List of severe weather phenomena
Severe weather phenomena are weather conditions that are hazardous to human life and property.
Severe weather can occur under a variety of situations, but three characteristics are generally needed: a temperature or moisture boundary, moisture, and instability in the atmosphere.
Examples
Atmospheric
Electrical storms
- Thunderstorm
- * Derecho
- * Multicellular thunderstorm
- * Pulse storm
- * Squall line
- * Storm cell
- * Supercells, rotating thunderstorms
- * Lightning
Fire
- Wildfire or bushfire
- * Firestorm
- * Fire whirl, also called firenado and ''fire tornado''
Flood
Oceans and bodies of water
- Harmful algal bloom
- * Blue green algae
- * Red tide
- High seas
- Sneaker wave
- High tides
- King tide
- Ice shove
- Rogue wave
- Seiche
- Swell (ocean)
- Tidal surge
- Storm surge
- Rip currents
- Undertow (water waves)
- Whirlpools
Snow
Ice
Rain
- Acid rain
- Blood rain
- Cold drop, colloquially, any high impact rainfall event along the Mediterranean coast of Spain
- Drought, a prolonged water supply shortage, often caused by persistent lack of, or much reduced, rainfall
- Floods
- * Flash flood
- Rainstorm
- Red rain in Kerala
- Monsoon
Surface movement
- Avalanche
- Mass wasting and landslips
- Earthquake
- * Landslide
- * Debris flows
- * Mudslide
- * Rockfall
- * Coastal erosion
- * Sinkhole
Temperature
Volcano
Wind
- Cyclones
- * Extratropical cyclone
- ** European windstorms
- ** Australian east [coast low]
- * "Medicane", Mediterranean tropical-like cyclones
- * Polar cyclone
- * Tropical cyclone, also called a hurricane, typhoon, or just "cyclone"
- * Subtropical cyclone
- * Australian east coast low
- Explosive cyclogenesis or weather bomb
- Dust storm
- * Haboob
- * Dust devil
- * Sandstorm
- Hurricane
- Katabatic winds
- * Bohemian wind
- * Bora
- *Piteraq
- * Gregale
- * Anabatic wind
- *Valley exit jet
- * Santa Ana winds
- * Williwaws
- * Chinook
- Gale
- Monsoon
- Nor’easter
- Nor'westers
- Steam devil
- Squall
- * Straight-line winds
- * Derecho
- Tornado
- * Landspout
- * Gustnado, a "gust front tornado"
- * Waterspout
- Winter storms
- Wind gust
- Windstorm
- Gust front
Other
- Heat lightning
- Zud, widespread livestock death, mainly by starvation, caused by climatic conditions
- Hayfever
Phenomena caused by severe thunderstorms
- Derecho
- Extreme wind
- Downpours
- Heavy rain
- Flood, flash flood, coastal flooding
- Hail
- High winds – 93 km/h or higher.
- Lightning
- Thundersnow, Snowsquall
- Tornado
- Windstorm
- Severe thunderstorm