These 7 Unexplained Natural Phenomena In Iowa Will Baffle You

Jane Wiggins of Cedar Rapids took the first photo of this very rare type of cloud formation. The huge, undulating cloud formation is called the Undulatus Asperatus.

Ball lightning is a ball of lightning that occurs during thunderstorms. The crazy thing is that lightning balls can move through solid material, like blocks of metal, wood and even buildings. They are short-lived and rare, usually lasting only around a minute, and they are accompanied by a strong odor of sulfur. Ball lightning appearances have been reported at several locations around Iowa.

In 1978, the residents of Ottosen, reported strange sights and sounds like a high-pitched whistle and screams in the nearby forest. Soon, cats and dogs were found dead and mutilated. Many citizens of the town even reported seeing a giant, hairy, man-like creature wandering around town, and glowing red eyes outside their windows.

Iowa is no stranger to alleged UFO sightings. From amber, oval-shaped lights in the sky to flashing bright lights to five spheres moving in formation, there have been hundreds of first-hand accounts. More specifically, pilot Andy Danzinger reported seeing a huge white disk-shaped object that "morphed" into a large red ball in 1989 during a flight from Kansas City, Missouri to Waterloo, Iowa.

Crop circles are a pattern that is created by flattening a crop. While they’ve generally been attributed to human creation, there have been reports of crop circles appearing due to unknown origins. In 2004 in Eagle Grove, Mike and Brenda Trevis’s dogs started going crazy barking for about 20 minutes around midnight. They found about a dozen crop circles in their oat field the next day, and their barking dogs suddenly made sense. They have no idea how the crop circles got there. There were no tracks leading into the field, and there was no unusual weather to explain them, either.