Extreme Weather Photos #Part3

Tornado, Colorado

Photograph by Ron Gravelle, Your Shot

A tornado heads toward two cars on a country road near Campo, Colorado.
Technically considered a part of thunderstorms, tornadoes can cover tens of miles of ground. Their winds have been recorded at nearly 300 miles per hour.

(Learn tornado basics in our Tornadoes 101 video.)

Ice Cap, Patagonia

Photograph by Borge Ousland, National Geographic

Intrepid travelers make their way through a snowstorm while crossing the Patagonia Ice Cap, also called Patagonia’s Southern Ice Field.
According to the American Alpine Institute this sprawling expanse of snow and ice in southern Chile is one of the “least explored mountain areas in the world.”
The glaciers there—a total of 48—are remnants from a much larger ice sheet that began its retreat about 12,000 years ago. With accelerated warming from human-induced climate change, 46 of those glaciers continue to disappear at what some say is an alarming rate.
(Read more in National Geographic magazine’s “Patagonia’s Perils.”)

Heavy Rain, Guatemala

Photograph by Rodrigo Abd, AP

Water tops a dam in Cuilapa, Guatemala, after heavy rains in October 2011.
The San Juan River consumed cars, homes, and several lives as it swelled with rainwater.
One of the consequences of accelerated climate change is an increasing number of intense storms.
(Read more in “Extreme Storms and Floods Concretely Linked to Climate Change?”)
If your life isn’t threatened by flooding and you want to document downpours, read these photo tips from expert Jim Richardson.

Shelf Cloud and Lightning, Wisconsin

Photograph by Jennifer Brindley, Your Shot

In a dramatic display of summer atmospheric conditions, lightning marks the end of an impressively long shelf cloud in the Midwestern U.S.
(Create your own lightning storm in our interactive “Make Lightning Strike.”)
Shelf clouds show us where incoming air first condenses into clouds.
(Related: “Summer Storms to Create New Ozone Holes as Earth Warms?”)

Double Rainbow, Chile

Photograph by Craig Lovell, Corbis

Rain brings a double rainbow to the town to Puerto Natales in southern Chile.
Rainbows are a simple, ordered display of visible light reflected off of water droplets in the atmosphere. Double arcs happen when light is reflected more than once.
(See more rainbow pictures: Patterns in Nature: Rainbows and “Pictures: First Quadruple Rainbow Ever Caught on Camera.”)

Incoming Storm, Grand Cayman Island

Photograph by David Doubilet, National Geographic

Dark clouds loom over a beach on Grand Cayman Island.
Identified as stratocumulus by the photographer, these cloud formations are a common indicator of moisture in the lower atmosphere.
(See more epic storm pictures from National Geographic photographers and pretty cloud shots from around the world.)

Drake Passage

Photograph by Ralph Lee Hopkins, National Geographic

A vessel makes its way across Drake Passage in what some scientists call the Southern Ocean between South America and Antarctica.
The passage, which takes shipping vessels around Cape Horn at the tip of Chile and Argentina, is one of the most dangerous in the world. Near constant gale-force winds regularly fuel up to hundred-foot waves.
(See pictures of Antarctica’s Mount Erebus in National Geographic magazine.)

Landslide, India

Photograph by Channi Anand, AP

Landslide rubble buries a car in northern India’s Doda district in 2011. The devastating erosion was the result of a downpour that washed soil, rocks, and other debris onto the Doda-Batote highway.
(See photos of a landslide in Bolivia that same year and learn more about landslide physics.)

Tornado, South Dakota

Photograph by Carsten Peter, National Geographic

National Geographic photographer Carsten Peter shot this tornado in South Dakota. In his own words, Peter “specializes in going to extremes: scuba diving in a glacier on Mont Blanc, crossing the Sahara on a camel, caving in Borneo.”
He has won a World Press award for his tornado chasing work in the U.S.
(For less extreme situations, use National Geographic’s tips for photographing weather. See more tornado action in these close-up shots.)

Next Gallery: Weather Gone Wild in National Geographic Magazine

Photograph by Daniel Bryant, Your Shot

See #Part1 #Part2

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