You are driving west of Phoenix on a July afternoon when the horizon goes wrong. The sky ahead is not blue. It is brown, from the ground to the clouds, and it is moving toward you at highway speed. The radio crackles a dust storm warning. You have maybe three minutes before the world disappears. … Read more
You cannot see it, but you can feel it on your face, watch it bend trees, and hear it howl through windows. Wind is the atmosphere breathing. And once you understand how wind works, you start to see every breeze as part of a global machine. Wind is simply air in motion. When meteorologists talk … Read more
A thunderstorm in July should not be dropping ice. But it does, and some of those ice balls are the size of baseballs, falling at highway speeds. Understanding how hail forms is the first step to knowing when danger is overhead. The contradiction is what makes hail so unnerving. The air temperature at ground level … Read more
The sky darkens without warning. A gust of cool wind arrives first, kicking up dust and bending tree branches. Then the first low rumble rolls across the countryside, and the show has already started. A thunderstorm is a rain shower with lightning and thunder. About 16 million ignite each year worldwide, with roughly 2,000 active … Read more
Learn how tornadoes form from supercell thunderstorms, why Tornado Alley is shifting east into the Southeast, and the safety steps that save lives when warnings sound.
A derecho is a widespread, long-lived straight-line windstorm that can produce hurricane-force gusts across hundreds of miles, without any rotation. Often called an inland hurricane, the costliest thunderstorm in American history was the 2020 Midwest derecho that carved a 770-mile path and caused $11.2 billion in damage. In simple terms: A derecho is a wall … Read more
A sprawling June 2026 storm outbreak is putting more than 90 million Americans under severe weather alerts. From deadly tornadoes in the Midwest to flash floods in the Gulf Coast and a punishing heat wave on the West Coast, the nation is battling extreme weather on three fronts simultaneously. Here is what is happening, region … Read more
Climate change is making hailstorms bigger, more damaging, and more frequent in unexpected places. Two landmark 2026 studies published in Nature and Nature Climate Change provide the clearest picture yet: hail-prone conditions are shifting poleward, hailstones are growing larger, and the seasonal timing of hail is changing in ways that could catch farmers and insurers … Read more
A phone vibrates on a kitchen counter. Outside, the sky has turned the color of bruised steel. When a tornado warning arrives, knowing how tornadoes work can turn a few minutes of confusion into a clear safety decision. Tornadoes are rotating columns of air that can level buildings, toss vehicles, and reshape landscapes in minutes, … Read more