Articles tagged as Weather | Smithsonian Magazine

New Research

Chill Ways to Recycle Last Year’s Snow

Let it snow!

November 1, 2016

Two natural color images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft show the changing appearance of Saturn's north polar region between 2012 and 2016.

New Research

The Swirling Storm Above Saturn’s North Pole Changed Colors

The years-long shift may be a sign of changing seasons

October 27, 2016

Dry conditions have dulled fall's gorgeous New England show.

Parched conditions in New England equal milder colors

October 25, 2016

In her new book, the acclaimed Thunder & Lightning: Weather, Past, Present and Future, Lauren Redniss is intrigued by how people have coped with, survived, or failed in extreme weather situations.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

How the 2016 MacArthur Genius Award Recipient Lauren Redniss Is Rethinking Biography

The visual biographer of Marie and Pierre Curie turns to her next subject, weather, lightning and climate change

October 24, 2016

A set of Civil War-era cannonballs were uncovered on a South Carolina beach after Hurricane Matthew.

The destructive storm dug up some old history

October 11, 2016

Two 2001 images from the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter show a dramatic change in the planet's appearance when haze raised by dust-storm activity in the south became globally distributed. The images were taken about a month apart.

New Research

Major Martian Dust Storms Might Soon Envelope the Red Planet

A plus for meteorologists but perhaps bad news for rovers

October 11, 2016

Cool Finds

Why Iceland’s Biggest City Turned Off Its Lights for One Night

Reykjavik decided to pause in the dark to witness one of Earth’s most beautiful phenomena

September 30, 2016

Cool Finds

Record-Breaking Lightning Strikes Force Redefinition of the Thunderbolt

A 199.5-mile-long streak captured the title for world’s longest and a 7.74-second blast won world’s brightest

September 19, 2016

Dwindling sea ice in the Arctic threatens polar bears and causes increased conflict with humans.

With sea ice cover at record lows, polar bear conflict with humans becomes more common

September 15, 2016

The bike on display at the Harley-Davidson Museum.

The Motorcycle That Rode the Tsunami

A Harley, washed out to sea, traveled more than 4,000 miles to its current home

September 12, 2016

Having two cyclones in the ocean is not rare, but when they get too close to each other things can get crazy

September 1, 2016

People sit on a roof waiting to be rescued after Hurricane Katrina

Eleven Years After Katrina, What Lessons Can We Learn Before the Next Disaster Strikes?

Author and playwright John Biguenet offers his thoughts on the narrative of destruction

August 31, 2016

IBM’s Watson Takes On Yet Another Job, as a Weather Forecaster

The integration of the supercomputer and weather stations around the world could have a huge impact on global industry

August 26, 2016

Cool Finds

Calling All Conspiracy Theorists: Alaska’s “Mind-Control Lab” Is Hosting an Open House

Depending on who you ask, HAARP can control minds, weather, and even earthquakes

August 25, 2016

Cool Finds

Summer Heat Turns This Siberian Lake Bright Pink

And it’s not the only one

August 22, 2016

Louisiana's August 2016 flood has destroyed over 40,000 homes and killed at least 13.

Age of Humans

Does Climate Change Fuel Floods? It’s Complicated

Here’s why that question is hard to answer

August 19, 2016

Ew ew ew ew ew

August 15, 2016

An solar storm erupts on April 16, 2012, captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory in the 304 Angstrom wavelength.

New Research

The Solar Storm That Nearly Set the Cold War Ablaze

How radio interference from a 1967 solar storm spooked the U.S. military—and launched space weather forecasting

August 12, 2016

Rising drought. Surging seas. Spiking temperatures. 2015 was just another year in a long pattern of Earth's changing climate.

Age of Humans

World’s Climate Hit Extremes, Shattered Multiple Records in 2015

From rising temperatures and ocean levels to record greenhouse gas levels, 2015 was a rough year for planet Earth

August 4, 2016

We’ve never cared less about a charismatic animal standing forlornly on a rapidly deteriorating landscape.

Podcast: Does Anybody Even Care About the Arctic Anymore?

This week’s episode of Warm Regards asks why our coldest region has gotten the cold shoulder

July 8, 2016