Live · Extreme weather
This week’s standings.
The biggest storms, quakes, fires and warnings of the past seven days, ranked by the numbers. What’s happening right now →
Rankings
We track far more in the U.S. than anywhere else, so Global ranks the rest of the world on its own.
How we measure severity
Five steps, each kind of event measured on its own scale.
- Storms on radar
- By the strongest echo, in radar’s colors: one step under 50 dBZ, then one each from 50, 55, 60 and 65 dBZ, where hail is likely.
- Earthquakes
- By the U.S. Geological Survey’s class: light (under magnitude 5), moderate, strong, major, and great (8 and up).
- Hurricanes
- By Saffir-Simpson category, a tropical storm one step.
- Warnings
- By what the National Weather Service tags them with: a warning three steps, a tornado warning four; one more for a considerable damage threat or a tornado observed; five for a catastrophic or destructive one.
- Wildfires and the rest
- By the severity the Dreadcast API gives them: one, three or five steps.
Checking the numbers…