According to US Tornadoes, the United States experiences around 75% of the world's known tornadoes – that's an average of 1,253 tornadoes per year. Although tornadoes have been recorded in every US state, you're most likely to see one in Texas. With typically 146.7 tornadoes a year, the state has also experienced some of the worst in recorded history.
Take a look at the full ranking of the US states where you're most and least likely to see a tornado
You might be very surprised to hear this, but it almost never rains or snows in Antarctica. It's actually a desert and a particularly dry one at that. For precipitation to happen there needs to be humidity and there's no humidity without heat – conditions that don't occur due on the world's southernmost continent. When it does snow, the snow doesn't melt and is accumulated over thousands of years until it compresses and turns into ice.
There have been many attempts to calculate the number of thunderstorms happening on Earth, however, the data has always been inaccurate due to the complicated nature of gathering it. The number was finally calculated in 2011 thanks to more than 40 weather stations around the world that were equipped with machines able to detect electromagnetic pulses produced by strong lightning bolts. Curiously, the peak time for storms around the world is around noon GMT.
Although an estimation, most physicists agree that an average raindrop falls with a speed between 9 and 10 metres per second, which is an equivalent to 22mph (35.4km/h). These calculations are based on a large raindrop (about 3/16inches/5mm in diameter) and explains why rain, especially heavy rain, can erode soil so easily.
When each individual droplet gets heavy enough in the cloud to fall, it accumulates other droplets it bumps into en route to the ground. But despite, this you won't find raindrops the size of basketballs falling from the sky. That's because of a number of factors, including the speed with which it falls. The bigger the raindrop, the faster it falls and the higher air pressure it has to withstand until eventually the air pressure overcomes the surface tension, splitting the drop into two.
Setting temperature records that still stand to this day, many American cities experienced the coldest-ever temperatures in 1899, when four consecutive days of extremely harsh winter conditions swept across all of North America. Known by many names, including The Great Cold Wave and The Great Arctic Outbreak, February of that year was so cold the Mississippi River froze over its entire length. A similar occurrence was recorded in the UK during the Great Frost of 1683–84, when severe weather meant the River Thames was completely frozen for two months.
You'll want to wrap up warm for this one. Measured at ground level on 21 July 1983, the coldest-ever temperature was recorded at the Soviet Vostok Station (pictured), a Russian research facility in Princess Elizabeth Land in Antarctica. Since then, the record has reportedly been broken by four degrees along a ridge between Dome Argus and Dome Fuji in Queen Maud Land in Antarctica. However, it was measured by a satellite and occurred at an elevation of 12,800 feet (3,900m) so it isn't officially recognised.
No matter how much we'd like to believe that every snowflake is unique, there are actually 39 kinds of solid precipitation, including 35 that are snow crystals or flakes. Depicted in a graphic created by chemistry teacher Andy Brunning, who runs the chemistry blog Compound Interest, the snowflakes are categorised based on their individual properties. The graph also includes sleet, ice and hailstone.
According to the World Meteorological Organization, the sunniest place on Earth is Yuma in Arizona. Enjoying an average of 4,015 sunshine hours per year, the city has a total of 11 hours of sunlight in winter and up to 13 hours in winter. Rainfall here doesn't exceed 7.8 inches (200mm) per year but it also means that the temperature exceeds 40ºC (104ºF) for around 100 days a year, leaving Yuma feeling like a furnace.
Here are a few other destinations where summer never ends
Located in northeast Russia, two-hours' drive from Yakutsk, Oymyakon is the coldest permanently inhabited area in the world. The rural area experiences an average of -50ºC (-58ºF) during winter and is located in an extreme subarctic climate zone, which means that the ground here is permanently frozen (known as permafrost). Oymyakon's weather station has also recorded the coldest temperature in the Northern Hemisphere (-67.7ºC/-89.9ºF).
Calculated by Admiral Robert FitzRoy, the very first daily forecast was published in The Times on 1 August 1861. Thanks to the invention of the telegraph, he had data on barometer, wind and temperature readings sent to his office every morning from various ports dotted along Britain's coast, which then allowed him to predict when and where storms would hit. It wasn't for another half a century that advances in the understanding of atmospheric physics led to the creation of numerical prediction – the basis of modern-day forecasting.
Most of us recognise the smell of rain as the earthy, musky scent that fills the air just before a rainstorm, especially in summer. In reality, rain itself doesn't have any smell. The scent so familiar to us – called petrichor – actually comes from the dry surfaces the rain hits. Every raindrop ejects tiny particles known as aerosols when it hits the ground. These particles consist of a combination of fragrant chemical compounds we can smell when they're inhaled.
Although the research is still very theoretical, it's now becoming widely accepted that colder temperatures help us think better. Similar research also suggests that warmer temperature impairs our ability to use our full cognitive power, making complex decision making a lot harder. In simple terms, our body uses more energy to cool down than it does to warm up so in summer most of the glucose (our main energy source) is used to cool down while in winter there's a lot more leftover glucose for us to use for the brain's mental processes.
It is widely believed that Atacama Desert, especially the Antofagasta Region in Chile, is the driest place on Earth, however, it isn't true. The McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica haven't seen any rain for almost two million years. The lack of precipitation and extremely low humidity means that even though they're surrounded by glaciers, the valleys are snow-free. The region is also one of the world's most extreme deserts with no living organisms found here apart from certain bacteria that live in the rock interior.
With an average snowfall of 26 feet (8m), Aomori City in northern Japan is the snowiest city on Earth. During winter, it's not unusual to find yourself driving along walls of snow, however, locals have learned to embrace it and have several festivals to celebrate the unique weather conditions. The second-placed city, Sapporo, also in Japan, might be famous for its snow festival, but it experiences around 10 feet (3m) less snow than Aomori City.
Take a look at stunning images of the world's amazing ice and snow festivals
August and September 1994 saw one of the most unique tropical cyclones ever experienced – Hurricane (also Typhoon) John. John travelled from the eastern Pacific to the western Pacific and then back to central Pacific, covering an astonishing 7,165 miles (13,280km). Because it existed on both sides of the Pacific, it's known as both a hurricane and a typhoon.
Granted, the katabatic winds of Antarctica and the Roaring Forties winds (40-50 degrees south of the equator) that rip through the Pacific Ocean are both a force to be reckoned with, but there's a small fishing village in France that is pretty much constantly windy. Gruissan, located on France's Mediterranean coast, is a traditional fishing village that experiences winds over 18mph (28.9km/h) for an average of 300 days a year. Dominated by the Tramontane, a strong wind from the northwest, you'd be lucky to visit Gruissan when it isn't gusty.
Contrary to what we've seen in countless films and cartoons, yodelling and noise in general, can't trigger an avalanche. Research has shown that only the loudest sonic boom could potentially trigger an avalanche under the most sensitive conditions. Instead, avalanches are mostly caused due to weight changes after the weather and existing snow conditions are susceptible to an avalanche trigger. Snowfall, wind-deposited snow and even skiers and snowmobiles can apply enough pressure to cause an avalanche.
Spanning 14 years – a total of 173 months – the world's longest drought lasted from October 1903 to January 1918. During this time not a single drop of precipitation fell in Arica in northern Chile.
After a record-level heatwave descended on northern California during the first weekend of September in 2017, many Bay Area wine producers were left with grapes that had turned into raisins even before picking. Scorching temperatures of 38ºC (100ºF) and higher left the vines severely dehydrated and some of the state's most notable wine-growing regions of Napa and Sonoma faced uncertainty whether there would be enough grapes to harvest.
With more than 762 mm (30in) of rain falling in just a few days in southeastern Texas, the National Weather Service had to update their rain accumulation map with a new colour (lavender) to effectively display the graphics. On 27 August 2017 Houston alone received 16.07 inches (408mm) of rain, making it the wettest day in the city's history.
Unionville in Talbot County, Maryland holds the record for experiencing the greatest rainfall in 60 seconds. Recorded on 4 July 1956, 1.22 inches (31.2mm) of rain fell in a minute. In comparison, Hong Kong experiences some of the worst sub-tropical rainstorms in the world, however, its black rainstorm signal will only be used to warn the public when rainfall exceeds 2.75 inches (70mm) in an hour.
Even though the light flash slicing through the sky and the following noise have two different names, they're technically the same thing – only one is to do with light and the other with sound. Due to the difference between the speed of light and the speed of sound we see the flash first and only then hear the sound. First, light slices through air pressure in the atmosphere and we see lightning. It then retracts and the air pressure rushes back together, creating the thundering sound we're so familiar with.