A high risk for severe weather is in place for the Midwest this evening as a life-threatening severe weather outbreak unfolds. Meteorologists issued the highest risk possible as they are now expecting a derecho, or a dangerous line of thunderstorms that produces destructive hurricane-force winds over hundreds of miles.
The Storm Prediction Center is forecasting a major severe weather outbreak in the Central Plains and Midwest today, which could include strong tornadoes, damaging winds, and large hail. There's some uncertainty in the forecast, but severe weather indices are off the charts and if the storms form, they could mean business.
A severe thunderstorm watch covering much of the state of Maine last Monday brought out the typical "this NEVER happens!" commentary, but really, how common are severe weather watches around the United States?
Welcome to meteorological summer. For the next three months, we're going to sweat, run for our lives, and anxiously wait for student loan debt to kick in. It's already off to a rocky start, with a 20% chance of tropical development in the Gulf of Mexico this week and a severe weather outbreak in the midwest.
Heavy rainfall last week helped to alleviate some of the drought plaguing the Texas Panhandle (as well as parts of Oklahoma and New Mexico), but overall it was a drop in the bucket towards bringing the area back to normal.
When the forecast calls for "scattered thunderstorms," this is what they're talking about.
A few months ago, a physicist claimed that we could stop tornadoes by building a series of 150-foot wide walls that are 1,000 feet tall and cost $60 billion for every hundred miles. It's a bunch of crap, of course, but the real solution is to both stop building so many houses and stop having so many kids.
There's more than meets the eye when it comes to the politics of hurricanes. Two names were so controversial in 2001 that they caused an uproar and were immediately removed from the list. Another infamous storm nearly caused a brawl among meteorologists.
A phenomenon known as "Manhattanhenge" will make its biannual appearance before sunset this evening in New York City. The event occurs when the sun perfectly aligns itself down the middle of any east-west street in Manhattan, bringing people outside in masses to try to get pictures of the occurrence.
This may win the award for the strangest news banter of the year. She's confused, he's confused, there's an anchor doing court-ordered community service. It's a mess.
Imagine being the person who can save an entire city's population from injury and death with just a few clicks of your mouse. This simulator from the National Weather Service lets you test your abilities and see if you've got what it takes to do just that.
A well-defined low pressure system over Texas and Oklahoma this afternoon is producing an awesome sight on satellite imagery, including a classic comma shape and even an eye-like feature in the middle of it.
At 430PM EDT, a rare supercell in central Vermont has a hook echo on it and strong rotation on radar, prompting a tornado warning for Windsor and Rutland Counties. The storm has a history of producing wind damage and hail up to the size of golf balls.
Who says that you need to drown in math, debt, and tears to get an education? If you're in the mood for some book learnin', there is an awesome resource that allows you to access hundreds of lessons about weather and climatology, and it's all completely free.
A group of oil workers in North Dakota had to flee by car on Monday as a large tornado came straight for their camp. As they were leaving, they took incredible video of the tornado from almost directly underneath it.
In 2003, Barbra Streisand frantically tried to censor pictures of her home in Malibu after someone posted them online. In 2003, millions of people saw pictures of Barbra Streisand's home in Malibu. In what became known as the Streisand effect, attempts to suppress information about something usually backfires and leads to even more publicity for the supposedly secret thing.
