Hurricane and tornado winds spin in circles, but there’s another, equally dangerous storm type where winds barrel straight ahead. They’re called derechos, and are most common in summer.
Salvaging items from a destroyed home near Lebanon, Tenn., March 3, 2020, after tornadoes ripped across the state.
AP Photo/Mark Humphrey
In the Southeast US, tornadoes strike at night more often than in other regions. This poses special challenges for getting early warnings to the public.
The wreckage in Nashville was extreme.
AP Photo/Wade Payne
Government agencies have detailed plans for responding to disasters, like the Dec. 10-11, 2021 tornados. But one issue doesn’t get enough attention: cleaning up the mess left behind.
Cars sit submerged in water from Hurricane Dorian in Freeport, Bahamas.
AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa
The usual way we calculate the economic damage of natural disasters underestimates their true toll – which is key to understanding the costs of climate change.
Hurricane Michael reportedly caused an estimated $25 billion in damage. But that doesn’t tell the whole story.
Reuters/Jonathan Bachman
With hurricane season comes the usual efforts by insurance companies and government agencies to calculate the economic costs. An economist explains how they’re doing it wrong.
Being one of a series of disasters made relief in Puerto Rico harder to come by after Hurricane Maria.
AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa
European tornadoes may not come along as often as their US counterparts but they are a real threat and need to be taken seriously.
Brenda Bradley, 72, and her husband Jimmie, 78, survey flooding from Hurricane Harvey in their neighborhood in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, August 28, 2017.
AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis
Evacuations and disruptions to health care during and after disasters like Hurricane Harvey are serious threats for older adults, who may need support well after relief operations end.
U.S. Army Spc. Pam Anderson applies first-aid medical attention to an elderly man during flood relief operations just outside of Winona, Minnesota, August 20, 2007.
Staff Sgt. Daniel Ewer, U.S. Army
New research shows that older people are especially at risk during and after natural disasters, and may need medical help or other support well after relief operations end.
Debris litters the neighborhood where multiple members of the same family were killed in a tornado in Beauregard, Ala., March 5, 2019.
AP Photo/David Goldman
Tornado forecasting has greatly improved in recent decades, but these dangerous storms can still take communities by surprise. Two meteorologists explain what causes tornadoes and how to stay safe.
Survivors leave Tohoku a day after the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Warren Antiola/Flickr
Disaster preparations often focus on gear and logistics, but research in Japan after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami shows that strong social ties played a key role in helping communities rebound.
Time to get inside? A dust storm approaches.
Zooey/flickr