Articles

April 24, 2024
Heading into the 2024 Hurricane Season: What Everyone Needs to Know
Heading into the 2024 Hurricane Season: What Everyone Needs to Know

Join us as we approach the start of hurricane season with NHC Director Dr. Mike Brennan as he highlights improvements to NWS products and services, and discusses recent social media chatter on creating a Category 6.

April 3, 2024
A Day That Changed Tornado Research - A Look Back at the 1974 Super Outbreak
A Day That Changed Tornado Research - A Look Back at the 1974 Super Outbreak

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.

April 2, 2024
Eclipse 2024! Sunblock, Scorpions and Double Diamond Rings!
Eclipse 2024! Sunblock, Scorpions and Double Diamond Rings!

Join us for a lively discussion on the 8 April total solar eclipse crossing the U.S., including insights on NASA's Heliophysics Big Year & live streaming the event from Texas!

March 28, 2024
Iridescent Contrail
Iridescent Contrail

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.

By Soumyadeep Mukherjee
March 28, 2024
Weather You Know: Severe Weather Trivia
Weather You Know: Severe Weather Trivia
March 26, 2024
Electrical Storm Over the Strait of Malacca
Electrical Storm Over the Strait of Malacca

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.

By Graeme Guy
March 25, 2024
Triumph from Tragedy: How a Discovery from the 1974 Super Outbreak Saved Countless Lives
Triumph from Tragedy: How a Discovery from the 1974 Super Outbreak Saved Countless Lives

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.

By Bob Henson
March 21, 2024
Clouds Devouring the Sunset
Clouds Devouring the Sunset

I looked out the window and saw the clouds, illuminated by that orange color of the sun at sunset, majestic, losing all dimension and proportion, and when I made several clicks I noticed the figure that was formed in the clouds, those of an immense shark , about to devour everything in its path, the clouds, the afternoon and the unwary, like me, crouched on a plane, flying straight into its jaws

By Carlos Gustavo Blanco Matus
March 19, 2024
Fata Morgana in the Arctic
Fata Morgana in the Arctic

Fata Morgana is a pretty simple physics principle. When there is a large difference in temperature between a surface and the air immediately above it, this causes a thermal inversion due to the difference in density that bends the light making objects on the horizon appear lengthened or raised up.

By Ellie Van Os
March 15, 2024
You, Science, and the Sun: Be a Citizen Scientist During the April 8 Eclipse!
You, Science, and the Sun: Be a Citizen Scientist During the April 8 Eclipse!

Did you know that you can observe the wonder of the upcoming April 8 solar eclipse AND make an important contribution to science at the same time? Learn about citizen science projects taking place on eclipse day and find out how you can help to contribute potentially groundbreaking data. 

March 14, 2024
Fogbow Over Pack Ice
Fogbow Over Pack Ice

In the arctic winter, the air is cold and the water is frozen and out of circulation, therefore the atmosphere is clear. With summer warming comes cracks in the pack ice. As the dark water is warmed by the atmosphere, water droplets escape into the atmosphere forming fog and clouds. 

By Ellie Van Os
March 12, 2024
Avalanche Safety 101
Avalanche Safety 101

Join the Weather Band for an educational webinar on avalanches, featuring expert insights on identifying risk factors, weather influences, and safety measures.

March 8, 2024
Mapping Inequity
Mapping Inequity

Air pollution does not affect all populations equally, and a new website seeks 
to highlight disparities in the United States by mapping exposure to particulate airborne 
matter, known as PM2.5, by various demographics.

March 6, 2024
These Data Are for the Birds
These Data Are for the Birds

As the lowest layer of the tropo­sphere, the planetary boundary layer (PBL) connects the atmosphere to Earth’s surface and significantly influences weather and climate, which means “understanding PBL dynamics is fundamental to answering a lot of questions about the Earth system.”

March 4, 2024
"Once in a Generation": The 2022 Buffalo Blizzard A Research Spotlight from 32WAF/28NWP/20Meso
"Once in a Generation":  The 2022 Buffalo Blizzard A Research Spotlight from 32WAF/28NWP/20Meso

At the height of the 2022 holiday travel season in New York, a four-day blizzard and lake-effect snow event knocked out power for more than 100,000 people, paralyzed emergency services and holiday travel, and left at least 47 dead.

March 1, 2024
Eclipse 2024: Solar Science in Action
Eclipse 2024: Solar Science in Action

Learn how to take part in citizen science projects during the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse! Now is your chance to connect with scientists and contribute to important discoveries!

March 1, 2024
Citizen Science: Advancing Weather and Climate Science One Observation at a Time
Citizen Science: Advancing Weather and Climate Science One Observation at a Time

Learn how citizen scientists contribute to weather forecasting by participating in programs like CoCoRaHS, NWS COOP, and Skywarn, which helps to improve forecast accuracy and warning systems.
 

March 1, 2024
Global Weather Modeling: Where We Are, and What the Future Holds
Global Weather Modeling: Where We Are, and What the Future Holds

Our experts highlighted the significance of global weather models in forecasting, discussing their recent performance improvements and upcoming upgrades.

February 29, 2024
Recent Extreme Events and What Is on the Horizon
Recent Extreme Events and What Is on the Horizon

Experts discuss ongoing extreme weather events in 2024, including snowstorms, the Polar Vortex, El Niño impacts, and upcoming severe weather, highlighting recent impacts and expectations for spring and summer.

February 29, 2024
Science Communication in Today's Media Landscape
Science Communication in Today's Media Landscape

The panel looks at the coverage of weather events by the media, including story selection, geographic bias, and maintaining public trust in news sources, offering insights on effective science communication.

February 29, 2024
Attribution Science: Helping to Understand Weather in a Changing Climate
Attribution Science: Helping to Understand Weather in a Changing Climate

Climate Central and the American Meteorological Society explore attribution science, highlighting climate change's impact on weather, from extreme events to everyday temperatures, and how meteorologists are integrating these insights into their work and using new tools to understand how our changing climate is changing our weather.

February 12, 2024
Catching Electrical Storms
Catching Electrical Storms

Living on Penang Island, Graeme Guy witnessed frequent tropical storms and waterspouts emanating from local weather conditions, especially those building up over mainland Malaysia. Using a specific photographic protocol and tracking lightning strikes from a website, he captured stunning images of electrical storms, showcasing the dramatic natural beauty of the region. 

By Graeme Guy
February 9, 2024
Picking Up the Pace
Picking Up the Pace

56.7% — The probability of a hurricane’s maximum intensification rate in a 24-hour window being 20 knots (23 miles per hour) or greater for the years 2001–20—an increase from 42.3% for the years 1971–90. 

February 8, 2024
The Melt That Changed The World
The Melt That Changed The World

~8,000 years ago — The melting of a Canadian ice sheet appears to have triggered a major change in Earth’s climate, according to a study in Quaternary Science Advances. 

January 25, 2024
Question of the Day Challenge: AMS in Baltimore
Question of the Day Challenge: AMS in Baltimore