Category: Weather Nerd

What to Expect from the 2026 Tornado Season

Tornado funnel and storm clouds over midwestern field

The 2026 severe weather season is about to ramp up, and AccuWeather forecasters say that it may look different than last spring’s headline-grabbing tornado outbreaks. “There may be fewer tornadoes reported compared to last year, but that does not mean this will be a quiet severe weather season,” AccuWeather Meteorologist Alex Duffus said. “There is […]

This Year’s Worm Moon Comes with a Lunar Eclipse

Full worm moon with orange glow behind tree branches

The Full Worm Moon reaches its peak on the morning of Tuesday, March 3, 2026, at 6:38 A.M. ET, and this year’s March Moon is especially notable because it coincides with a total lunar eclipse. You don’t need any special equipment to enjoy this celestial pairing. Simply step outside and watch as the Full Moon changes […]

A Six-Planet ‘Parade’ Peaks This Weekend

Mother daughter view planetary alignment before dawn with telescopes

February’s widely promoted post-sunset “planet parade” or “planetary parade” reaches its most accessible this weekend. Viewing the Planetary Parade According to NASA, “Saturn, Venus, Mercury, and Jupiter will line up in the southwestern sky. With a telescope or binoculars, you can see Uranus and Neptune in the procession, too!” The space agency circles Feb. 28, 2026, […]

If You Live Near a River, Ice Jams Pose a Real Flood Threat during Winter and Spring

Huge ice chunks on river threaten farmhouses along riverbanks

On February 20, an ice jam break on the Allegheny River in Pennsylvania triggered a flash flood warning in multiple counties. As temperatures rose out of the winter lows, ice on French Creek in Crawford County and Oil Creek in Venango County caused raised water levels and ice jams, prompting a warning to local residents […]

Rare February Tornado Strikes the Midwest – Where they Can Happen and Why

Tornado in a dark sky

February is here and with it comes cold weather and the beginning of a new severe weather and apparently, early tornado season. The evening of 19 February featured a rare-for-the-midwest winter tornado outbreak. Tornadoes were reported in several locations in southern Illinois and Indiana, accompanied by numerous reports of hail and damaging winds. Much of […]

The Tragic Death of 9 Skiers in Lake Tahoe Reignites the Need for Avalanche Awareness

Cross Country Skier observes recent avalanche on snow covered mountain

Crews have now recovered the bodies of all nine backcountry skiers who were killed in an avalanche in Northern California over President’s Day weekend. As NPR reports, it marks an end to what authorities on Saturday described as an agonizing five-day search and recovery operation complicated by intense winter storms northwest of Lake Tahoe. “While we wish […]

Spring Forecast Update: Where Winter is Holding On, and Where it’s Warming Up

Hello Spring is written above a cherry tree branch blooming

Spring 2026 is a season divided, with large areas of the country expected to have an early arrival of springlike weather, while millions face an extension of winter through the first day of the new season. Although Spring officially begins at 10:46 a.m. EDT on Friday, March 20, AccuWeather’s long-range forecasters report that some areas […]

First a Snow Drought and Now This? Late Winter Storms are Burying Western Mountains in Feet of Snow and Flooding Lower Elevations

snowfall around empty California roadway in winter landscape with snow-topped trees

Late winter storms rolled over the western region Monday night into Tuesday, with widespread rounds of mountain snow in California continuing to dump through Thursday night, causing additional highway and pass closures. As AccuWeather reports, yet more storms are expected to roll in from the Pacific, focusing their energy on the mountains of Northern California […]

The First Solar Eclipse of 2026 is Here, and it’s a Ring of Fire

Solar Eclipse with a "ring of fire" behind it

The first annular solar eclipse is here. As Space.com reports, an annular solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes directly in front of the sun’s disk during the new moon phase while at a distant point from Earth in its elliptical orbit. Around this time, the lunar disk appears slightly smaller than the sun in Earth’s […]

99% of Florida is in a Drought

Florida Everglades National park with cracked earth in drought conditions

Florida isn’t just dry right now — it’s almost wall-to-wall drought. As AccuWeather reports, the only pocket of the state not currently in drought is a small coastal strip between Melbourne and Daytona Beach. But even there, conditions have been abnormally dry. “Nearly 99% of the state is under drought conditions,” says AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson about […]