The key ingredients for a storm to undergo bombogenesis are an unstable atmosphere, temperature differences and high-speed winds in the upper atmosphere.
Strict rules guide the official count for how much solid precipitation fell.
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It’s hard to get accurate measurements, but a nationwide network of more than 8,000 volunteers with rulers and specific standards reports after every storm.
The Sun rises in Midland, Michigan, shortly after 8a.m. on Jan. 13, 2017.
Christian Collins/Flickr
New Orleans has about a 40% chance of getting hit by a tropical storm in any given year. Here’s how heat, winds and the shape of the seafloor raise the hurricane damage risk.
Sunrise in Stone Harbor, New Jersey.
Robert D. Barnes via Getty Images
The US is shifting to a new set of climate ‘normals’ – data sets averaged over the past 30 years. But normal is a relative concept in a time of climate change.
While land tornadoes are associated with huge supercell thunderstorms, waterspouts can form during smaller storms or even just showers or the presence of the right kind of clouds.
The interaction of solar winds and the Earth’s atmosphere produces the northern lights that dance across the night sky.
(Benjamin Suter/Unsplash)
It has only been in the past century that weather prediction on Earth has advanced enough to work two weeks in advance. Predicting space weather, however, is only reliable an hour in advance.
Internal waves can create pretty cloud shapes in the sky, as well as making life unpleasant for passengers on aeroplanes. And in the oceans they can be a deadly hazard to submarines.
A man of genius – but his ideas were not to the benefit of all humankind.
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Smart people can have really bad ideas – like selectively breeding human beings to improve the species. Put into practice, Galton’s concept proved discriminatory, damaging, even deadly.
Ramping up fossil power sources is no longer a good option in an energy-supply crisis. Bring in the weather forecasters.
When Hurricane Dorian, seen here from the International Space Station, stalled over the Bahamas in September 2019, its winds, rain and storm surge devastated the islands.
NASA
Laura went from a tropical storm to a major hurricane in less than 24 hours, sending coastal residents scrambling to prepare. Hurricanes Harvey and Michael exploded in strength in similar ways.