How do harmless puffy white clouds grow into towering, potentially dangerous cumulonimbus thunderstorms? On their surface, clouds appear to be an odd contradiction of nature — light enough to float on ...

ORLANDO, Fla. – You may have heard of cumulonimbus clouds, but what about pyrocumulonimbus clouds? Living in Florida, you likely have noticed the towering clouds resembling cauliflower on any given ...

With Michigan's changeable weather, residents get to see a lot of different cloud formations — fluffy cumulus, wispy cirrus and dark, threatening cumulonimbus — and recognizing what weather each type ...

More than 100,000 thunderstorms hit the United States annually, but did you know there are different types? Let's step into a little meteorology 101 and take a look at a few of the ones you might hear ...

The dance of electrical charges high above us is more complex than most people realize. While we typically think of lightning as bright bolts striking the ground, the vast majority of lightning ...

A thunderstorm with cloud to ground lightning rages during the day in China on July 21, 2025. CREDIT: Photo by Liu Wei/Xinhua via Getty Images. Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs ...

In a world first, Japanese researchers flew a lightning-proof drone in a thunderstorm, using it to induce and direct natural lightning strikes. The team is now working on how this flying lightning rod ...

A low pressure system that brushed past the Bay Area is now headed toward Southern California, bringing threats of thunder, dry lightning and fire. The National Weather Service projects showers and ...

Scientists appear to have found the final puzzle pieces to unravel the mystery behind how lightning strikes occur. Around the world, every day, roughly three and a half million bolts of lightning ...