As of 2025, the world's largest tropical cyclone spanned half the continental US

Tropical cyclones are called hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones around the world

Tropical cyclones are named differently based on their region of origin due to historical traditions and cultural importance. These storms are called hurricanes in the Atlantic and northeast Pacific oceans, cyclones in the southwest Pacific and Indian oceans, and typhoons in the northwest Pacific Ocean.

See the lists of the worst hurricanes in the US through 2024

Several metrics, including wind speed, pressure, damage costs, and casualties, may be used to define the most devastating hurricanes. This page provides the top 10 hurricanes across each of these sorting methods.

Bomb cyclones can produce heavy rain, blizzard conditions, and intense winds

Known as "bombogenesis" in meteorology, these systems get their colloquial name from their rapid intensification over a 24-hour period—a phenomenon seen in some tropical cyclones. They occur most commonly along the coasts of the Northeast and Northwest US when there is a severe temperature difference between colliding air masses.

The Pacific Northwest's last 'really big one'

More than 300 years ago, a shift in the Cascadia subduction zone caused the seafloor near the Pacific Northwest coast to drop by three to six feet. The force generated a massive tsunami that traveled across the Pacific and devastated Japan.

View the ten deadliest tornadoes in US history.

Hurricane Helene dumped enough water to fill Lake Tahoe

Alongside a rainstorm that moved into the region ahead of it, the hurricane released an unprecedented 40 trillion gallons of rain on the southeastern US, causing catastrophic flooding and at least 100 deaths. Meteorologists suggest climate change is exacerbating the severity of such events.

Average hurricane intensity, not frequency, has increased over the past century

While the total number of tropical cyclones globally each year has not significantly shifted since 1920, a greater proportion of them are major, defined as category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale. The increased energy present in a warmer climate may be contributing to higher intensification rates.

View the ten deadliest tornadoes in US history.

As of 2025, the longest lightning bolt in the world spanned several states

Although the average bolt measures less than 16 kilometers (10 miles), the 2017 "megaflash" spanned 829 kilometers (515 miles) from eastern Texas to Missouri. Severe thunderstorms are common in the region, where warm, humid air from the Gulf collides with cool, dry air from the north, generating atmospheric instability.

The risk of tornadoes and storm surges is greatest on the 'dirty side' of a hurricane

Winds in the right-front quadrant of the storm are amplified by the hurricane's motion and its rotation, which both move air in the same direction. Upon making landfall, these winds pull water from the Gulf and Atlantic onto land, creating storm surges. Tornadoes can also be generated from large differences in wind speed and direction at various heights.

The Great Red Spot, Jupiter's largest storm, has existed for nearly 200 years

Despite decreasing in size, the anticyclone remains larger than Earth, rotating with winds up to 933 km/h. Its longevity may be because it is trapped between two opposite-flowing jet streams, which act like two conveyor belts.

View the 10 largest earthquakes ever recorded as of 2024

In 1960, a magnitude 9.5 earthquake in Chile became the largest in recorded history, leaving about 2 million people homeless. Two of the largest occurred in back-to-back years in Alaska, with 9.2 and 8.7 quakes each generating tsunamis.

If the Earth stopped spinning, 85% of the world's population would experience supersonic winds

The planet's equator moves about 470 meters per second—over 1,000 miles per hour—and air there would continue moving at this speed for several minutes if the ground stopped rotating. These conditions would cause tsunamis, global storms, and fling debris fast enough to destroy nearly all human-made structures.

The first known instance of a fire tornado occurred in 2003

During pyro-tornadogenesis, many processes that create thunderstorms from wildfires, such as rising hot air and steam from evaporated water in forests, fuel the formation of a fire tornado. The increasing rates of wildfires due to climate change are expected to make this phenomenon and other extreme weather more common.

The cone of uncertainty predicts where a hurricane's center can potentially travel

A common misconception is that regions beyond the cone are safe, but the spread does not depict the full reach of a cyclone's wind, rain, or storm surges. The cone is not built from real-time storm data but is an average forecast error from the past five years.

Atmospheric rivers are the largest freshwater transport mechanism on Earth

Serving as highways that carry the water vapor equivalent of up to 15 times the average flow of water at the mouth of the Mississippi River, atmospheric rivers are approximately 400 to 600 kilometers (250 to 375 miles) wide and provide 30-50% of the annual precipitation of the US West Coast.

Climate tipping points are irreversible changes to Earth's environment

Earth's natural systems have prevented these events—including the mass death of coral reefs, loss of the Amazon rainforest, and shutdown of Atlantic currents—but scientists believe they are unlikely to withstand continued stressors from climate change.

Could the world's largest solar storm happen again?

In 1859, the world witnessed the most intense solar storm in recorded history. The electromagnetic deluge of dust and gas lit up the night sky and sparked fires, disrupting Earth's magnetic field and putting on a show for the millions. If a storm with a similar intensity today occurred, scientists believe it would be catastrophic for our communications systems. Learn what would happen if the Carrington Event happened again here.

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.

Learn how Japan used the jet stream to launch attacks on US soil during World War II

In the final two years of the war, over 9,000 Fu-Go balloon bombs were launched from Japan, with about a thousand estimated to have reached North America. Six civilians killed by a Fu-Go bomb in Bly, Oregon, on May 5, 1945, became the only known deaths on American soil by enemy action during the war.

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.

Jakarta surpassed Tokyo as the world's largest city in 2025

Asia is the epicenter of global urban population, hosting most of the world's ten largest cities by population. The top three are Jakarta, Indonesia, Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Tokyo, Japan.

The 1957 and 1968 influenza pandemics caused millions of deaths worldwide

The 1957 H2N2 pandemic spread from East Asia, killing more than 1M globally, while the 1968 H3N2 pandemic began in Hong Kong and caused a similar toll, with both strains rapidly moving across continents.

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.

The world's largest garbage patch, explained

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the largest accumulation of ocean plastic in the world and is located between Hawaii and California. Scientists of The Ocean Cleanup Foundation have conducted the most extensive analysis ever of this area.

An overview of the Coral Triangle, which contains about 76% of global coral species

Spanning the waters of Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste, the region contains more than 600 coral species and over 2,200 of the world's coral reef fish species. It sustains 120 million people with food and other resources, as well as a $12B yearly tourism industry.

The century of the Panama Canal

The Panama Canal connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through a 51-mile route that transformed global shipping when it opened in 1914. This breakdown covers how it was built, the workers behind its construction, and why its future may be challenged by climate and competition.

The current state of Amazon rainforest deforestation

Scientists say the Amazon rainforest is approaching between 20%-25% deforestation, a critical tipping point at which the damage is irreversible. Demand for beef and soy are the main drivers.

The deadliest aspect of volcanic eruptions is often not lava, but pyroclastic flows—avalanches of ash, gas, and rock that can move more than half the speed of sound.

This real-time tracking of the hantavirus cruise ship outbreak in May 2026 offers a unique glimpse into the global reach of the outbreak and whether the virus sickened passengers and their communities around the world.

See how Ebola tore through Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia in 2014-2016.

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

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

Visualize the path of every solar eclipse from 1900 to 2099 and see what each looks like when observed from different locations on Earth.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

See a 3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was home to an estimated population of 200,000 to 400,000.

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.

The US dollar is the most widely circulated currency in the world, and is involved in nearly 90% of global transactions

Scientists testing how climate change affects plants found, in a years-long simulation study, that poison ivy grew 70% faster with the resulting extra carbon dioxide.

In 1984, Operation Smash Hit intentionally crashed a 239-ton train into a nuclear waste canister at 100 miles per hour to prove the canister's safety, which remained completely intact and lost just 0.29 of its 100 pounds of pressure.

Explore fun facts from the USPS, including unique post office buildings, a stamp that traveled past Pluto, and more.

About 12.5% of US adults experience a phobia in their lifetime, a diagnosis that hinges on the intense fear interfering with daily life and persisting for at least six months.

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

The syncytiotrophoblast is the outer layer of the placenta and the largest human cell, spanning an area about twice that of a king-sized bedsheet.

Explore the history, structure, and species of Australia's Great Barrier Reef with this interactive journey narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

The American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

Watch contemporary footage covering the US-backed Shah of Iran fleeing the country in the face of the 1979 Iranian Revolution