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Why have we seen so many extreme floods in recent years? Climate change is supercharging thunderstorms, adding moisture and heat.
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Extreme winds from thunderstorms have downed transmission towers from Victoria to Western Australia in recent years. What’s going on?
Lightning strikes near St. George, Utah.
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A new study shows how often lightning strikes and how it behaves, often hitting the ground with multiple strikes from the same flash.
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A number of environmental factors, including thunderstorms, are likely to be contributing to the current hay fever havoc.
A tornado touches down.
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Researchers are turning to computer models, drones and other methods to improve tornado forecasting.
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Lightning doesn’t travel in a straight line, with many so-called ‘leaders’ coming down from the cloud in a series of jagged steps. Until now, no one has known why.
Severe thunderstorms occur in Canada every year, bringing with them large hail, damaging downburst winds, intense rainfall and tornadoes.
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Are severe and extreme weather events on the rise? And does this have anything to do with manmade climate change? The simple answer is: it’s complicated.
A large tundra fire burned near St. Mary’s, Alaska, on June 13, 2022.
BLM Alaska Fire Service/Incident Management Team/John Kern
Fires today are hotter and more destructive, thanks in part to a warming climate.
Meteorologist Todd Dankers monitors weather patterns in Boulder, Colorado, Oct. 24, 2018.
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Would you trust a weather forecast made by a machine that had learned how weather systems behaved by reviewing thousands of past weather maps?
The heart of U.S. tornado activity, once Tornado Alley, has shifted eastward.
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Studies show tornadoes are getting more common and more intense, and they’re shifting eastward to a new tornado hot spot.
Some places rarely see the sun.
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Extended periods of rain are most likely found in locations where mountains are near oceans.
A satellite view on the night of Dec. 15, 2021, at the same time tornadoes were reported in Iowa.
NOAA
Forecasters described it as a ‘historical weather day.’ An atmospheric scientist who was at the heart of the storms explains what happened.
Lightning during a monsoon storm in southern Arizona, Saguaro National Park.
Pete Gregoire, NOAA
Monsoons are weather patterns that bring thunderstorms and heavy rains to hot, dry areas when warm, moist ocean air moves inland. They’re challenging to forecast, especially in a changing climate.
Parts of Lake Elsinore, California, were overrun with muddy floodwater after a storm hit the Holy Fire burn scar in 2018.
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An atmospheric scientist and sailplane pilot describes why large areas of burned land can produce clouds and rainstorms.
Debris near Lebanon, Tennessee, after tornadoes struck on the night of March 3, 2020, killing more than 20 people across the state.
AP Photo/Mark Humphrey
With the onset of spring come thunderstorms, and sometimes tornadoes. Learn how these systems form and why night tornadoes are especially deadly.
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Volatile, unstable air means that it is very tricky to work out exactly where each thunderstorm will be.
A thunderstorm builds over the Karoo in South Africa.
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Why is thunder so loud? It’s because the amount of electrical energy that flows from the cloud to the ground is so enormous.
Water vapor rising from the surface of Lake Michigan condenses into droplets on a sub-zero day, Jan. 6, 2014.
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An atmospheric scientist explains why water can do some strange-looking things at very cold temperatures, and what’s different about snowfalls on Mars.
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There are many reasons to be careful when there’s a big storm. But there are also ways you can protect yourself to avoid lightning.
Icy hailstones can do major damage, depending where they land.
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The future climate that scientists predict for the middle of the United States is one that will foster more hail events with bigger hailstones.