Awesome Weather

A follower of xkcd’s What If? asked the hypothetical question “What would the world be like if the land masses were spread out the same way as now, but rotated by 90 degrees?” Without changing the Earth’s axis relative to the Sun, it would dramatically impact the climate and ecosystems in most places on the planet. Antarctica gets the biggest upgrade.

This immersive nighttime video was shot on the streets of the Harajuku district during a heavy downpour. Captured in 4K HDR, Soul Healing’s footage is as close to being there as you can get and provides a first-person view of the shops, cafes, and youth culture in the popular area. We’re impressed that they kept the camera lens dry the whole time.

Imagine, if you will, that Mother Nature focused her energy on a single location and hit it with all of her electrical fury. xkcd’s What If? takes on another hypothetical question, exploring what might happen if every lightning bolt struck a single spot on Earth and whether we could harvest the power from the mega-storm.

If you stand under an umbrella-shaped fountain, you can stay dry from the water over your head. But the idea of an umbrella made out of water seems ridiculous. James from The Action Lab tested the idea to see if the laminar flow of water coming from the umbrella would deflect raindrops away, or if they’d still get wet.

Ever wonder how photographers capture those amazing images of lightning? It’s all about timing the shot perfectly. The MIOPS FLEX Bolt automatically detects lightning and triggers your camera’s shutter at the right time. The add-on sits in your DSLR or mirrorless camera’s hot shoe and connects to any standard trigger input.

With a record low temperature of -64.4°C (-83.9°F), Yakutsk, Russia, is known as the coldest city in the world. Local resident Kiun B braved the outdoors on a typically chilly winter day to perform six experiments to show just how quickly stuff freezes there. We need to try that banana hammer trick here in Chicago.

Feeling stressed or anxious? There’s nothing quite so calming as the sound of a rain shower. To help us unwind our minds, UK designer Jez Burrows put together a compilation of soothing rain sounds captured entirely from video games. Since this clip is titled “Part I,” we imagine a follow-up will appear at some point.

Movies and TV shows use a mix of practical, optical, and digital visual effects to simulate natural disasters. Insider compiled behind-the-scenes footage from eight movies where VFX pros brought storms, earthquakes, tsunamis, and other acts of Mother Nature’s fury to life.

We’ve never lived through a tsunami, but we know they can be terrifying and quite deadly. In this video from RED SIDE, they used CGI wave simulations to compare just how big the biggest tsunami waves can get relative to everyday surf. Can you even imagine a 1700-foot-tall wave?

Model maker asu_green11 built this wonderful living diorama which replicates the look of a bamboo forest. In addition to its greenery, it features a pump and a water diffuser grid which produce rain for the miniature scene. It took several tries to get the rain just right, but the finished effect is delightful.

During 2020, photographer and filmmaker Dustin Farrell spent the better part of six months, driving more than 38,000 miles to chase down storms and shoot footage. The end result, 101 incredible shots of nature’s fury in action, compiled into an epic 3-minute short film.

Can a tornado cross water? Does lightning ever strike twice in the same place? Wired interviewed WNBC Chief Meteorologist Janice Huff to talk about a variety of myths, misconceptions, and to share her extensive knowledge of the weather and forecasting.

Why check the temperature with an ordinary thermometer, when you can check it with bonus trivia? Fred’s all-season thermometer includes facts from -40ºF to 140ºF and from -40ºC to 60ºC, so you can compare your current climate to other notable moments in time. Made from durable enameled steel.

GMC’s 2020 Sierra pickup trucks offer an innovative bed made from a carbon fiber reinforced polymer. This makes them extremely durable and impervious to about everything. To prove this, they compared ordinary beds to theirs by flinging objects at them in hurricane-force winds. Suffice it to say, the CarbonPro won hands down.

WeatherFlow’s personal weather station can be mounted outside of your home, and has built-in rain, light, wind, pressure, temperature, lightning, and humidity sensors. It provides realtime data, records historical trends, and works with AI technology to deliver personalized forecasts for your specific location.

(PG-13: Language) You wouldn’t think that weather forecasting would be a very controversial subject. But as John Oliver explains, there’s a tenuous balance between the government agency that provides much US weather data, and private companies, and the battle brewing between useful information and hype.