Severe Weather

Scientists have demonstrated a more advanced lightning rod than a humble metal stick. Beaming a high-powered laser into the sky was shown to deflect lightning bolts, enabling laser lightning rods that protect a wider area from dangerous strikes.

There are few more spectacular demonstrations of nature's power than a thunderstorm. The World Meteorological Association (WMO) has now confirmed two new records for the biggest lightning bolts in recorded history, measured by duration and distance.

The western United States has been suffering drought since 2000. A new study has examined extreme droughts in the region dating back 1,200 years, and found that the current conditions have the makings of a “megadrought” that could last decades.

The Statement on the State of the Global Climate in 2019 report confirms that last year was another record-breaker, continuing a worrying trend that indicates we’re drifting further off-track from meeting the targets of the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Astronomers may have found a world where it rains iron. The exoplanet is exposed to thousands of times the radiation that the Earth receives from the Sun, rendering the surface hot enough to vaporize metals that later fall as rain.

Australia is currently in one of the worst bushfires on record, and it’s not hard to see why. The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has released a climate statement for 2019, and found that last year was the hottest and driest on record for the continent.

While lightning strikes are generally considered to be a summer phenomenon, the rare and powerful superbolt form doesn't follow suit.

NASA has released images and footage of Hurricane Dorian, as it continues its menacing advance across the Atlantic Ocean.

Hurricanes and water go hand in hand. But researchers from Purdue University and MIT have now made a surprising discovery by tweaking a hurricane simulation – the storms can occur under much colder and drier conditions than previously thought, which may be common on other planets.

The summer of 2018 was marked by extreme weather events like droughts and floods. A new study has pinned the blame on stalled giant waves in the jet stream, and unfortunately they’re expected to only get worse with the changing climate.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has released a Statement on the State of the Climate in 2018. Temperature records were shattered, sea ice shrank and extreme weather events devastated every continent in one of the hottest years on record.​

Depending on where they occur, tropical cyclones are also known as hurricanes or typhoons. No matter what you call them, though, they're caused by the evaporation of warm ocean surface water. Norwegian scientists are now looking at stopping them, by using bubbles to cool that water down.