Some rainstorms drench you in a second, while others drop rain in a nice peaceful drizzle. A meteorologist explains how rainstorms can be so different.
They may look comfy to sit on but you’d plummet through and hit the ground.
Sam Schooler/Unsplash
Earth’s biggest rivers are streams of warm water vapor in the atmosphere that can cause huge rain and snowfall over land. Climate change is making them longer, wetter and stronger.
Why does the impact of rain in a puddle look different from when it falls elsewhere, like in a lake or the ocean? A ‘puddle equation’ dives deep into the secret math of ripples.
Historic flooding in the Midwest, including this farm in Nebraska, has caused widespread damage.
DroneBase via AP
A climatologist who studies precipitation trends explains how climate change is projected to make flooding events in the Midwest more severe and more frequent.
The heat makes the drought even worse, because it makes the plants more thirsty so they have to drink more.
Tim J Keegan/flickr
We can’t make it rain. But you are already helping if you don’t use more water than you need. And you can talk to your parents about the planet getting warmer, because the heat makes drought worse.
Zambezi river delta, snapped by Landsat 8 in March 2018.
NASA
Satellites hundreds of miles overheard are helping scientists to predict drought, track floods and see how climate change is changing access to water resources.
ZCC members at Moria City.
Sowetan/Edward Maahlamela
Twice every day the Bureau of Meteorology sends out the official weather forecasts for towns and cities across Australia. Here’s how we work out what to say in them.
Storm clouds move over the Illawarra south of Sydney on Wednesday, November 28 2018. Sydney received more than a month’s worth of rain in just two hours, with Observatory Hill recording 84.6mm by 7am. The November average is 83.8mm.
Dean Lewins/AAP
Bushfires across Queensland are fanned by high winds pushed north by a strong low in NSW.
As water vapour (gas) cools, it slows down. The small parts, the molecules, start to gather together, especially on cold things like a cool leaf.
Flickr/Richard Nix
Ants have many tricks to deal with rain – like holding their breath, blocking nest entrances or drinking excess water and releasing it elsewhere by ‘communal peeing.’ But can they see rain coming?
Your nose knows what’s on the way.
Lucy Chian/Unsplash