The skies over Britain glowed an eerie red on Monday prompting many folk to wonder whether the Apocalypse was nigh.

The hint of red October didn’t really signal the end of days though – it was caused by a plume of Saharan sand pulled in by Hurricane Ophelia.

The rare event was also blamed for a nasty whiff over the Isle of Wight and the skies were further darkened by smoke from wildfires in Portugal.

But if you were freaked out by the bloody sun and scarlet skies, check out these other weird weather phenomena.

Willy-willy

The myth is that willy-willy are spirits (
Image:
National Geographic RF)

In Aboriginal myth the willy-willy are spirits which emerge from a spinning vortex. Today we call them dust devils - upward spiralling vortices of air reaching up to 1,000ft.

Unlike tornadoes, willy-willies grow upwards from the ground, rather than down from clouds. They travel across the ground and, besides dust, they may also carry loose debris.

In 2011 a boy and a girl were seriously injured when a willy-willy blew a bouncy castle they were in 15ft into the air, over a fence and into the middle of a busy highway in Tuscon, Arizona.

Lenticular Clouds

The clouds can be seen from 60 miles away (
Image:
The Image Bank)

As wind blows across hilly or mountainous regions, the air undulates in downstream waves.

With enough moisture in the air, the waves condense to form unique disc or lens shaped clouds which can be seen up to 60 miles away. And they could explain a lot of so-called “UFO” sightings.

Catatumbo Lighting

Catatumbo lightning only happens in Venezuela (
Image:
Rex Features)

This phenomenon occurs for 160 days a year but only over the mouth of the Catatumbo River in Venezuela.

Warm and cold fronts meet at a point were marshes emit methane gas, improving the electrical conductivity of clouds. The lightning strikes can last for 10 hours at a time.

Brinicles

Brincles are ice sructures (
Image:
National Geographic Creative)

Brine icicles, or ice stalactites, form beneath sea ice when a flow of extremely cold, saline water is introduced to an area

Animal Rain

It has bene known to rain frogs (
Image:
Getty Images)

The sky may not rain cats and dogs, but it has been known to rain frogs, fish and other animals.

Tornadoes and waterspouts are thought to suck the creatures up before “raining” them down again. In 1957 thousands of small fish, frogs and crayfish fell from the sky during a rainstorm in Alabama.

Many of the fish were still alive and placed in ponds and swimming pools. In 2013 it rained crabs in Florida and frogs in Hungary and Los Angeles had a shower of worms in 2007.

Red Sprites

Astronauts in space have captured a rare image of a giant red sprite (
Image:
NASA/JSC)

These blasts of red light can soar up to 60 miles from the top of a cloud during a thunderstorm. They usually correspond with positively charged cloud-to-ground lightning and last for only a few seconds.

Blue jets are similar to red sprites, but they’re negatively charged and appear as cones of blue light that occur lower in the atmosphere.

St Elmo’s Fire

St Elmo's fire is named after the patron saint of sailors (
Image:
Alamy)

A film of the same name helped Rob Lowe and Demi Moore to fame in 1985. But it took its name from the phenomenon in which static electricity forms during thunder storms and rises up tall objects.

It is named after St. Erasmus of Formiae, aka St Elmo, the patron saint of sailors – as seafarers have reported balls of fire dancing on deck and climbing their ships’ masts.

Fire Devils

Fire devils are caused when a tornado spins close to a forest (
Image:
Alamy)

A tornado-like vortex of flames is formed when a tornado spins too close to a forest fire or when a heavy concentration of heat is generated in a small area.

Like tornados, fire whirls vary in size and duration but usually last no more than a few minutes. In 1923, a fire whirl emerged during Japan’s Great Kanto Earthquake and killed 38,000 people.

Ice Bombs

Ice bombs are very big hailstones (
Image:
PA)

Exceptionally large hailstones, sometimes called ice bombs can fall from the sky during severe thunderstorms and shatter into smaller pieces when they hit the ground.

One ice bomb was found to weigh 80lbs. The largest hailstone ever to fall in the USA was found in Vivian, S.D., on July 23, 2010, and was 8 inches in diameter and weighed 1 pound, 15 ounces.

Ball lightning

Ball lightning floats slowly through thunderstorms (
Image:
Alamy)

Balls of light that float slowly through the air during thunderstorms have been fascinating people for centuries.

These glowing spheres range in size from golf balls to footballs and emit no heat and little sound. But some have reached eight feet in diameter and caused great damage.

There are reports of ball lightning destroying whole buildings.

Sea foam

This car isn't covered in snow, it's actually sea foam (
Image:
SWNS - Leeds SWNS.com)

Hurricane Ophelia brought another freak weather phenomenon to our shores this week.

The town of Cleveleys, Lancashire and Trearddur Bay in Holyhead, Wales, found themselves awash in “sea snow” as high winds whipped the waves into a frenzy.

It is more likely to occur when the water contains algae and waste which reduce the surface tension and creates bubbles land foam.