Articles

It is important to monitor how your body feels in the heat. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), extreme heat caused more emergency department visits associated with heat-related illnesses in May – September 2023 than previous years, especially among males ages 18-64. So, what actions can you take to prepare for extreme heat this summer?

Green sky supercell in Huntersville. 

BAMS spoke with Elizabeth Rush about her new book, The Quickening: Creation and Community at the Ends of the Earth. Rush is also the author of Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and her work has appeared in a wide range of publications from The New York Times to Orion and Guernica. 

Discover the stories and observations of the AMS Weather Band community during the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse.

Weather You Know: Severe Weather Trivia Night (May 2, 2024)

What we see represented in this photo is what some would call a rare opportunity to capture. The phenomenon is referred to as "Circumhorizontal arc" or some call it a "fire rainbow" or a "sundog". This occurrence was my first experience seeing one of these in person and it couldn't have been any better! The brightness and clearness of it lasted for about 10 minutes and was seen from people hundreds of miles away so it was definitely enjoyed by a lot of people.

On May 3, 1999, the first-ever tornado to receive the "tornado emergency" distinction tore across central Oklahoma. That tornado was so high-end, and so close to a large metropolitan area, that forecasters decided to invoke "emergency" to convey a sense of the unusually serious peril. 

I have written, recorded, and donated this song in the hopes that it is heard by many people. It was my intention to portray a positive message that may help to assuage the pervasive gloom & doom surrounding this subject. I invite you to listen, and maybe it will help move the needle. We all need to do our part!

NHC Director Dr. Mike Brennan highlights improvements to NWS products and services and discusses recent social media chatter on creating a Category 6.
 

The 2023 Weather Band Photo Contest winners, Kristy Sharkey, Elan Azriel, and Michael Seger shared the stories behind their stunning photos. Alan Sealls moderated as they discussed their winning entries and offered insights into great weather photography.

As a long-time meteorologist, I have known of and have been watching for the Green Flash whenever I ventured to the coast at sunset. Those efforts were unsuccessful until about four years ago when I moved to the central California coast and began photographing sunsets regularly with a telephoto lens.

Gardeners are well aware of the effects of weather on their plants. The timing and amount of rain, snow, heat, cold, sun, or clouds can impact the performance of their plantings. Climate plays an important role, as well, with some perennial flowers, trees, and shrubs better able to handle colder winter extremes than others. To help gardeners know what plants should be able to survive the winters in their region, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) publishes maps of Plant Hardiness Zones, and these maps were recently updated for the first time since 2012.

A Pilot Report over Lake Ontario near Rochester (ROC), New York showing high wind from the east which caused a mountain wave near Rochester west of the mountains.

Do you ever stop to smell flowers? Sit back and watch the clouds? I’m a huge proponent of purposefully immersing oneself in nature (or lazily basking in the sunshine). Mindfulness lets me find those little moments in nature most people miss and lets the weather come to me instead of me deliberating chasing it. Those moments are the best for any weather photography.

Matthew Brown of the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) in Norman, Oklahoma, on a typical day on the job as a postdoctoral fellow.

Join our special 90-minute webinar discussing the historic April 3-4, 1974 tornado outbreak, which devastated 13 states and Ontario with at least 148 tornadoes, including the most F5 tornadoes from a single event.

Some of AMS Maestros are getting ready to experience the April 8, 2024 Total Solar Eclipse. Check out what they are doing to get ready, and join AMS Weather Band before and after the eclipse for webinars and ways you can get involved!

NASA Heliophysist Dr. Lika Guhathakurta and Dave Jones of StormCenter Communications discuss all you need to know about the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse and more!

Robert L. “Bob” Russell spoke with AMS Executive Director Emeritus Keith Seitter about Russell’s book, Thor’s Apprentice, on the new AMS Author Webinar Series. Thor’s Apprentice is his thought-provoking fictional story of the potential good and evil of on-demand weather modification.

Back in 2020, when I started taking interest and practicing astrophotography, images of different optical phenomenon caught my attention. The beauty and colours of halos, rainbows, and iridescence was something that I fell for and started imaging those, whenever I had a chance.

Graeme Guy was born in Wellington, New Zealand. He had appointments as a biochemistry researcher in Australia, England and Singapore. A major interest for most of his life has been nature photography with all the natural world being potential targets. While living in Singapore Graeme founded the Nature Photographic Society of Singapore. In his scientific career, he has published over 100 scientific papers and retired in 2011.

It took quite a while for scientists to gauge the full scope of the damage produced by the 1974 Super Outbreak. One fateful step in this process was when the eminent tornado researcher Tetsuya Theodore “Ted” Fujita flew over and photographed damage tracks. What Fujita discovered in those survey flights a half-century ago ended up transforming aviation safety, and likely saving many thousands of lives.