Weather FAQ
Answers to Your Weather Questions
Alt Earth Questions
Climate Questions
Cloud Questions
Submitted photos:
As far as I know, there isn’t a specific term dedicated exclusively to the eerie orange sky that sometimes appears after a thunderstorm at sunset, but weather enthusiasts use descriptive phrases such as:
- “Post-storm glow”: This term captures the unique atmospheric lighting that occurs after a storm, often enhanced by the sun’s low angle at sunset.
- “Afterglow”: While this term is commonly used for the lingering light after sunset, it can also apply to the striking colors that appear in the sky after a storm when the light scatters through lingering moisture and storm clouds.
- “Storm light”: This describes the distinctive quality of light that occurs when sunlight breaks through clouds or storm remnants, often creating an unusual color palette.
Why It Happens
The intense orange, pink, or even greenish hue is due to Rayleigh scattering. After a thunderstorm, the atmosphere is often filled with moisture and dust particles. When the sun is low on the horizon, its light passes through a larger cross-section of the atmosphere, scattering shorter blue wavelengths and allowing the longer red, orange, and yellow wavelengths to dominate. Additionally, the remaining storm clouds can reflect and amplify this colored light, creating an otherworldly effect like my attached photo – taken near severe storms we had been chasing in March 2008.
As a meteorologist who stormchases (these days only when storms are nearby), I’ve experienced this phenomena several times in my life – including when a ton of hail fell, turning the ground white, and quickly cooling the ground after a storm. I grew up in the Kansas City metro area, so I’ve seen this around both Kansas and Missouri – the local topography and plant life can also affect how cold some microclimates (tiny areas that differ from the overall main climate type of an area) can be after a storm.
What you encountered was likely the result of a rapid temperature drop combined with high humidity. Read more to learn why it happened so suddenly and dramatically.
Your photo shows the moon surrounded by a luminous halo in the night sky. This type of halo is typically caused by the refraction of light through ice crystals in thin, high-altitude cirrus or cirrostratus clouds. The optical phenomenon results in a circle or arc around the moon that can appear faintly like an iridescence or bright ring.
The halo forms because the ice crystals act as prisms and mirrors, bending the light at a consistent angle (usually 22 degrees), creating a circular appearance. Halos like this can be striking visually and memorable in folklore as a sign of upcoming precipitation, as cirrostratus clouds can sometimes precede a storm system by 24-48 hours.
As for your comment on whether the clouds are dissipating due to the heat from the moon, keep in mind that even high clouds like cirrus are still in the troposphere – the lowest part of our atmosphere – far away from the direct influence of the moon. Contrary to what some may think, the moon doesn’t emit heat itself; it only reflects sunlight. Therefore, the warmth of moonlight isn’t enough to dissipate clouds or influence cloud formation directly.
Noctilucent clouds can be seen from as far as 500 miles away if skies are clear, and they often last for an hour or more. While rare, these clouds are generally found in higher latitudes near the poles, unless there’s a recent rocket launch!
Great job capturing this phenomena!
Submitted photos:
Fire Weather Questions
Fog Questions
Folklore Weather Questions
Forecasting Questions
- < 1 week: Weather models are good at showing temperature / precipitation patterns on roughly a state-by-state basis
- 1 – 2 weeks: Weather models are good at showing temperature / precipitation patterns over large, multi-state regions
- 2 – 4 weeks: Weather models can often pick up on major shifts in the weather, such as cold in the the Eastern US vs. warm in the Western US.
- 1 – 3 months: Weather models become less useful, but can sometimes pick up on continental-scale temperature patterns, such as below-average or above-average temperature.
- Visual forecast / weather story
- Forecast Discussion (under FORECASTS near the bottom of the page) – this will give the forecaster‘s thoughts and notes on the event
- All kinds of maps – Current road conditions, Snowfall Analysis, etc. under CURRENT CONDITIONS at bottom
- Scroll down to the image on the left center called “Weather Story” for graphical forecast information
Hurricane Questions
Lightning Questions
Modification Questions
It’s important to note that despite advances in atmospheric science, making it rain or ending a drought is mostly out of human control, especially on a regional scale like Delaware. While cloud seeding can be used in specific situations, the best approach involves water conservation, responsible management, and preparedness for when natural rain patterns resume.
For the full, long answer, please read the post.
The short answer: maybe.
As the original question and answer are fairly long, we’ve moved this answer to its own post.
Submitted Photo:
Polar Questions
These spinning storms in the Northern Hemisphere are called polar cyclones or polar lows. They spin counterclockwise because of the Coriolis force, which causes moving air to curve due to Earth’s rotation. What is the Coriolis Force? (Read the long answer to this question)
Precipitation Questions
Hail
Rain
Snow
Submitted Images:
Based on your images and description—“tiny sheets of ice” atop the snow surface—this phenomenon is most likely a melt–freeze crust (also called a sun crust or ice crust).
According to the U.S. Forest Service National Avalanche Center, a melt–freeze crust forms when the top layer of snow melts or becomes moist in warmer conditions (sunlight, above-freezing temperatures, rain, or light drizzle) and then refreezes as temperatures drop again. The result is a thin, glossy layer of refrozen ice grains, which can appear as small, plate-like shards when inspected up close.
I’m not familiar with “tabular snow,” then again I’m in Oklahoma, where we don’t see much snow or phenomena like melt-freeze crusts.
Submitted graphic:
Milwaukee Snow Depth 1950-2025 Records (1)
It certainly feels like winters used to be snowier based on many personal recollections. For example, my dad remembers some great snowstorms in Kansas City growing up in the 50s – storms that we haven’t seen the like of in generations, at least where my parents live (though the recent snowstorm in Kansas City was over a foot, which is pretty good for there).
In Milwaukee’s case, there are a few reasons why those giant snowstorms of the 1950s may seem less frequent now:
- Changing winter temperatures
- Shifts in storm tracks
- Urbanization & heat island effect
- Memory and historic storms
Indeed, over roughly the past decade, the region’s snowfall totals have often come in below what many previous generations remember from previous years, especially in December through May. My parents (and historical weather records) recall several snow events from the late 50s to 80s in the KC area. There are a few factors that may help explain why we’ve seen this trend:
- Natural Variability: A 10-year stretch can be part of a longer cycle that we won’t be able to recognize until later in the cycle
- Storm Tracks: The jet stream has placed Kansas City on the less-snowy side of storms too often recently
- Warming Trends: Slightly milder (warmer than average) conditions vertically can turn borderline snow events into rain.
It’s frustrating for snow enthusiasts, but the weather can always surprise us—so don’t lose hope for those magical, snowy winters to make a return, as climate models show occasional snowstorms even with warmer global temperatures!
Pressure Questions
Rainbows & Optics Questions
A rainbow on a dry, windy day may seem unlikely, but there are still a few ways it could happen, even in drought conditions:
Virga: Even on dry days, there can be pockets of localized moisture in the atmosphere. It’s possible that some very light precipitation, such as virga (rain that evaporates before reaching the ground – seen sometimes as vertical streaks), was present. If sunlight hits the moisture at the right angle, a rainbow can form. The partly cloudy conditions suggest there might have been just enough moisture in the air for a rainbow to form.
Irrigation or Other Water Sources: In urban areas, sprinklers, fountains, or other water sources like the 10,000 lakes can create mist or droplets that, if lofted by wind, can form rainbows when the sun hits them.
High Humidity or Fog Drizzle: Sometimes, high relative humidity (with a high temperature in the 50s, a little bit of moisture in the atmosphere from evapotranspiration off crops or over water might be enough) can lead to fog or drizzle formation even when conditions feel dry at the surface. If this occurs with the sun at a low angle (like late afternoon), a rainbow can appear.
The combination of the sun’s position, scattered clouds, and just enough moisture could have provided the perfect alignment for a rainbow to appear, despite the overall dry conditions.
Your photo shows the moon surrounded by a luminous halo in the night sky. This type of halo is typically caused by the refraction of light through ice crystals in thin, high-altitude cirrus or cirrostratus clouds. The optical phenomenon results in a circle or arc around the moon that can appear faintly like an iridescence or bright ring.
The halo forms because the ice crystals act as prisms and mirrors, bending the light at a consistent angle (usually 22 degrees), creating a circular appearance. Halos like this can be striking visually and memorable in folklore as a sign of upcoming precipitation, as cirrostratus clouds can sometimes precede a storm system by 24-48 hours.
As for your comment on whether the clouds are dissipating due to the heat from the moon, keep in mind that even high clouds like cirrus are still in the troposphere – the lowest part of our atmosphere – far away from the direct influence of the moon. Contrary to what some may think, the moon doesn’t emit heat itself; it only reflects sunlight. Therefore, the warmth of moonlight isn’t enough to dissipate clouds or influence cloud formation directly.
Temperature Questions
Tornado Questions
It’s hard to tell from the photo alone, even after pulling it into Photoshop to clarify and add contrast to the clouds, as it’s hard to see the storm structures clearly. I can’t tell you definitively that it IS the tornado, especially with the building and trees covering the ground (which is what I really need to be able to see to confirm a tornado from images), but there is certainly a dark area where there might be a condensation funnel or a rain-wrapped tornado.
Here’s the highly edited version of your photo:
I’d say that, based on your research on the NWS tornado track and the image, this very likely could be the weak tornado.
As for the green sky, we see that often in the area where sunlight passes through hail and heavy rain, so I wouldn’t expect it to be right next to the tornado, depending on the relative viewing angle.
Without debris, there are three things inside the storm that contribute to a tornado’s Weight on the Earth — air, condensation (clouds), and precipitation (rain / hail). You were definitely on the right track with your guess about the water in a tornado being related to its weight!
- Warm, moist air funneled in from the Gulf of Mexico via SSE winds, in this case. (Moisture)
- Colliding air masses (cold vs. warm) create an unstable environment ready for storm development. (Instability)
- Winter jet stream patterns can steer strong upper-level storm systems through Kentucky, leading to unseasonable thunderstorms with rapid uplift and sometimes shear (needed to produce tornadoes). (Lift and Shear)
Even though storms in December may be rare, they’re a reminder that the right alignment of atmospheric ingredients can produce thunderstorms (or even tornadoes) at any time of year.
Water Cycle Questions
Wind Questions
Answer to Question #1:
Answer to Question #2:
Confusingly, in everyday language, the addition of “-erly” can imply that the wind is blowing toward the northeast. In meteorological terms, the direction specified with or without the “-erly” indicates where the wind is coming from. For example:
- Northwest wind or northwesterly wind: The wind is coming from the northwest.
- South wind or southerly wind: The wind is coming from the south.
So, when the announcer says “northeasterly,” they are correctly describing a wind coming from the northeast.
Thank you for your fun question! This is the sort of question professors LOVE to add to their exams.
Overall, a faster-rotating Earth would likely have more intense and complex weather patterns, with stronger winds, more pronounced atmospheric circulation, and altered temperature distributions. For more details (and the full answer), please see the post about weather patterns if Earth rotated twice as fast.