Severe weather phenomena are weather conditions that are hazardous to human life and property.

Part of a series on
Weather
Temperate and polar seasons Winter Spring Summer Autumn
Tropical seasons Dry season Harmattan Wet season
Storms Cloud Cumulonimbus cloud Arcus cloud Downburst Microburst Heat burst Derecho Lightning Volcanic lightning Thunderstorm Air-mass thunderstorm Thundersnow Dry thunderstorm Mesocyclone Supercell Tornado Anticyclonic tornado Landspout Waterspout Dust devil Fire whirl Anticyclone Cyclone Polar low Extratropical cyclone European windstorm Nor'easter Subtropical cyclone Tropical cyclone Atlantic hurricane Typhoon Storm surge Dust storm Simoom Haboob Monsoon Amihan Gale Sirocco Firestorm Winter storm Ice storm Blizzard Ground blizzard Snow squall
Precipitation Drizzle Freezing Graupel Hail Megacryometeor Ice pellets Diamond dust Rain Freezing Cloudburst Snow Rain and snow mixed Snow grains Snow roller Slush
Topics Air pollution Atmosphere Chemistry Convection Physics River Climate Cloud Physics Fog Fog season Cold wave Heat wave Jet stream Meteorology Severe weather List Extreme Severe weather terminology Canada Japan United States Weather forecasting Weather modification
Glossaries Meteorology Climate change Tornado terms Tropical cyclone terms
Weather portal
v t e

Severe weather can occur under a variety of situations, but three characteristics are generally needed: a temperature or moisture boundary, moisture, and (in the event of severe, precipitation-based events) instability in the atmosphere.

Examples

Atmospheric

• Fog
  • Haar (fog)
  • Ice fog

Electrical storms

• Storm
• Thunderstorm
  • Derecho
  • Multicellular thunderstorm
  • Pulse storm
  • Squall line
  • Storm cell (single-cell)
  • Supercells, rotating thunderstorms
  • Lightning

Fire

• Wildfire or bushfire (ignition of wildfires is sometimes by lightning strike, especially in "dry thunderstorms")
  • Firestorm
  • Fire whirl, also called firenado and fire tornado

Flooding

• Floods
  • Flash floods
  • Coastal flooding
  • Tidal flooding
  • Storm surge

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

Precipitation

Snow

• Avalanche
• Blizzard
• Lake effect snow
• Snownado
  • Snow devil
  • Polar vortex

Ice

• Black ice
• Glaze ice
• Hailstorm
• Ice shove
• Ice storm
• Megacryometeor

Rain

• Acid rain
• Blood rain
• Cold drop (Spanish: gota fría; archaic as a meteorological term), 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 (for related phenomena, see Blood rain)
• Monsoon

Surface movement

• Avalanche
• Mass wasting and landslips
  • Landslide
  • Debris flows
  • Mudslide
  • Rockfall
  • Coastal erosion
  • Sinkhole

Thermal

• Cold wave
• Heat wave
• Heat burst
• Polar vortex

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 (also colloquially referred to as a "whirlwind" or "twister")
  • 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

Some related meteorological terms: weather front ,gust front , bow echo,Atmospheric river

Phenomena caused by severe thunderstorms

• Excessive Lightning
• Derecho
• Extreme wind (70 mph or greater)
• Downpours
• Heavy rain
• Flood, flash flood, coastal flooding
• Hail
• High winds – 93 km/h(58 mph) or higher.
• Lightning
• Thundersnow, Snowsquall
• Tornado
• Windstorm (gradient pressure induced)
• Severe thunderstorm (hailstorm, downburst: microbursts and macrobursts)

Severe weather caused by humans

• Air pollution