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Category Archives: Severe Weather
Has this year’s tornado activity been abnormal?
Preliminary reports from the Storm Prediction Center tally higher than the historical averages though May 2024. Continue reading
Category: Climate, Meteorology, Severe Weather
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Do tornadoes occur over all parts of Earth?
The only continent that has not recorded a tornado is Antarctica. Otherwise, tornadoes can happen in just about any location.
North America, and specifically the United States, accounts for more than 75% of the world’s reported tornadoes. Other tornado-prone areas around the globe include western Canada, Argentina, the western Mediterranean, Japan, Bangladesh, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Continue reading
Category: Meteorology, Phenomena, Severe Weather
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How does hail get its shape?
Hail is precipitation in the form of balls or chunks of ice.
Hailstones begin as small ice particles that grow primarily by accretion; to grow large, they require abundant water droplets. As the hailstone moves up and down through a storm, it collides with water droplets and ice crystals, growing larger with each collision. Hailstones can be smaller than peas or as large as oranges and grapefruits. The small hailstones are roughly spherical in shape, while large ones can take on jagged shapes. Continue reading
Has there been a sudden stratospheric warming this year?
The stratosphere, which begins approximately 6 miles above the cold poles and 10 miles above the tropics, is where the temperature increases with altitude. Temperatures increase because ozone molecules in the stratospheric ozone layer absorb solar ultraviolet energy within the stratosphere. Air flow in the stratosphere is much less turbulent than in the troposphere. For this reason, jet aircraft pilots like to cruise at stratospheric altitudes so the flight is less bumpy. In polar regions, the top of the stratosphere extends upward to around 30 miles.
The polar vortex is a band of strong winds high in the atmosphere that spins counterclockwise around the North Pole. At the southern edge of the vortex is the polar jet stream, which separates warm air to its south from increasingly colder air to its north. Continue reading
Category: Phenomena, Severe Weather
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Are drones used in meteorology?
Unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, have been used to make weather observations for half a century. Over the past decade there has been a wider application of drones in meteorology due in part to technological developments.
Drones can provide critical research observations of weather systems. For about a decade, NOAA has partnered with NASA to fly the Global Hawk high-altitude unmanned aircraft to observe and study how hurricanes form and intensify. High-resolution photographs from low-flying drones are used to understand and document wind and flood damage associated with severe weather. They also help to better assess storm intensity based on the damage. Continue reading
