On Reunion Island—a French colony in the Indian Ocean—there is a waterfall that was temporarily forced to flow uphill.
Incredible footage of a waterfall near the Piton de la Fournaise volcano shows strong gusts of wind pushing the water backwards.
The video, captured last Thursday, coincided with Tropical Cyclone Carlos, which spent days swirling over Reunion Island and Mauritius. Winds may have reached 70 miles per hour, explaining the inverted waterfall.
While this might look like an act of magic or a trick of the light, this is hardly the only waterfall that has altered course due to fierce weather.
Though they’re incredibly rare, extreme winds have been known to push back against a waterfall’s flow on more than one occasion, creating the illusion that the water is flowing backward.
This time last year, Storm Henry conjured 90 mile-per-hour winds that sent waterfalls on the Scottish Isle of Mull running in reverse. And Rjúkandi Waterfall, located in one of Iceland’s windiest regions, is, apparently, flipped around quite regularly.