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May 20, 2013 Tornado strength is currently measured on what is called the Enhanced Fujita Scale, which gives the tornado a rating from 0 to 5 based on estimated wind speeds and the severity of the damage.

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May 16, 2013 Forecasters are predicting better rainfall for the East and Midwest, but in parts of the West, drought conditions will persist.

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April 11, 2013 There have been tornadoes in Missouri and Arkansas. More severe storms are expected in parts of the southern mid-Atlantic and Southeast. Meanwhile, Minnesota and other places in the upper Midwest are bracing for another foot of snow. Where's spring?

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March 25, 2013 The calendar says it's spring. But it sure doesn't look like it across much of the nation. A storm that gave parts of the Rockies and Midwest another taste of winter is now coating parts of the Northeast with snow and slush.

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February 12, 2013 A new smartphone app allows users to document falling precipitation in their location. The mPING app aims to help weather officials program radar to determine exactly what's falling near you. For example, is it hail or mixed rain?

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February 2, 2013 It's a tradition that goes back to 1887, and while he's not always correct, the Punxsutawney, Pa., groundhog has a massive following who watch his every move on Groundhog Day.

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December 27, 2012 The storm that spread blizzards from Texas to the Great Lakes, and spawned tornadoes in the Southeast, will dump more snow before it heads off toward Canada and the Atlantic Ocean. It's been blamed for at least 15 deaths.

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December 24, 2012 There's going to be more snow in California and then over the Rockies and into the Plains. But it's parts of the Gulf Coast and Southeast that could see the most severe storms on Christmas Day.

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November 8, 2012 High winds, driving rain and some snow brought down more power lines across a region still trying to recover from Superstorm Sandy. The storm added "insult to injury," NPR's Martin Kaste reports from Atlantic City, N.J.

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October 28, 2012 Hurricane Sandy, the superstorm that's headed north from the Caribbean, is expected to make landfall along the New Jersey coast. Its impending arrival prompted the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people across several states, and pushed New York City and Philadelphia to announce that their transit systems would close.

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• Hurricane CSI: Frankenstorm Sandy And Climate Change

October 27, 2012 It's still unclear whether Sandy, which was both downgraded then upgraded early Saturday morning, will be a devastating storm or just a bad one. It is clear, however, that Sandy will be remembered as the storm that broke all the rules and baffled the nation's top weather forecasters.

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October 18, 2012 The National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center has released its winter outlook. It says chances are good that some parts of the nation hit hard this year by dry and drought-like conditions won't be getting a "normal" amount of precipitation.

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October 15, 2012 The agency has been keeping such records since 1880. According to its measurements, the "average global temperature across land and ocean surfaces" was 1.21 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th Century average for September.

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August 8, 2012 There's never been a hotter month in records going back to 1895. The average temperature across the lower 48 states was 77.6 degrees.

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July 3, 2012 From the Great Lakes through the Mid-Atlantic, there's no relief from the heat in sight. Meanwhile, utility crews are struggling to get power to those who lost it because of the huge damage caused by Friday's severe weather.

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