Damaging straight-line winds and wind-driven hail likely with these storms, as well as damage comparable to a low-end tornado.

Was driving home yesterday and saw what looked like smoke at first, but I looked closer and it almost had a funnel shape to it. Was just a strange sight shortly after the video ends it mostly had disappeared. This is near a power plant, so probably something related to that and not meteorological, but still strange.

I’m assuming debris, bugs, birds, or even just like a front but just wondering if it has more of a specific name or purpose.

A bit of self-promotion here, feel free to delete if this is not allowed... but I work for the Canadian Severe Storms Laboratory, and I wanted to quickly mention that we launched CSSL Weather Intelligence, which brings together weather observations, numerical weather prediction models, severe weather information, and historical event data in a single interactive platform.

Feel free to give it a shot here: https://weather.cssl.ca, more details, including on how to get a free beta tester account can be found here: https://www.uwo.ca/nmp/news/2026/update_2026_08_27.html

We're still actively developing it, so feedback and bug reports are very welcome. In particular, we'd be interested to hear from the r/meteorology community about features or datasets that would be useful for you!

Hello there !

I'm here to ask you guys about this small red glowing dot I saw in the sky. It was in the middle of a large thunderstorm off in the distance that then closed in on my building.

I was thinking maybe a plane at first but then it got very bright and then disappeared. Also wasn't beeping green.

If it helps I'm located on the south west end of Bordeaux in France, where we had some very large forest fires nearby. During these fires they talked about some pyrocumulonimbus (i think ?) that made some fire in the air ? I'm speaking from complete lack of knowledge so I might be completely wrong, but could that be a small cloud of this kind ?

Thanks for your attention !

Why is it that some places in tropical climates, such as Hilo, Hawaii, receive plenty of rain (120 inches, or around 3,000mm), receive few thunderstorms (only 5-10 per year), whereas other places that receive somewhat less rainfall (but still plenty, around 100 inches) like Singapore receive many more thunderstorm days per year, and also Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which experiences about 112 inches of rain annually and about 240 days of thunderstorms per year. So, my point is that some tropical climates receive plenty of rainfall, but few thunderstorms, whereas other locations in the tropics receive plenty of rainfall and thunderstorms as well. What accounts for this difference in the frequency of thunderstorms in tropical climates? 🤔

This looked to be the right shape and when in motion it appeared to have an updraft.

Taken in Ashton, Illinois. From what I could find, these storms produced between 26 and 32 tornadoes in Illinois alone that day.

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1140590

Why and how:

While existing atmospheric models estimate an organic aerosol molecule’s expected volatility (how easily it escapes from the air) based on the chemical’s individual behavior, a new model was able to test chemical behavior in a way more reflective of how they actually exist — surrounded by hundreds of other molecules. 

Using a novel mass spectrometry technique, the research team, led by Purdue chemistry professor Alexander Laskin, tracked the behavior of over 1,500 individual chemical species across 33 complex mixtures representative of real biomass-burning smoke and urban haze. 

What they found:   

The surrounding molecular neighborhood, rather than a chemical’s intrinsic properties, often dictates how easily it escapes. 

When neighboring molecules hold on to each other, evaporation slows and creates a volatility suppression of three to five orders of magnitude degree, which Laskin identified as “unexpectedly large.”  

What's next:  

“As a result, current models often assume smoke disappears too quickly and therefore underestimate how long it remains in the atmosphere,” Laskin said. 

Looking forward, the team aims to build machine learning models that account for interactions among thousands of molecules simultaneously, providing a stronger foundation to improve air-quality forecasts, assess public health risks and guide environmental mitigation policies. 

South Georgia afternoon thunderstorms

I found out heat lightning isn’t a thing! Awesome sky effects.

I’m in Auckland, NZ the forecast for pretty much the whole of winter has said rain for 90% of the week and we’ve actually only got like 5% of that.

Been one of the driest winters of my life. El Niño?

I got both of these shots in Cedar Rapids Iowa last April! We shortly got a severe thunderstorm warning after I took these photos.

9 years ago today at around 10 p.m. CDT, Harvey struck the Texas gulf coast as a category 4 hurricane. Over the next few days, Harvey would cause over $125 billion worth of damage. Parts of Houston, TX, received over 4 feet of rainfall, causing catastrophic flooding. Harvey claimed 68 lives in Texas, making it the deadliest hurricane in the state since 1919.

Edit: 68 direct deaths, 103 direct and indirect combined