List of severe weather phenomena

Short description: none

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 (in the event of severe, precipitation-based events) instability in the atmosphere.

Examples

Atmospheric

Fog
- Haar (fog)
- Ice fog

Electrical storms

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

Flood

Floods

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

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
Earthquake
- Landslide
- Debris flows
- Mudslide
- Rockfall
- Coastal erosion
- Sinkhole

Temperature

Volcano

Volcanic eruption
Volcanic lightning
Volcanic ash

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

Phenomena caused by severe thunderstorms

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 (Upper-atmospheric lightning)
Thundersnow, Snowsquall
Tornado
Windstorm (gradient pressure induced)
Severe thunderstorm (hailstorm, downburst: microbursts and macrobursts)

Severe weather caused by humans

Air pollution