Weather Imagery

A strange phenomenon seems to be occurring all around the world where large chunks of ice are falling from the clear blue sky. Certainly not a frequent event, but perplexing nonetheless. Unlike ball-lightning, the Lockness Monster and Big Foot, this phenomenon has been documented with pictures time and time again. Adding to the shroud of mystery is that this is happening all around the world.

Megacryometeor is a term used to describe a large block of ice that seemingly falls from the atmosphere under clear sky conditions. Just how large is large? Most have weighed between 25 to 35 pounds but one found in Brazil weighed an incredible 440 pounds! Thats big enough to leave a 10-foot hole in the ground, smash the roof of a Ford Mustang, and make whooshing noises audible enough to be heard by people hundreds of feet away.

It’s not a question of if they exist. There are countless reports and documented proof from all around the world that huge blocks of ice are falling from the sky. The more appropriate question is, how do they form and under what conditions? These questions have been addressed by many different theories, but none have conclusively proven anything as of yet.

One possibility is that ice forms on some part of a high flying jet aircraft which becomes dislodged, then falls to the ground as a large chunk of ice under clear sky conditions. A jet flying at 35,000 feet with a speed of 500 mph will be a good 20 to 30 miles away before the chunk of ice hits the ground below. Those witnessing one of these events may never connect the jet to the ice chunk. Strangely, or perhaps not, the ice that does fall is entirely made of water with no other contaminants to suggest it came from the aircraft’s lavatory and on several of these megacryometeor events, the FAA has checked their flight records and found no aircraft in the vicinity which implies the ice must have come from someplace else. However, large ice chunks have fallen from the sky in the flight paths of local airports which some say does set a precedence. Is the FAA holding back the truth for fear of liability lawsuits and the millions of dollars they would have to spend in trying to prevent or eliminate megacryometeors from forming? What about military aircraft that may have been in the area and had their flight paths kept secret?

Meteorologists say these chunks of ice are not weather related. Even though the megacryometeors share similar textural, hydro-chemical and isotopic features of large hailstones, meteorologists say even the largest of the supercell thunderstorms — those responsible for creating large hailstones and tornadoes — could never produce chunks of ice this large. The updrafts required to grow hailstones into 25 pound chunks of ice, not to mention 440 pounds, would be impossible here on Earth. In the Midwest, it’s not uncommon to get hailstones the size of baseballs or even softballs which is remarkable in itself. Not to mention the record setting grapefruit-sized hail that fell in North Dakota back on June 22, 2003 yet even those stones only weighed about 1.7 pounds; nowhere near the size of these documented megacryometeors. Further yet, most recorded megacryometers fell when there were no clouds present.

Another theory suggests that the large chunks of ice could be the result of atmospheric changes caused by global warming. Ice chunks have fallen from the sky in Africa, England, Brazil, United States, Spain, China and many other places which suggests there are no localized conditions conducive to megacryometeor formation. One of the most bizarre incidents happend in Spain where in January of 2000, 6 lb chunks of ice fell from the sky over a period of 7 days (Source: Sciencemag.org). The atmosphere is a very complex system and changes in one variable can have profound consequences throughout the whole system. If this is the case, ice is now forming in parts of the atmosphere where it hasn’t in the past, which can only make one wonder what else might start falling from the sky.

The chance of them being extraterrestrial in origin is highly unlikely. Their isotopic-signature matches that of terrestrial based water found on Earth. Comet ice usually has lots of trapped gases, a different isotopic-signature, and other pollutants such as dust and iron of which the megacryometeors are lacking. Though they can leave relatively large craters when they smash into the ground, they most certainly do not appear to be from out space.

Then again, there is the possibility it’s all just a hoax. A gag the entire world seems to be picking up on. After all, there is hard evidence that crop circles exist as we have all seen pictures of them. For the longest time they were an unexplained phenomenon that caught the imagination of people around the world. Soon crop circles starting showing up in wheat fields on just about every continent. It has since been proven that people are the source of these mysterious yet fantastic designs. Could megacryometeors be a collaborative hoax? I tend to believe otherwise simply because one would have to self-inflict damage upon their own property, some of which has been rather extreme. It’s also such a bizarre way of explaining this damage. Nonetheless, I will remain open-minded about the phenomenon until it has been proven or dis-proven.

Whatever the cause, various sized chunks of ice appear to be falling from the sky all around the world. A Mercedes-Benz dealership in Brazil was the unlucky winner of the refrigerator-sized 440 pound chunk that crashed through their roof (source: FindArticles.com). A Ford Mustang in Florida was the runner-up when a 100 pound chunk completely caved in the roof of the car — police are not investigating the incident as a criminal act (source: First Coast News). After all, how do you quietly and secretly hoist a 100 pound chunk of ice high enough to destroy a car in a quiet city neighborhood without being seen or heard? Or how do you get a 50 pound chunk of ice to crash through the roof of a home, like 78-year-old Jan Kenkel had happen to her when she found insulation, bits of wood and a block of ice beside her TV (source: CNN)?

Just how big can these things get and who’s next?

Perhaps there is no limit and more perplexing is no one seems to have a solid answer. Maybe it’s the combination of a changing atmosphere due to global warming which increases water vapor at higher elevations under certain conditions that causes ice to form on aircraft which then becomes dislodged and falls to the ground? Only time will tell what is causing these large chunks of ice to fall from the sky, but until then I’m sure we will hear, and maybe see, chunks of ice falling from the blue sky.