• Huge ELVE captured high above a thunderstorm over Russia

    A 300 km (186 miles) wide ELVE was photographed hight above a thunderstorm in central Russia on August 16, 2018. This transient luminous event was recorded using a low-light video camera in the Russian town of Irbit, Sverdlovsk Oblast, by amateur astronomer Ilya…

  • Largest dust storm in 5 years descends on Taiwan

    Air quality suffered greatly as the largest dust storm in five years descended onto the island nation on April 6 -7, 2018, with western Taiwan's Yunlin county being hardest hit, measuring 10 out of 10 in Air Quality Index (AQI). New Taipei City's Wanli…

  • Early season red sprites appear over Czech Republic

    Two red sprites, transient optical phenomena appearing as luminous reddish-orange flashes, have been recorded over the Czech Republic on April 4, 2018, marking the early beginning of 2018 sprite season in the northern hemisphere. Lucky photographer this season was…

  • Dust storm kills three in Uttar Pradesh, India

    A massive dust storm hit many parts of central and eastern Uttar Pradesh, India, on March 30, 2018, killing three people. The storm disrupted traffic and caused power outages in many locations and uprooted multiple trees, an official said. One person was killed…

  • Orange snow carpets parts of eastern Europe

    Parts of eastern Europe, especially mountainous regions in Ukraine, Russia, Moldova, Bulgaria and Romania, transformed into Mars-like landscape on March 23 – 25, 2018 as sand and dust from desert storms in northern Africa caused snow to turn orange. According to…

  • Severe dust storm hits Crete, Greece

    A cutoff low in the central Mediterranean pushed huge amounts of Saharan dust from Libya toward the eastern Mediterranean on March 22, 2018, heavily impacting the region, especially the island of Crete. A thick layer of Saharan sand reached Crete around 16:00 local…