An image from the International Space Station captures plumes of smoke from California wildfires on August 4, 2018.
NASA
Haze from Northern California wildfires has drifted as far east as Philadelphia. Wildfire smoke contains many potentially toxic substances, so anyone exposed to it should take basic precautions.
Icy hailstones can do major damage, depending where they land.
AP Photo/Nati Harnik
The future climate that scientists predict for the middle of the United States is one that will foster more hail events with bigger hailstones.
Rising tides move closer to the dunes in Kill Devil Hills, N.C., Sept. 13, 2018, as Hurricane Florence approaches the east coast.
AP Photo/Gerry Broome
Don’t believe the skeptics or the conspiracy theorists: Weather forecasters can’t slant hurricane warnings to make political points.
Hurricane Florence, as seen over the Atlantic Ocean on Sept. 9.
NOAA NWS National Hurricane Center/Handout via REUTERS
How do experts know when and where the next big hurricane is going to hit? A look at the complicated science of forecasting.
Shutterstock
Technology can only go so far in making sense of our vast and intricate atmosphere.
Forest fires in Huelva, southern Spain. August 6, 2018.
David Arjona / EPA
And how long before such extreme heatwaves become the ‘new norm’ across the region?
Finally, our national obsession with weather is useful for something.
www.shutterstock.com
Yesterday’s weather helps make sense of today’s, but how will this change as the climate changes?
One one thousand, two one thousand….
Eric Ward/Unsplash
When you see a bolt of lightning, do you immediately start counting to see how far off a storm is? An atmospheric scientist parses the practice.
Snow on the ground after a winter storm.
NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response
Why can’t meteorologists call the weather correctly every time? Blame the battle of the weather models.
Cumulonimbus: heavy rain and thunder on the horizon.
Shutterstock
The skies can tell us when there might be trouble ahead.
A blizzard in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, in 2005.
Greg Younger
Governments and private companies have been seeding clouds to create snow for decades, without proof that it actually works. A recent study peered into clouds in search of answers.
The air doesn’t like to be under pressure just like us. The wind is the result of the air trying to escape from high pressure.
Mami Kempe / The Conversation
Wind is just air moving from one place where there is high pressure to another place where there is low pressure.
University of Maine, Climate Change Institute
But it’s too early to tell whether climate change is to blame.
Only clouds that are tall with big water drops can make rain, but they also stop most of the light, which makes them look grey.
Marcella Cheng/The Conversation
To answer this question from Fiona, age 6, we need to know some things about clouds and light.
A storm damaged car abandoned on a roundabout in Bracknell, Berkshire.
PA Archive
At the time, their existence was unknown.
A tornado in the town of Sonnac, France, in September, 2015.
Axel Guibourg/wikimedia
European tornadoes may not come along as often as their US counterparts but they are a real threat and need to be taken seriously.
Tampa residents take a rare chance for a stroll on the seabed.
REUTERS/Adrees Latif
Pictures of ocean bays emptied of water as Hurricane Irma moved through the Caribbean and Florida show that storm surges can move away from the coast, as well as onto it.
The rainfall from Harvey has now exceeded the amount from the previous record-bearer, Tropical Storm Amelia in 1978.
AP Photo/Charlie Riedel
An expert in extreme weather events explains why the rain – and thus flooding – associated with Hurricane Harvey has been ‘unprecedented.’
Hiscox and students practice for the big day with a weather balloon.
Joshua Burrack
Meteorology researchers across the country are prepping experiments for the mini-night the eclipse will bring on August 21 – two minutes and 36 seconds without the sun in the middle of the day.
The stereotype of the conventionally attractive female weather reporter is alive and well on Australian television.
Azuzl/shutterstock.com
The weather segment at the end of news bulletins has stuck to a familiar format for more than 50 years. But the question of who should actually present the weather has been in a constant state of flux.