Winter weather

A sting jet is a narrow core of violent winds that sometimes form within the rapidly intensifying North Atlantic and North Pacific extratropical cyclones, developing powerful windstorms towards the ground. …

Permafrost is an important aspect of the cryosphere, fundamental and integral part of the climate system in periglacial landscapes. Here we present the general concept, and especially the climatic conditions …

Global weather is a very complex system. It is run by many different small and large-scale factors, both in the ocean and in the atmosphere. One of the most well-known …

The cryosphere is a fundamental and integral part of the climate system with important linkage and feedbacks with the major components of the Earth System. Here we present the general …

Weather in the United States and Europe depends strongly on the North Atlantic ocean currents, specifically the Gulf Stream. So it’s important that we understand what and where they are …

The Accumulated Cyclone Energy – the ACE index – is a metric that is used to express the energy used by a tropical cyclone during its lifetime. The calculation takes …

How high into the sky can thunderstorms develop – what are the highest even measured thunderstorms? The strongest updrafts reach the tropopause and produce overshooting tops. The highest storms in …

Mammatus clouds form on the underside of a thunderstorm’s anvil. Their name comes from the Latin word mamma, meaning “udder” or “breast”. They appear as pouch-like structures protruding from underneath …

A back-sheared anvil is the expression for a cumulonimbus anvil that spreads against (upwind) into relatively strong winds (jet stream) aloft. Anvil vs. wind As the anvil is forming, it …

Overshooting tops develop on thunderstorms that have particularly strong updrafts. Overshooting tops typically develop on Cumulonimbus capillatus incus clouds. The updraft punches through the equilibrium level (and thus the anvil), …