Weather

Cargo Ships May Double Lightning Strikes in Their Path

Ship exhaust impacts cloud formation, which may influence lightning over busy shipping lanes

A relief party works to find bodies after the hurricane's destruction.

More Than a Century Later, This Texas Hurricane Remains America’s Deadliest Natural Disaster

The Great Galveston Hurricane helped the city of Houston to rise to prominence

Water water everywhere, and not a day to think.

How Coastal Cities Are Evolving to Deal With Extreme Rain

Facing the specter of more and worse rainstorms, these vulnerable areas are turning to innovative urban design

The Sun is seen setting through the Martian atmosphere by the Curiosity rover. Nighttime can bring turbulent snowstorms in the planet's atmosphere

Violent Snowstorms May Rack the Martian Night

Simulations show how the water snow falling on Mars may fall much differently than we're used to here on Earth

A NASA image of Hurricane Sandy moving along the United States' East Coast. Extreme weather events like this are becoming more frequent, but scientists still face challenges when attributing any one storm to climate change.

Does Climate Change Cause Extreme Weather Events?

It's a challenge to attribute any one storm or heat wave to climate change, but scientists are getting closer

The WP-3D Orion "Hurricane Hunters" are a key part of NOAA's hurricane toolkit.

Why Does NOAA Still Send Pilots Into Hurricanes?

The first “Hurricane Hunter” flight was a bet, but today they’re an essential part of risk management

Racing the Storm: The Story of the Mobile Bay Sailing Disaster

When hurricane-force winds suddenly struck the Bay, they swept more than 100 boaters into one of the worst sailing disasters in modern American history

Fasten your seatbelts for record heat, Phoenix—just don't burn yourself while you're at it.

Half the World's Population Will Experience Deadly Heat by the End of the Century

And Arizona is kicking things off

Each time you use your phone's weather app, you're indebted to a self-taught computer scientist named Klara von Neumann.

The Unheralded Contributions of Klara Dan von Neumann

Despite having no formal mathematical training, she was a key figure in creating the computer that would later launch modern weather prediction

Once rare floods could afflict cities like San Diego more often in the future, a new study finds.

Catastrophic Coastal Floods Could Become Much More Likely

A new study predicts a median 40-fold increase in flood frequency by 2050

Where to Go if You Want to See Manhattanhenge in 2017

It's the most anticipated sunset of the year

The VLF bubble around Earth

A Human-Made "Bubble" of Radio Waves Could Be Shielding Earth From Radiation

Very Low Frequency radio waves have created a protective bubble around the planet

Aspens are one of the American tree species moving northwest.

American Trees are Shifting West

For 86 common species, northwest seems to be best. But why?

How World War I Changed Weather Forecasting for Good

Prior to the Great War, weather forecasters had never considered using mathematical modeling

A woman wears a mask to protect against air pollution in Anyang. New research shows that Northeastern China could get more polluted when there is lest dust in the air.

Dust May Help, Not Harm, Air Pollution in China

When it comes to some of Earth’s smoggiest cities, less dust isn’t necessarily better

The beach is back.

A Beach Disappeared in Ireland 33 Years Ago—Now It's Back

Dooagh Beach is sandy once more

Munch's artistic freakout may have been inspired by mother-of-pearl clouds.

“The Scream” Might Have Been Inspired By a Rare Type of Cloud

Did mother-of-pearl clouds stoke a painter's angst?

Don't grab the galoshes just yet—experts are still not certain if El Niño will develop this year.

The Chance of Another El Niño Is Rising

As the year presses on, the likelihood of another wacky winter has grown

This snapshot shows Jupiter's swirling, banded atmosphere and signature vortices.

“Great Cold Spot” Discovered on Jupiter

The ancient storm was hiding in plain sight

The Sayler Park tornado which struck the Cincinnati area as part of the "Super Outbreak" was a category F5 storm on the Fujita scale, the highest possible rating on the scale.

How 148 Tornadoes in One Day in 1974 Changed Emergency Preparedness

The “super outbreak” flattened towns and killed and injured thousands, all with little warning and in the space of 24 hours

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