Weather officials logged wind speeds up to 72 mph Monday morning, Dec. 29. See where winter storm produced strongest gusts.

Extreme weather around Alaska also resulted in state office closures on Monday in Juneau, where nearly 2 feet of snow fell over the weekend, and an airport closure in Unalaska.

This powerful storm is beginning to move out of the Pacific Northwest, where heavy rains have exacerbated last week’s historic flooding in Washington, into the Northern Plains and Northern Rockies Wednesday, bringing vicious wind gusts of 50 to 70 mph.

On the penultimate day of the year, a tropical storm capped off an extraordinary hurricane season. Here's what happened.

The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season, which officially ended Nov. 30, delivered near-normal activity but stood out for its sharp contrasts.

Hurricanes are currently categorized on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, which rates storms on a scale of 1-5 based on their maximum sustained wind speed. Category 5 is currently the highest category, given to hurricanes that have maximum sustained winds of 252 kilometers (157 miles) per hour or higher.

Hurricanes, as destructive as they are, also play a crucial role in keeping Earth’s climate balanced and our planet green and habitable. Yes. Hurricanes have an important purpose on this planet, and our world would be dangerously out of balance without them.

The Atlantic hurricane season produced a normal number of storms, compared to more frequent storms in recent years. But the storms that did form were huge.

Was the 2025 hurricane season a glimpse of of the future? Though Louisiana had a quiet season, an analysis of this year's storms in the Atlantic basin. points to a new trend—of more intense but less frequent hurricanes.