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On May 21, 2024, DOW radars near Greenfield, IA, recorded EF4 tornado windspeeds of 309-318 mph, among the fastest ever! Hear from scientists who've gotten up close with tornadoes in 2024, and learn how the NSF-funded BEST project will enhance tornado prediction and safety.

Sixty percent of lightning and three-quarters of lightning fatalities in the U.S. occurs between June and August. Keep an eye on the weather forecast before your outdoor plans and consider postponing if thunderstorms are expected. If you’re outside and you hear thunder, just remember: When thunder roars, go indoors!

Strong microburst during a summer thunderstorm.

As an AMS member spanning four decades, I am sharing recent research and resources that should attract and inform anyone interested in California’s weather and climate. We are sharing a colorful and informative website that includes California weather stories and updates from each season. Surf through our stories and enjoy learning about the latest from the Golden State. You might even want to contribute some of your discoveries to our website in the form of stories, images, or links to other research.

PROBLEM: Satellites collect a wealth of information about Earth, but data they collect about the planet’s water bodies either have high spatial detail with just occasional updates or lower spatial detail with more frequent updates, forcing scientists to choose between accuracy and frequency. Data fusion, which combines data snapshots from multiple sources, is used as a workaround but is limited by sensitivity to atmospheric disturbances and other climatic factors that can result in noise, outliers, and missing data.

SOLUTION: ...

Whatever coastline is in your summer plans, always respect the water and remember that where weather, water, waves, and people meet, stay situationally aware to keep the lifeguards dry and your holiday safe and fun. 
 

Q: When increasing greenhouse gases (GHGs) help to further heat Earth’s atmosphere and oceans, water evaporates more easily from the warmed seas and into the warmer air that can hold more water vapor, which should lead to more precipitation. Why then have many studies not clearly shown twentieth-century precipitation increases in concert with GHG levels?

Ginger Zee, chief meteorologist and chief climate correspondent of the Climate Unit at ABC News in New York, on experiences she pursued to improve her on-air skills. For more, listen to the Clear Skies Ahead podcast (https://blubrry.com/clear_skies_ahead/), with new episodes released every month.

Lines or complexes of thunderstorms can have far greater impacts than a single storm. Hear from experts about these monster events, field campaigns to study them, and their future in a warming climate. 

If you have awakened in the middle of the night to the sound of thunder and heavy rain, chances are, you have experienced a Mesoscale Convective System (MCS), or perhaps it’s larger sibling, the Mesoscale Convective Complex (MCC.) Using modern remote sensing tools and some good old fashioned ground truth observations, we can easily form an accurate picture of these weather systems and their impacts.

A storm on top of the Mekong River, one of the biggest rivers in south Asia.

See how our 51st Conference on Broadcast Meteorology Blue IQ Event participants learned how to interpret beach forecasts and conditions to avoid dangerous situations, the challenges of water rescues, and effective communication for beach safety.

Sky on fire.

Usually I travel with my camera, but as a rule I use it only when nature or the weather is in a rare or unusual condition. As a result of that night, I took about 300 shots and only one was lucky for me - I managed to catch a very beautiful lightning bolt right over Bangkok.
 

Chasing a Kansas supercell. 

The day after my 28th wedding anniversary, the day of the photo and last day of my recovery before returning to work as a television meteorologist, I was watching radar from home as storms developed across the Panhandle of Texas. I’ve looked at hundreds of storm structure diagrams over the years so I know the mechanics, but there is nothing like seeing them at work in person.

 During World War II, sailors on U.S. Navy ships in the Pacific Ocean were required to log meteorological conditions every hour. How can this valuable data be made more easily accessible?

Superbolts are 1,000 times more energetic than the average lightning bolt. Although they comprise less than 1% of all lightning, they can wreak havoc on ships and infrastructure when they do strike.

It is important to monitor how your body feels in the heat. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), extreme heat caused more emergency department visits associated with heat-related illnesses in May – September 2023 than previous years, especially among males ages 18-64. So, what actions can you take to prepare for extreme heat this summer?

Green sky supercell in Huntersville. 

BAMS spoke with Elizabeth Rush about her new book, The Quickening: Creation and Community at the Ends of the Earth. Rush is also the author of Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and her work has appeared in a wide range of publications from The New York Times to Orion and Guernica. 

Discover the stories and observations of the AMS Weather Band community during the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse.

Weather You Know: Severe Weather Trivia Night (May 2, 2024)