Global temperatures in 2024 soared to yet another record level, but this time it was such a big jump that Earth temporarily passed a major symbolic climate threshold.

Tornado experts say the winter’s record warmth provided the key ingredient for a Midwest outbreak of deadly tornadoes and damaging gorilla hail that hit parts of the Midwest Wednesday and Thursday.

Meteorologists are warning of a series of severe storms that could rip across America's Midwest and South over the next couple of weeks, with the first and perhaps most dangerous outbreak forecast to strike Friday.

A new study says warming will fuel more supercells in the United States and that those storms will move eastward from their current range.

Experts say a natural La Nina weather pattern, unusually warm moist air juiced by climate change, and long-term shift in where tornadoes hit all are factors in Thursday's devastating tornado in Alabama.

The 21st century tornado problem is far different from ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ Killer tornadoes hit the Southeast far more than they do in Kansas, Oklahoma or Texas.

A major winter storm has left about 350,000 homes and businesses without power across the U.S. The multiday storm dumped more than a foot of snow in parts of the Midwest and caused a tornado in Alabama that killed one person and critically injured three others.

Meteorologists blame the all-too-familiar polar vortex. That's the polar vortex, which spins like a whirling top at the top of the planet. AdThis particular polar vortex breakdown has been a whopper. Warming in the Arctic, with shrinking sea ice, is goosing the atmospheric wave in two places, giving it more energy when it strikes the polar vortex, making it more likely to disrupt the vortex, Cohen said. PATTERN HAS BEEN OBSERVED FOR DECADESThere were strong polar vortex disruptions and cold outbreaks like this in the 1980s, Cohen said.

I don’t think anybody expected widespread winds approaching 100, 110 mph,” Marsh said. He compared it to a devastating Super Derecho of 2009, which was one of the strongest on record and traveled more than 1,000 miles in 24 hours, causing $500 million in damage, widespread power outages and killing a handful of people. Cedar Rapids, Iowa, had “both significant and widespread damage throughout the city,” said public safety spokesman Greg Buelow. Omaha Public Power District reported more than 55,500 customers without power in Omaha and surrounding communities. Marsh said there’s concern about widespread power outages across several states.