn't expected!!

But a thrilling sight!

 

[GusB]

The story of the pilot altering his course so passengers could view the northern lights makes me wonder what you have seen?

Example in the mid 10's I was sat on a beach at night in Ibiza when a huge meteorite exploded over the sea. Strangely there was no sound, and of course I couldn't photograph it as it wasn't expected!!

But a thrilling sight!

It was a while ago now (1997, I think) on a very cold, but clear, November evening. A friend and I were taking my dog for a walk along the beach and we witnessed a spectacular meteor shower. The number of stars visible that night was amazing enough, but I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and then they just kept coming, with a few exploding as they entered the atmosphere. I've never been lucky enough to have the right conditions since.

Similarly with the Northern Lights, I have an app that alerts me when sightings are likely, but it's usually too cloudy; on a good night I don't even have to go outside to see them, but obviously it's far better when away from street lights.

 

[kristiang85]

I saw the northern lights a couple of times in Iceland and once in Svalbard. It was lovely.

I saw a tornado at Vienna airport. I couldn't believe my eyes, but it made a lot of news: https://watchers.news/2017/07/10/tornado-vienna-austria-july-10-2017/ Here's the tweet I sent at the time https://twitter.com/kg_se10/status/884422427740188673?t=04dsk39KAq8emAiCdznOVw&s=19

I've made two attempts to see solar eclipses (in the UK and Australia) - but both were thwarted by cloud. I'm making my third attempt in the USA next spring.

 

[Royston Vasey]

My enduring memories are on flights as well.

Multiple simultaneous lightning storms viewed from a 747 over equatorial Africa in the middle of the night, and flying in a MD-80 skirting one huge electrical storm in an otherwise beautiful sunset flying northbound over the eastern US.

Circular rainbows whilst in the air and a phenomenon called Pilot’s Glory, where the shadow of the plane appears on a cloud below, encircled in a rainbow.

Also a lunar eclipse viewed from a casino car park in New Mexico!

 

[Magdalia]

One of the oddities of this week is that all the fuss about the Northern Lights has overshadowed the spectacular Venus/Jupiter conjunction that will take place on Thursday. The two planets have been converging rapidly in recent days, visible in the western sky 1-2 hours after sunset, including one evening last week when they were almost exactly bisected by the crescent moon. Here we had a good clear view Sunday and yesterday but obscured by cloud this evening.

Not especially phenomenal but I have seen Mercury with the naked eye in I think 6 different occasions, various eclipses of the moon, Orion upside down in Australia, and a comet the name of which I can't remember. The solar eclipse of 1999, that reached totality in Cornwall, I saw at about 95% here in the Fens by projecting the image through a pinhole.

 

[Iskra]

Despite visiting Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Canada and Russia I have unfortunately never managed to see the Northern Lights. However, one of my dreams is to cruise to Antarctica and see the Southern Lights there for the same effect but with added exclusivity!

I’ve seen some very impressive lightning from aircraft or in mountainous areas where it has silhouetted dramatically.

I have managed to witness two avalanches without being directly caught in them, one while cross-country skiing in Canada and another below me on the Cable Car in Mont Blanc.

More recently, I saw a Cloudbow for the first time while walking around a nearby reservoir up in the hills which was cool- I didn’t even know they existed until that point!

 

[Ediswan]

I was on a business trip to North Carolina in 1996 when Hurricane Fran arrived. I slept through it (I can sleep in a tent during a thunderstorm). I was awoken by an internal phone call advising that the hotel reception was under several inches of water.

Company policy was changed to say that, in future, UK employees would be required to return home before a predicted hurricane arrives.

 

[High Dyke]

Likewise, travelled to Iceland for a chance to spot the Northern lights. Never saw them once, even missed out this week.

Solar eclipse in 1999, stood in the yard at work with welding goggles on. A couple of times, whilst out walking, I've seen cloud inversions. Also lenticular clouds, known as flying saucer clouds.

 

[yorksrob]

I saw the Northern lights from Loch Ranza on the Isle of Arran once.

 

[4COR]

I saw the great auroral display of 5-6 April 2000 from our back garden on the outskirts of S London - remarkable display, with pretty much the whole sky going red.

I'm an astronomer as well, so have a good collection of eclipses (2 total, one annular, lots of partials, at least 7 total lunar eclipses), meteors, fireballs, 3 naked eye comets, and lots more through a telescope, etc !

 

[Ostrich]

Stunning photograph, Iskra.

Along with many other forum members, I suspect, the total solar eclipse in 1999. My son and I were at Exeter St Davids watching the Eclipse Specials going through to the South West (one was the Thumper, if I recall correctly), but suddenly we found a stopper to Paignton arriving - we had valid Freedom tickets so we boarded it fast, and just made it down to the beach in time for the four minutes or so of full blackout. It was eerie; I recall the seagulls crying and flocking en-masse out to sea just before the day turned to night, and the flashbulbs of countless cameras going off all round the coast across to Torquay.

As a schoolkid, I witnessed the tornado which hit Edgbaston and Moseley districts of Birmingham either 1966 or 1967 - it was a summer's afternoon and came very much out of the blue. There was a sudden squall, we saw a small tree lifted completely out of the ground and deposited across the Bristol Road, thought "what on Earth?" and then as it travelled onwards, it hit a building site somewhere around the Edgbaston cricket ground and the dust was whipped up to reveal the classic whirlwind shape!

And still in Birmingham, the 4.8 magnitude 2002 earthquake the epicentre of which was near Dudley. We were living near Sutton Coldfield at the time; it was 1:00 in the morning and I was woken by the bed shaking and moving sideways, and just about every burglar alarm in the neighbourhood going off!

Bit hazardous living in Birmingham!

 

[Peter Mugridge]

It was a while ago now (1997, I think) on a very cold, but clear, November evening. A friend and I were taking my dog for a walk along the beach and we witnessed a spectacular meteor shower. The number of stars visible that night was amazing enough, but I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and then they just kept coming, with a few exploding as they entered the atmosphere. I've never been lucky enough to have the right conditions since.

That'll be the Leonids and it would have been 1999; you only get intense showers like that at 33 year intervals; the next major Leonid display is likely to be 2033. It's a function of the comet which generates them having an orbital period of 33 years and 4 months, so usually any year which is a multiple of 33 at the end will produce... but it's always worth watching the year before and after as well.

Meanwhile, this isn't a very good picture and it was also hampered by the sky not being fully dark, but these are auroral rays seen from the Epsom area in August 1989. The display did not last for very long, unfortunately.

 

[4COR]

we had valid Freedom tickets so we boarded it fast, and just made it down to the beach in time for the four minutes or so of full blackout.

Sadly it was only about 2 min! I went to Munich, not trusting the weather - it rained 20min before, but cleared up perfectly!

And still in Birmingham, the 4.8 magnitude 2002 earthquake the epicentre of which was near Dudley. We were living near Sutton Coldfield at the time; it was 1:00 in the morning and I was woken by the bed shaking and moving sideways, and just about every burglar alarm in the neighbourhood going off!

My wife grew up in mid-Wales and remembers being at school during the Bishops Castle earthquake in 1990 (Mag 5.1) - she says it was one of the most bizarre things with everything falling off shelves, etc!

 

[yorksrob]

Lest year, might have been September, I was travelling back from London along the East Coast mainline one late afternoon, I saw the most amazing display of bright pink and orange sunset all the way up to Doncaster. I was chatting to the guard about it and he said it had been going on for the past three evenings.

Edit - it was June and it was the old Saharan dust !

 

[GusB]

That'll be the Leonids and it would have been 1999; you only get intense showers like that at 33 year intervals; the next major Leonid display is likely to be 2033. It's a function of the comet which generates them having an orbital period of 33 years and 4 months, so usually any year which is a multiple of 33 at the end will produce... but it's always worth watching the year before and after as well.

I wasn't too sure about the year - I had 1997 in mind, but you're probably right! It was definitely the Leonids I saw, though.

 

[Ediswan]

Along with many other forum members, I suspect, the total solar eclipse in 1999.

Prices for Cornwall were too high. With just over a week to go, we spotted that NW France should be less popular. A remaining place on a stupidly early ferry was booked. In France, the obvious autoroute exit was backing up. To avoid that queue affecting the autoroute itself, they were not charging, just collecting tickets. Parked up in a country lane directly on the centreline. Cloudy, but got the full effect. Birds roosted. Traffic on the nearby autoroute stopped.

 

[4COR]

I wasn't too sure about the year - I had 1997 in mind, but you're probably right! It was definitely the Leonids I saw, though.

It could have been either - there was a brief outburst in 1997 as well (though affected by the bright moon):

https://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/2000A&A...355.1160T

But, the 1999 display was an outburst largely as expected, but nothing compared to 1966 or 1833: https://www.popastro.com/main_spa1/meteor/1999/11/30/leonids-1999/

 

[Howardh]

Venus + Jupiter is fantastic! But so was Saturn and Jupiter a while ago, saw the rings with binoculars.

Does the south pole have southern lights?

As mentioned, the eclipse, I was working at Stoke's football ground and watched from the car park. Bucket list is to see a full one before I die!

 

[4COR]

Does the south pole have southern lights?

Aurora Australis yep

It's just not seen as much by humans, as the Southern Ocean surrounds Antarctica...

 

[Howardh]

Aurora Australis yep

It's just not seen as much by humans, as the Southern Ocean surrounds Antarctica...

Should be called the polar lights then!! Does any other planet have them, as Venus has an atmosphere and presumably magnetic field?

 

[chipbury]

I've seen the green flash at sea.

This is when the sun sets on a very calm sea and theres some sort of refraction of light and you see the green bit (i'm sure there's a better description than that though).

The last time I saw it the captain said 'not a chance we'll see a green flash' about 30 seconds before it happened!

 

[High Dyke]

I've seen the green flash at sea.

This is when the sun sets on a very calm sea and theres some sort of refraction of light and you see the green bit (i'm sure there's a better description than that though).

The last time I saw it the captain said 'not a chance we'll see a green flash' about 30 seconds before it happened!

It appears in the mirage range, but most people refer to it as the green flash.

Optical Phenomena

www.eoas.ubc.ca

 

[Lloyds siding]

I managed to miss the auroras this week by looking out too late...it had clouded over!
I was in York at the time of the eclipse...but working at York University...the physics technicians set up a helioscope to watch the partial eclipse, which was fascinating.
Seen various types of whirlwinds, for some reason mostly when on holiday in Wales. I've seen two waterspouts in different years off Anglesey. The most impressive (scary) was when we were staying in our caravan. I heard a roaring noise, growing louder, then distant trees were bent right over, followed by a dust devil as dust and grass were sucked upwards in a funnel shape (about 100 ft tall)...it was heading straight for me! I decided to step back into the caravan, and the dust devil swept right past the caravan, picking up the two aluminium chairs out there and throwing them against the caravan!

My recent speciality are river bores...I've been to see them on the Mersey, Dee (Cheshire), and Kent (Lancashire)...which is spectacular at Arnside as it reaches the railway viaduct and bridge.

 

[Springs Branch]

- Once experienced an earthquake whilst living in California. It happened just after midnight. I was in bed, woken by a loud thump, and looked up to see the corner of the bedroom (ceiling and two walls) wobbling about in a very disconcerting way. This was apparently only a small quake - a few small objects fell over, car alarms going off outside, but no structural damage, which I though amazing, given the extent the walls seemed to be moving out of perpendicular. Allegedly the flimsy, wooden Californian houses are built for this.

- Once saw the Northern Lights from Uig on the Isle of Skye. Totally unexpected, breathtaking and mystical (for someone without a mystical bone in his body).

- Halley's Comet in the mid-1980s. This one was underwhelming. I think my generation was unlucky as the comet was unusually faint during that visit.

- The OP did specify Natural phenomena, but I once saw a UFO, in the countryside late at night outside Biggleswade (the Roswell of Bedfordshire). I'm not saying it was aliens or anything, but it was a bright, white object, and from the very peculiar way it changed direction, the speed it was flying and its silence, I couldn't identify it (therefore a UFO).

 

[Howardh]

Caravanning in Italy, we wondered why a ton of Insects suddenly appeared out of the ground. About a minute later there was a slight earthquake which was felt but caused no damage locally. Probably stronger than any in the UK but unremarkable by Italian standards!

I saw the great auroral display of 5-6 April 2000 from our back garden on the outskirts of S London - remarkable display, with pretty much the whole sky going re

Oh wow, I was in Malaga when we had the great desert storm and the daylight was dark orange, and in the evening the streets were covered by Sahara red sand. As a holiday the heavy dust clouds spoiled things, as a geographer I would have paid treble just to witness it. The photos look photoshopped but by heck, the orange/redness was real.

 

[Crossover]

In recent times, the Perseid meteor showers - in 2021 we took (a couple of, in the end) a trip to the car park of a reservoir not too far from Otley to see them and last year we went up to Captains Cook Monument on Easby Moor (though I think it was quite a bit lighter there and not as easy to see them) despite being higher up

Along with many other forum members, I suspect, the total solar eclipse in 1999. My son and I were at Exeter St Davids watching the Eclipse Specials going through to the South West (one was the Thumper, if I recall correctly), but suddenly we found a stopper to Paignton arriving - we had valid Freedom tickets so we boarded it fast, and just made it down to the beach in time for the four minutes or so of full blackout. It was eerie; I recall the seagulls crying and flocking en-masse out to sea just before the day turned to night, and the flashbulbs of countless cameras going off all round the coast across to Torquay.

I also have vague recollections of the eclipse in 1999 - I believe we were on holiday in the Isle of Man at the time

 

[chipbury]

Working in Taiwan I experienced some earthquakes, both times I was on a ship. However this ship had legs so we were lifted out of the water, quite disconcerting when the curtains in my cabin started waving about (it was 4.5 or so on the richter scale)!
The biggest was 6.7/6.8 but we were afloat for that so didn't notice it.

 

[315801]

I have never seen the aurora before but I have been keeping an eye on Venus and Jupiter getting closer aswell as back in 2009 while I was winding down ready for bed, all of a sudden I experienced a violent shaking motion that lasted a few seconds in terms of actual physical movement, then after that came something I never ever expected at all and that was the plates and everything in my kitchen ( bearing in mind I was in a tower block 9 floors up ) started rattling.

I thought no way, an earthquake, surely not.

I heard a load of voices talking down at ground level so I got my coat on ( I was fully clothed when it happened ) and went outside aswell. Because I had suspected an earthquake I suggested to anybody who felt they would not be able to sleep because of what had happened put their radio on and listen to their usual programmes or watch tv until they find out for their own peace of mind.

I turned in that night at around 03:30 and heard Dotun Adebayo on radio 5 Live say that they were getting numerous reports and phones talking about the earth shaking.

While he was talking about it an official statement was put out by the British Geological Survey that in fact there had been an earthquake, a particularly powerful quake for the uk which measured 5.2 on the Richter Scale and had originated somewhere in Kent.

It was powerful enough that their branch in Edinburgh recorded it aswell and confirmed it as a 5.2 quake.

As an open university student myself, I have learnt recently that the reason we get so many earthquakes in this country is because from as far north as you can go to as far south as you can go ( on land that is ) the uk is absolutely riddled with faults and it is at these points where they happen which unfortunately for us means they will literally happen anywhere.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Prices for Cornwall were too high. With just over a week to go, we spotted that NW France should be less popular. A remaining place on a stupidly early ferry was booked. In France, the obvious autoroute exit was backing up. To avoid that queue affecting the autoroute itself, they were not charging, just collecting tickets. Parked up in a country lane directly on the centreline. Cloudy, but got the full effect. Birds roosted. Traffic on the nearby autoroute stopped.

I worked out well in advance that any attempt to view the eclipse from ground level would be problematic either for weather or overbooking reasons so I did the obvious other method.

Note to mods: I cannot quote from this; it's in a format that doesn't permit copying and pasting of any part of the text.

It's link to an archived copy of an article from the Journal of the British Astronomical Association describing my viewing of the 1999 solar eclipse in Cornwall from an aircraft.

2000JBAA..110...63M Page 63

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Total Solar eclipses - went by train to see in Cornwall 1999
Went to Tennessee to see in 2017. Going to Texas in 2023 to see the annular. Going to Tennessee in 2024 to see the total

Total Lunar eclipse - seen many - too numerous to mention.

Northern lights - too numerous to mention. Usually see on left hand side of plane when taking a northerly track from the USA back to the UK - also seen in Alaska etc

Comets - quite a few - Hale Bopp etc