The heart of U.S. tornado activity, once Tornado Alley, has shifted eastward.
Brent Koops/NOAA Weather in Focus Photo Contest 2015
Studies show tornadoes are getting more common and more intense, and they’re shifting eastward to a new tornado hot spot.
Cloud seeding equipment near Winter Park in Colorado.
Denver Water
Several states are experimenting with weather modification to try to generate snow as water supplies shrink. An atmospheric scientist explains the history behind it – and the challenges.
Ragweed pollen, instigator of headaches and itchy eyes across the U.S.
Bob Sacha/Corbis Documentary via Getty Images
Rising temperatures mean longer, earlier pollen seasons, but the bigger problem is what carbon dioxide will do to the amount of pollen being released. A 200% increase is possible this century.
Snowmaking machines blow cold water, which freezes before it hits the ground.
Alexander Uhrin/iStock via Getty Images
Snowmaking machines can produce enough snow to cover a run, but artificial snow is very different from natural flakes that fall from the sky.
Boston got socked with nearly 2 feet of snow in late January 2022.
Scott Eisen/Getty Images
Winters are getting warmer, yet Bostonians were digging out from nearly 2 feet of snow from a historic blizzard in late January. Why is the Northeast seeing more big snowstorms like this?
A bomb cyclone over the U.S. East Coast on Jan. 4, 2017.
NOAA/CIRA
The key ingredients for a storm to undergo bombogenesis are an unstable atmosphere, temperature differences and high-speed winds in the upper atmosphere.
Sunrise over a bog in Eastern Europe.
Adamikarl/Shutterstock
Recent estimates put atmospheric methane at 1,900 parts per billion – close to triple its pre-industrial average.
The volcano shortly before its eruption.
Maxar via Getty Images
A phenomenon first theorized over 200 years ago is also a telltale sign of nuclear tests.
The Sun rises in Midland, Michigan, shortly after 8a.m. on Jan. 13, 2017.
Christian Collins/Flickr
The winter solstice is past, but bundle up – January is when winter really arrives in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere.
Damage in Mayfield, Kentucky, after a tornado swept through the area on Dec. 11, 2021.
Brett Carlsen/Getty Images
Tornadoes in December aren’t unusual in the Gulf Coast and lower Mississippi Valley states, but the Dec. 10-11 outbreak was extreme and far-reaching.
Syukuro Manabe and his colleague Joseph Smagorinsky in 1972.
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Labor / EPA
A 1967 study by Nobel-winner Syukuro Manabe changed climate science forever
Lightning during a monsoon storm in southern Arizona, Saguaro National Park.
Pete Gregoire, NOAA
Monsoons are weather patterns that bring thunderstorms and heavy rains to hot, dry areas when warm, moist ocean air moves inland. They’re challenging to forecast, especially in a changing climate.
John A Davis/Shutterstock
Depending on who you ask, the northern lights may, very occasionally, sound like ‘rustling silk’ or ‘two planks meeting flat ways’.
Temperatures in normally warm Texas plunged into the teens in February 2021, knocking out power for a population unaccustomed to cold, with deadly consequences.
Thomas Shea / AFP via Getty Images
Counter to what you might expect, events like the February cold wave that froze Texas can actually become more likely with global warming.
The eruption of Krakatoa in 1883 sent volcanic dust and gases circling the Earth, creating spectacular sunsets captured by artists.
William Ashcroft via Houghton Library/Harvard University
The Rev. Sereno Edwards Bishop mobilized ship captains to track the extraordinary sunsets appearing around the world after Krakatau erupted in 1883.
The Sun over Earth, seen from the International Space Station.
NASA
When heat in doesn’t equal heat out, Earth sees changes.
Advance warning of high pollen levels could help people plan their activities to avoid allergies.
Dobrila Vignjevic/E+ via Getty Images
Scientists are building a pollen forecasting model using meteorology, botany, pollen count numbers and satellite imagery to help people plan ahead.
In high alpine terrain, sun and dry air can turn snow straight into water vapor.
Jeffrey Pang/WikimediaCommons
As rivers run dry in the Rocky Mountains and the West, it’s easy to wonder where all the snow you see on mountain peaks goes. Some of it ends up in the air, but researchers aren’t sure how much.
NASA
Rain near Japan triggered a heat wave in North America. To know our future, we have a lot to learn about what drives extreme weather.
Mars northern polar cap, photographed by the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
New results show why and how water is disappearing from Mars atmosphere.