Instabilities in the polar jet stream can bring cold Arctic air southward

How jet streams, which reside in the troposphere, shape and confine pockets of atmospheric air

These fast-flowing ribbons of air are hundreds of kilometers wide and typically travel from west to east due to Earth's rotation, with the polar front and subtropical jets serving as major drivers of global circulation. Warmer air near the equator pushes the polar front jets toward the poles, which can buckle and deform them as they contain frigid polar vortex systems.

Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of severe turbulence

Severe turbulence over the North Atlantic has increased by 55% over the past 40 years, driven by strengthened jet streams and storm systems. Ongoing increases in global temperatures, which fuel these changes, may triple severe turbulence incidents in the coming decades.

An overview of Earth's atmospheric cells and how they distribute Earth's uneven heating

The Hadley, Ferrel, and Polar cells are circulation patterns that act like gears, moving warmer air from the equator to the poles. The rising and falling of air currents within these patterns creates semi-persistent regions of low and high pressure, which contribute to the formation of regional climates, such as tropical zones.

How salt, sunlight, and wind drive ocean currents

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation plays a critical role in regulating earth's climate, but is threatened by climate change. Explore the effects of temperature, density, and salinity on ocean currents in this 13-minute PBS video.

Why the ozone hole altered Southern Hemisphere jet streams and rainfall patterns

Ozone depletion over Antarctica shifted jet streams southward, drying Australia while increasing rainfall in Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. Around the turn of the millennium, these trends began to slow as the Montreal Protocol phased out ozone-depleting substances.

Climate change creates conditions for more invasive species

Increasing temperatures shift the conditions native organisms are accustomed to, allowing those from warmer climates to move in with a greater chance of survival. Drought stress can cause invasive plants to absorb less herbicide, limiting the effectiveness of the control method, while melting ice can open new Arctic shipping routes, expanding the transport of species.

Permafrost, explained.

This article explains the role of permafrost—the layer of permanently frozen soil beneath the Arctic tundra—in shaping both the ecosystem and the terrain. During the summer, the permafrost keeps the soil above it moist, which in turn impacts the...

Hurricanes, which rely on air consistently spinning in the same direction, cannot cross the equator because air curves in opposite directions north and south of it.

A breakdown of Earth's atmospheric layers, including why it can get colder or hotter with altitude

Gases in the troposphere—the atmosphere's lowest layer—cool with increasing height as they get farther from the thermal energy emitted by Earth's warm surface. In the next layer—the stratosphere—ozone is increasingly heated by the sun's ultraviolet radiation with height. Because cooler air sinks and hotter air rises, the cooler troposphere and hotter stratosphere form a natural boundary keeping Earth's weather in the lowest layer.

Aurora-related activities drive significant tourism in regions near the Arctic Circle

As the peak solar cycle approached from late 2024 to early 2026, airlines serving countries such as Iceland, Finland, and Canada increased their scheduled flights, with direct flights to Tromsø, Norway, doubling since 2018. The northern lights tourism market has grown about 10% per year and is expected to increase from $941.9M in 2024 to $1.648B in 2030.

Tornadoes, or twisters, have been seen on every continent but Antarctica

Because tornadoes require rising warm air to form, some meteorologists have suggested that urban environments—locations where human landscape modification has introduced materials that trap thermal energy—can enhance the conditions needed for tornado formation. Tornadoes have been reported to cause ear "popping" due to drastic changes in air pressure.

Why the Antarctic climate enabled British scientists to discover the ozone hole

In the Antarctic stratosphere, polar conditions facilitate the formation of polar stratospheric clouds, which allow chlorine compounds from chlorofluorocarbons to accumulate. In 1985, British Antarctic Survey scientists detected massive springtime losses over Antarctica, as accumulated compounds destroyed significant amounts of ozone once sunlight returned.

Aurora borealis and auroras australis do not always mirror one another

While the Earth's magnetic field is symmetric across the magnetic north and south poles in isolation, charged particles from the sun distort the field. If the angle of impact between the wave of particles and the Earth's field is such that the distortions are uneven, dissimilar geomagnetic storms and resulting auroras are produced in the northern and southern hemispheres.

How the loss of Earth's atmosphere would cause oceans to boil at freezing temperatures

Many phenomena requiring air pressure, from the flight of birds and aircraft to the act of breathing, would no longer be possible. Because sound travels through vibrating air molecules, the loss of the planet's atmosphere would also create a silent environment. Even during daytime hours, the sky would resemble a clear night sky.

Why parts of the Earth are colder when the planet is closer to the Sun

The Earth orbits the Sun in an elliptical shape, and winter in the Northern Hemisphere occurs when the Earth reaches the point in its orbit closest to the Sun, known as perihelion. The lower temperatures result from the hemisphere tilting away from the Sun.

Hurricanes spin due to differences in air and ground speed as they move across Earth

The movement of an object across latitudes causes it to take a curved trajectory because its speed no longer matches that of the ground beneath it. This phenomenon, called the Coriolis effect, explains why hurricanes spin counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.

Nor'easters can produce thundersnow—lightning in blizzard conditions

Although thunderstorms typically require warm air to rise in updrafts and collide with heavier soft hail, which creates charge separation and eventual electrical discharge, these cyclones can replicate these conditions by churning the atmosphere through strong winds. Rarely, especially warm lakes can similarly help generate thunderstorms during the winter.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

While El Niño moves warm Pacific Ocean waters east along the equator, La Niña moves them west, shifting where rainfall will become more common for months.

How sea ice decline threatens polar bears

This two-minute video discusses a recent study warning that arctic polar bears are at risk of near-extinction by the end of the century due to the rapid melting of the sea ice they rely on for survival. The study used models based on satellite data...

Why aren’t there hurricanes in Europe?

Despite their proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, the effects of the subtropical jet stream make tropical storms and hurricanes unlikely to reach Europe at full strength. Their remnants, however, can combine with other weather systems to create powerful storms.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

While El Niño moves warm Pacific Ocean waters east along the equator, La Niña moves them west, shifting where rainfall will become more common for months.

Life during three months of polar night

In Norway's Svalbard archipelago, night reigns from November to January, as with many communities living within the polar regions. Contrary to popular assumptions about such places, many residents of the region describe the long darkness as peaceful, a time to slow down and draw nearer to neighbors and community. Read more on life in polar night, specifically in the Svalbard town of Longyearbyen, in this essay from a resident there.

The Rodinia supercontinent triggered a global ice age when it broke 750 million years ago

Before Pangaea, the Earth’s continental plates had drifted together and broken apart multiple times, with each event altering atmospheric CO2 concentrations and triggering climate change. The continents are estimated to come together again in 50 million to 250 million years.

Wind chill speeds up the loss of heat from the body

During cold weather conditions, strong winds against exposed skin can produce a sensation of temperature colder than the surrounding air temperature. The accelerated loss of body heat increases the risk of frostbite and hypothermia, with frostbite able to set in as quickly as five minutes.

Iceland, the last mosquito-free country, detected them in 2025

Recently several of the mosquito species Culiseta annulata were documented in Iceland—the last country that had not yet seen them, underscoring that climate change is shifting the bugs' patterns. Mosquitoes can hide out in human structures to survive icy temperatures. The bugs are now known to live everywhere except the continent of Antarctica.

Temperatures colder than Pluto can allow electricity to flow resistance-free

Since its discovery in 1911, applications of superconductivity have made MRI machines and maglev trains possible due to quantum effects at extreme temperatures. These effects are modeled as electrons cooperating in pairs and flowing more efficiently.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

The boiling temperature of water decreases with increasing elevation because the molecules need less energy to overcome the lower atmospheric pressure associated with thinner air.

See the 25 of the best photos of auroras from around the world.

Poison ivy will likely become both larger and more resilient due to climate change.

An investigation suggests a Scottish island became awash in forever chemicals via seafoam and seaspray—raising questions about what that means for the safety of other coastal areas.

Shooting stars, or meteors, are fragments of asteroids and comets that burn up as they enter Earth's atmosphere, creating streaks in the sky called meteor showers.

Dirty lightning is a thunderstorm created from friction between rising and falling flows of ash and smoke during volcanic eruptions.

Waves off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal, can reach over 100 feet and are caused by the area's deep underwater canyon geography

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

Volcanic activity may have triggered the Black Death by spewing gases that led to crop failures in Europe, thus forcing the import of grain ships with plague-infested fleas.

Track the location of the Voyager probes, currently between 13 and 15 billion miles away from Earth.

Discover the catastrophic consequences of a failure of the US electrical grid—something that is more likely than many Americans think.

The Great Salt Lake's distinct dual coloration results from high-salinity organisms that only live in the northern portion and produce a purple protein.

Hookworm infection, though risky, may help fight certain autoimmune conditions by tamping down the immune system's inflammatory response.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

The price of gas is a composite made up of several different factors, with the federal gas tax making up less than 20% of what drivers pay at the pump.

After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by over 1.5 million Muslims.