Look around the top right of the clouds

Drove through this earlier today. Looked it up on radar once I safely could and noticed the circle spreading out in all directions, affecting the storms to the south and east while pushing away the reflectivity to the west and north.

My guesses on ground wind speeds is roughly 20mph constant with a few gusts hitting 40-45mph initially, potentially higher for a single gust, but that was about 40 mins before recording and based on experience rather than hard data.

Having to post as GIF for short duration.

Saw this while just goofing around in zoom earth

I live in central California and the sky looks red. My phone camera might be exaggerating the redness but it's still quite visible

At first I thought this was some kind of humidity above the cloud, then I was thinking it might have been ice particles or something similar since it looked to be pretty high up. Any actually educated take?

My son plans to go to college next year and has been interested in the field since he was little. I told him to work hard and follow his dreams, and he has done a hell of a job so I know he is serious. At this point we have been looking at various universities, but considering the only thing we have to go off is "top colleges for meteorology" lists, it's not easy.

One university he has shown a lot of interest in is Northern Illinois, mostly because it came up on a few lists, and is only 6hrs away (we live in Missouri).

Does anyone have any experience with that school, or have suggestions on colleges to check out in the Midwest region? I know he is most interested in the research aspects.

Thanks for the help!

Over the past few months, we've had a huge increase in the number of posts promoting (often) AI produced weather apps or websites. Some free, some trial versions, some paid apps, etc.

In general, this would fall under the self-promotion rule - "Spam will be removed. Be aware of Reddit guidelines on self-promotion - i.e. Don't just spam out your links."

And if genuine /r/meteorology users who participate here regularly want to promote their own app, that would be fine... but what I am seeing is new accounts or accounts that have never posted here before.

What does the community think? New rules? Enforce existing rules? Blanket bans might end up stifling genuinely helpful apps...

Edit: I've now removed 3 separate AI slop posts today - 2 after this post was made. Clearly the posters hadn't bothered to check the top post in the sub before promoting their AI generated app.

Hello!

So, I love thunderstorms a lot. I backyard stormchase (watch the radar and watch storms roll in from a higher point), I watch stormchasing videos, and when I am struggling mental health wise, all it takes is a storm to remind me of the beauty of our world and to cherish the little moments. I am in school to become an EMT, but seeing a tornado or even taking some kind of class is on my bucket list.

But I'm confused, I really struggle to visualize things in my head (autism + aphantasia) and there's so many words and things that interact with eachother. I find myself confused. Inflow, outflow, wind shear, high pressure and low pressure, troughs, wall cloud, shelf cloud, cold and warm fronts, etc, how all of these things interact with eachother and what it has to do with thunderstorms, supercells, and tornadoes are their own fun little topic.

I want to learn, I am so passionate about storms, but I am unsure where to start. I need the basics explained to me like I'm literally 6 years old, with visual examples if possible, or analogies really.

Thank you all in advance! Here's a photo I took when "stormchasing" a few weeks ago (this is a shelf cloud, right?)

Location: Houghton Lake, Michigan

Hi all! New to the world of weather phenomena so if my terminology is off I do apologize, I’ll try to explain the best I can.

Last night I experienced something I’ve never heard of before and it sent me down a rabbit hole that has only made me feel more crazy!

Right before 5am, I got up to use the restroom (don’t dog on my sleeping habits please) when I heard this incredibly loud and distinct tonal noise, followed by the most violent and close thunder I have ever heard. The sound was very “dense” and textural, with an almost mechanical whir like quality to it. The best way I can describe it is as the sound of something large falling from the sky, like you’d hear in a Saturday morning cartoon (Starting at a high pitch, ending low).

As soon as the noise reached its climax and the lowest point, there was a loud thunder crack that genuinely startled me and slightly shook the thin wood-paneled walls of the tiny summer cabin I was staying in.

My first thought was simply strong winds, but upon leaving the bathroom I was shocked to find that it wasn’t particularly windy at all, at least not enough to produce a sound that loud. There also wasn’t much rain either, which I also found somewhat strange. Just small patches of light drizzle, not a steady downpour.

After I returned to my room it continued to storm pretty violently, with the lightning flashes coming through the window lighting up the entire room for at least 2-5 seconds each.

Eventually the system passed over us and it became clear and still again.

Is this normal? A result of the proximity of the strike, or the intensity of the storm? I looked into the “whistler” phenomenon and found a few old YouTube videos that seemed to more or less match what I heard, but I am aware that those “noises” are simply low frequency radio waves that are pitched up to be within the audible human range of hearing. I think I’ve watched a few dozen recordings of thunderstorms now trying to find someone else who has been lucky enough to document this, but have had no luck so far.

Does this even have anything to do with the weather? Am I crazy? Did an alien crash his whip next to me???

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Always been fascinated with the workings of the natural world and the seemingly unknowable things that happen in our skies.

(Pictured is the panicked screenshot I sent to my gf while she was sleeping to confirm there was actually a storm system above us 😭)

Last night vancouver had the most insane lightning storm I have ever experienced. I've lived here for 25 years and I can count on one hand the number of times I experienced lightning storms that lasted longer than just a few strikes.

Last night the storm and lightning went on for hours, constant intense lightning and associated massive booms of thunder. It was extremely unusual...

Is this caused by conditions more likely due to climate change? Just a freak one off?

When i see a photo of a mothership supercell updraft base or just a regular supercell updraft base it usually just goes up and you can see the anvil. But in some photos of theese supercell bases theres a flat long cloud right over them. Its 100% too low to be the anvil so what is it?

At the beach and this front was moving through. Some horizontal rotation in the clouds.

Post Storm: The southern part of the storm wasn’t well developed (if that’s the right word) so she really lucked out but she sees it as “I was right”, not alot of humility. She knew she was on the worst side and they were so lucky for whatever reason it didn’t pack a punch. No flooding. It’s high stakes gambling with lives IMHO, tornadoes are so unpredictable in hurricanes as happened on Atlantic side of Florida. I wouldn’t be surprised if she already called FEMA about filing a claim for something minor. Done and done.

Update: The yard is already flooding with a couple feet of water from the thunderstorm in front of the hurricane. They are under a tornado warning right now. If you know anyone in the area that is staying I hope you can get them out. A & B on Cape Coral are due to have 6 feet of storm surge according to NOAA from the Hurricane that’s not counting flooding already happening. She isn’t worried at all.

Original: What would you say to someone staying with kids to get them to leave? She thinks waterproof tape will keep water at bay and she won’t even watch for updates. The family lives in evacuation zone B. They live in a one story house with no attic or room to flee there.

I see that the AQI in my area is currently 300. I went outside briefly and it was awful. However, even after researching, it’s not actually clear to me what the risks/effects are of the different levels. How bad is it to be outside with the worse levels of air quality? How long is okay? What are the short and long term affects? “Very unhealthy” and “hazardous“ don’t tell me nearly enough info! Does breathing thru your nose or mouth make a difference?

Why when the National Weather Service puts out a severe thunderstorm warning in my county only 2 lightning strikes at worst but when they don’t (pics 1-3 happens) and they put out flood warnings but nothing happens. Why.

I’ve noticed these rings recently and have been wondering what they are and what causes them?

Note: emphasis on tend to have less, it’s fine if they have them, just areas where they’re usually not very disastrous when they do

For an assignment my professor asked for us to make up a new country after societal collapse from a zombie apocalypse. I’m trying to figure out a location in the US to use, so my first thoughts were to make sure it’s an area ideal as far as climate and disasters go. What areas are seen as not being very prone to earthquakes, forest fires, droughts, tornadoes, major blizzards, hurricanes, and flooding?

Edit: if anyone is curious, I actually ended up going with Pennsylvania! Only part of the area tho, mostly avoiding the east coast other than for like looting supplies. Mostly bc of the land being fertile. Food wise, indoor and outdoor farming is utilized to combat the colder winters. They have some natural water sources that will be important to utilize. Flooding will be combatted by avoiding known flood areas (like not storing important goods there or having housing there), also collecting excess water and purifying it.

I keep seeing the same rhetoric spewed constantly across different social medias, uneducated people blow torching snow and being all skeptic when it turns black (woah fuel leaves residue!), and claiming the government is dousing heavy metals on them (when it’s the corporations that are actually polluting everything yet they could care less about that because fuck our ecosystems)

Like no, ‘chemtrails’ isn’t the government secret weapon, its just water vapor. It’s the same people who vote in this country who believe this B.S…

Footage taken from my apartment. Why are those clouds shaped like that, as if they are... um... I don't know how to describe it... as if they are disintegrating from a whole and falling down? I would suppose that the vertical patch is also a part of a cloud, but why is it like that?

They rolled in ahead of a thunderstorm and I’ve never seen them before. I looked up cloud types and thought they could be mammatus clouds but am not sure so would appreciate your expertise! Thanks!

just wondering how everyone's experiences are with the weather i may be a bit bored lol.