Recent Met Office weather warnings have predicted a disturbed weekend for millions of Brits as a stormy system carrying intense rain and wind makes explosive landfall

Three factors are to blame, or cheer. One, a strong vertical wind shear, which refers to a change in wind speed or direction with altitude. It has increased thanks to a cyclonic circulation in the mid-upper troposphere, which is the lowest region of the Earth’s atmosphere.

The long lull in tropical activity, right at the peak of hurricane season, has flummoxed meteorologists. We talked to experts about what’s going on, and when things may change.

A proposed “Tropical Cyclone Severity Scale” could do a better job at relaying a storm’s hazards than the current Saffir-Simpson scale

As the anniversary of Hurricane Helene approaches, a weather expert reflects on the significant impacts in his home state of Georgia.

Hurricane Catarina, for example, made history in 2004 by forming in the South Atlantic. Hurricane Pali, meanwhile, developed in January 2016 in the central Pacific, one of the earliest tropical cyclones ever recorded there.