COLUMBIA, S.C. — According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), lightning strikes the United States about 25 million times a year. Lightning is most common during the summer, ...

A powerful new European weather orbiter’s cameras capture lightning in near real-time at day or night across a large swath of the world’s surface. By Nicholas Bakalar Lightning comes and goes in ...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Lightning is one of the most powerful and dangerous natural phenomena on Earth. A giant spark of static electricity, lightning serves as a type of “neutralizer” for electric charges ...

Just beneath the surface of the south Pacific Ocean lies the Hunga volcano. Part of the Tonga archipelago and north of Tonga’s main island Tongatapu, Hunga lies in a very active seismic zone and has ...

Venus has long been depicted as having a hellish atmosphere. Despite that reputation, evidence increasingly suggests that our neighbor’s cloudy shroud isn’t riddled with lightning. Last month, ...

Across the country, pools close when lightning is in the area. For outdoor pools, the rationale is clear: About 10 to 15 people are killed by lightning in the United States each year, and the vast ...

It’s been a warm day, maybe even a little humid, and the tall clouds in the distance remind you of cauliflower. You hear a sharp crack, like the sound of a batter hitting a home run, or a low rumble ...

Guinness World Records may be the go-to organization for measuring the extent of (sometimes dubious) human achievement, but for natural phenomena, the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO’s) ...

Physicists have long known how lightning ends, in a blinding discharge that can heat air hotter than the surface of the Sun, but the precise trigger that starts a bolt inside a cloud has remained ...

Thunderstorms are often also accompanied by heightened turbulence, which can be uncomfortable and frightening for passengers, ...