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Related Topics: Climate Change, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, Earth's Atmosphere

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Ice streaks the sand dunes of the Sahara Desert in northwestern Algeria.

Ice covers the Sahara Desert for just 4th time in 50 years

By Brandon Specktor

The dunes of the northwestern Sahara desert were streaked with ice on Tuesday, creating a surreal landscape

A model showing how warm (red) air may impact the cold (blue) polar vortex that swirls over the North Pole.

Wandering polar vortex may cause a wild, snowy winter

By Laura Geggel

A polar vortex disruption may cause snowy, cold weather in about two weeks.

Hair ice growing from dead wood in the Netherlands

Hikers find ghostly 'hair ice' clinging to trees in an Irish forest

By Brandon Specktor

Hair ice has appeared on rotting trees all over the world, and fungus may be to blame.

People look toward the sun at Stonehenge, as they take part in a winter solstice ceremony at the ancient neolithic monument in England.

Here's the science of the winter solstice

By Laura Geggel

Today's winter solstice will boast the year's fewest hours of daylight for the Northern Hemisphere. Here's why.

Tropical Storm Theta

2020 Atlantic hurricane season shatters record

By Rafi Letzter

Tropical storm Theta cements the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season's status as a record-breaker. And there's still time to run up the score.

A full moon rises

How to watch rare Halloween 'blue moon' tonight

By Rafi Letzter

If anyone's trying to wake some dark spirits, tonight's the night. A "blue moon" and "beaver moon" will rise over All Hallow's Eve.

Satellite imagery shows Hurricane Zeta approaching Louisiana.

How Hurricane Zeta rapidly strengthened before slamming New Orleans

By Rafi Letzter

Zeta was a weakened tropical storm just yesterday. Now it threatens a huge swath of the United States.

An eerie lenticular cloud forms over El Chalten mountain in Argentina

Ghostly 'UFO cloud' hovering over mountains wows judges in weather photo contest

By Brandon Specktor

Lenticular clouds look like saucers and form when wind meets mountains. This photo is one of the Royal Meteorological Society's favorites of the year.

Lightning cracks the sky over Mallorca Spain. According to photographer Marc Marco Ripoll, "I tried many times to catch a good lightning strike behind this rock called Sa Foradada, but every time I tried, the conditions were not so good. This night I knew that a big storm was approaching Mallorca and all the conditions were perfect. I don't remember if the moon was full, but I remember that it was very big. This was perfect, because the moon was going to illuminate all the land and the sea and gives more color to the scene. I chose my composition, and I shot many pictures until the storm fell on me. To see the storm and the lightning that night was something amazing."

'Monster' storms and frozen bison: The most spectacular weather photos of 2020

By Brandon Specktor

Here are the winners of the Royal Meteorological Society's 2020 Weather Photo of the Year contest, sponsored by AccuWeather.

Major Hurricane Delta set to batter Louisiana, where many are still homeless after Laura

By Rafi Letzter

Delta will landfall just miles from the still-devastated Lousiana area where Laura hit in August, continuing a devastating hurricane season.

A National Hurricane Center image shows where heavy rain is expected as Tropical Storm Beta dumps water on the Gulf states.

Tropical storm Beta floods Houston, and days of heavy rainfall are still to come

By Rafi Letzter

Roads are flooded again. Protective dunes destroyed. Louisiana is bracing for another impact. And the season still has much more than a month left to go.

Wildfire smoke from California charges across the country, meeting hurricanes along the way.

Climate fires and hurricanes collide in this shocking NASA satellite image

By Brandon Specktor

An epic series of satellite images shows smokes from the California wildfires clashing with hurricanes in the Eastern United States and Gulf Coast.

A map shows the range of possible paths for the center of Hurricane Sally, though the National Hurricane center said it's still uncertain what direction the storm will go.

Hurricane Sally set to batter a Louisiana still reeling from Hurricane Laura

By Rafi Letzter

Louisiana already has 23,000 climate refugees living in shelters following Hurricane Laura. Hurricane Sally will flood the region beginning today.

Floods and downed power lines surround damaged homes in Holly Beach, Louisiana after Hurricane Laura came ashore Aug. 27.

Record-setting Hurricane Laura kills 4, leaves trail of destruction across Louisiana

By Rafi Letzter

The strongest Gulf hurricane since Katrina barrelled ashore in southwestern Louisiana early this morning (Aug. 27). Floodwaters may not recede for days.

A United States Geological Survey map shows Laura's storm track.

Laura expected to slam into Texas and Louisiana as a Category 3 hurricane

By Rafi Letzter

Tropical storm Laura is now a hurricane, and it's expected to grow even stronger as it whirls toward Louisiana and Texas.

A NASA Earth Observatory image using data from several satellites shows the pair of tropical cyclones headed toward Louisiana and Texas Sunday (Aug. 23).

Texas and Louisiana face a double whammy of tropical cyclones

By Rafi Letzter

Marco's rainfall and flooding will make Laura's even more serious.

First ever double hurricane could hit the Gulf of Mexico

By Rafi Letzter

There's no record of two hurricanes being in the Gulf of Mexico at the same time. Next week, that could change.

A 'reverse waterfall' flowing backwards onto the land

Trippy 'reverse waterfalls' seen flowing backwards in Australia

By Brandon Specktor

During a recent storm, waterfalls on the East coast of Australia seemingly flowed in reverse.

A megaflash crackles over Porto Alegre, Brazil.

400-mile-long lightning bolt over Brazil is biggest in recorded history

By Brandon Specktor

A lightning bolt that traveled 440 miles across the sky of southern Brazil in 2018 has been confirmed as the biggest in history.

National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA) satellite data, processed at the University of Wisconsin, shows the unprecidented dust plume (yellow to red) approaching the United States June 26.

Dust plume bigger than Texas crashes into the US

By Rafi Letzter

Air quality could reach dangerous levels across a wide chunk of the continental U.S. and Caribbean this weekend as a rare, giant Saharan dust storm reaches the U.S.