Weather

The best bits of thunderstorms often happen above the clouds. Scientists have now described in detail the most powerful “gigantic jet” of lightning ever observed, which blasted energy equivalent to 60 regular lightning bolts upwards into space.

A lightning strike that lit up the sky across three US states has been confirmed as the longest on record, with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) today certifying the 768-km (477-mile) length of the flash that occurred back in April 2020.

A new type of storm has been discovered in the skies over the Indian Ocean. Named “atmospheric lakes,” these events are slow-moving pools of concentrated water vapor that can last for days and bring large amounts of rain to the surface below them.

After sending a fleet of self-sailing drones into the path of Hurricane Sam to help improve forecast models, Saildrone has now launched three uncrewed surface vehicles into the Gulf Stream winter to gather data on carbon uptake in the ocean.

A new study has revealed yet another way that human-induced climate change is affecting the planet. Decades of weather balloon and satellite data has shown that the Earth’s troposphere is expanding, even after natural variations are accounted for.

Having flexed its muscles in predicting kidney injury, toppling Go champions and solving 50-year-old science problems, artificial intelligence company DeepMind is now dipping its toes in weather forecasting.

Scientists have found evidence of a “space hurricane” for the first time. The storm, made up of swirling clouds of plasma, raged in Earth’s upper atmosphere for hours, dumping huge amounts of electrons like rain in a system that resembles a regular hurricane.

Comprehensive climate data has shown that globally, 2020 was the warmest year on record, tied with 2016. Worryingly, 2020’s record came in spite of a La Niña event, which has a cooling effect, while 2016’s record came off the back of a warming El Niño.

There are worlds out there so weird they’d put Dr. Who writers to shame. The latest to join the ranks is K2-141b, a scorching planet where it rains rocks, winds whip at supersonic speeds and huge swaths of the surface are covered in lava oceans.

Home to constant turbulent weather and the Great Red Spot – a storm bigger than Earth – Jupiter is the storm capital of the solar system. Now NASA’s Juno mission has discovered two new quirks of these storms – shallow lightning and “mushball” hail.

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.

A new study looking at nearly four decades of data has shown that in almost every part of the world where hurricanes form, their strongest winds are getting even stronger, with global warming thought to be a key contributing factor.