The phrase "a strange pattern in" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it when describing an unusual or unexpected trend or arrangement in data, behavior, or observations.
Example: "The researchers discovered a strange pattern in the migration habits of the birds this year."
Alternatives: "an unusual trend in" or "a peculiar arrangement in".
In 2003, while working on a book about charitable giving, I stumbled across a strange pattern in my data.
In the early 1970's, demographers began to notice a strange pattern in life span data: married people tended to live longer than their single, divorced and widowed counterparts.
Several years ago they began seeing a strange pattern in their results.
About a decade ago, geophysicist Brooks Ellwood of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge was studying the magnetic properties of 380-million-year-old rocks in the Moroccan desert for another project, when he noticed a strange pattern in the rock layers.
The scientists also noticed a strange pattern in a stretch of layered rock.
Meanwhile, Chibi-Robo finds a strange pattern in the backyard and uses his radar to contact an alien species.
There is a strange pattern to interviews in Tanzania.
A few years ago, Richard H. Sander, a U.C.L.A. law professor, began digging into the college admissions data, partly to see if it was abiding by the 1996 ban, and he discovered a strange pattern, as I mentioned in my column this weekend.
(The region in Siberia where all the trees fell over in a strange pattern).
It was the latest example of a strange pattern of disconnect between how the people in the North East feel and how commentators and elected representatives think people in the North East feel.
Anthony Arthur characterizes Sinclair's conduct in the Ludlow affair as a strange pattern of incendiary speeches followed by denunciations of violence.
