Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

Jul 10, 2021

Death Valley hits 130 degrees, nearly breaking heat record

Death Valley is more than earning its morbid name this weekend, as temperatures in the California desert reached a near-record-breaking 130 degrees Fahrenheit (54.4 degrees Celsius), according to news reports That makes it a tie for the hottest temperature ever verified on Earth since the mercury hit 131 F (55...

Sep 29, 2021

'Mad Max'-like dust storm envelops Brazilian city in cloud of doom

A towering wave of orange dust filled the horizon and whooshed over a neighborhood in a recent video of a rare sandstorm in northwestern São Paulo, Brazil. As the choking cloud rushed past the camera, it transformed the city skyline into a scene that would have looked right at home...

Oct 24, 2021

A 'bomb cyclone' is battering much of California

A bomb cyclone in the Pacific is dumping extreme rain and several feet of snow on California. The wild weather follows a summer of extreme drought and wildfires, and it could bring flooding, mudslides and debris flow to the parched and wildfire-scarred Golden State. The term bomb cyclone refers to...

Dec 11, 2021

How the 'deadly December tornado' carved a 250-mile path through 4 states

Damage from the tornadoes that ripped through the Midwest overnight Friday (Dec. 10) is still being assessed, but the violent storms will go down in history as some of the deadliest and longest-lasting, according to meteorologists. More than 30 tornadoes were reported across six states overnight — Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky,...

Jan 10, 2022

Geoengineering: Can we control the weather?

Geoengineering is the term used to describe the manipulation of weather to combat the effects of global warming, according to the Oxford Geoengineering Programme. These methods are generally split into two categories — carbon dioxide removal and solar geoengineering. Removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere helps to prevent the sun’s...

Jan 28, 2022

'Bomb cyclone' set to bring blizzards and hurricane-force winds to the Northeast on Friday: Here's why.

Meteorologists predict that a bomb cyclone will bring severe, blizzard-like conditions to much of the Northeast U.S., starting Friday night (Jan. 28). But what's behind this explosive weather and why is the storm's path so up in the air? Currently, forecasts show the storm will drop at least a foot...

Jan 29, 2022

1st sighting of 'ball lightning' in England uncovered

On June 7, 1195, a fiery spinning ball emerged from a dark cloud in an erstwhile sunny sky close to the London lodgings of the bishop of Norwich. Witnesses could never have known that the natural phenomenon that they were seeing would defy scientific explanation for more than 800 years....

Feb 1, 2022

Lightning bolt breaks record for longest ever recorded

Two storms in 2020 set two new records for lightning, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced today (Feb. 1). One record was for longest single bolt, a record captured by a flash of lightning that stretched for about 477 miles (168 kilometers) from Texas to Mississippi during a storm on...

Feb 18, 2022

Record-breaking winds blast Europe in the worst storm in decades

Record-breaking gusts of up to 122 mph (196 km/h) were recorded in England Friday (Feb. 18) as the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium and parts of the Netherlands and France face their worst storm in over three decades. Trees have collapsed, trucks and cars have toppled on their sides, and thousands...

Mar 16, 2022

Acid rain: Causes, effects and solutions

Acid rain, or acid deposition, is a broad term that includes any form of precipitation that contains acidic components, such as sulfuric acid or nitric acid. The precipitation is not necessarily wet or liquid; the definition includes dust, gases, rain, snow, fog and hail. The type of acid rain that...

Apr 4, 2022

What's the longest lightning bolt ever recorded?

Thunder is impressive, Mark Twain wrote, but it is lightning that does the work. Anyone who's watched a lightning storm will understand what he meant: Lightning is one of nature's most awe-inspiring phenomena, illuminating the skies with its fearsome forks. According to the U.K. Met Office, lightning strikes the planet...

May 8, 2022

Earth tells us to 'GO' in weird cloud message seen from space

The Earth is apparently trying to tell us something. A surprising new photo from the GOES East satellite has revealed what appears to be the word Go written in the clouds as seen from space. The Earth view was spotted on Friday (May 6) by GOES East, which is operated...

Jul 13, 2022

Brilliant Red Sprite Lightning Caught on Camera

Amazing new photos and video of the elusive red lightning called sprites are helping researchers understand how the mysterious electric bursts form. Sprites last less than a second as they dance on the tops of thunderstorms. Many viewers say the clusters of charged particles look like jellyfish — big, red...

Jul 13, 2022

Video Reveals 'Sprite' Lightning Secrets

Sprites dance high above thunderstorms, but they’re not furtive mythical creatures. They’re quick bursts of electricity that have left atmospheric scientists in the dark about their origins. New ultra-high-speed video shows sprites form as fast-paced balls of electricity, not streaks or tendrils as previous footage suggested. The discovery challenges current...

Jul 13, 2022

Elusive Sprite Lightning Caught On Film

Sprites are reddish, ultrafast bursts of electricity that are born near the edge of space, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) up in the atmosphere. For a long time, pilots claimed to see them, but few believed them until scientists accidentally captured images of sprites dancing above thunderstorms in 1989. They...