Spring Weather Reporting Guide

The guide explains how climate change influences spring weather, noting that warmer temperatures increase the frequency of large hail and heavy rainfall, while tornado patterns are shifting in location and timing despite complex overall trends.

• Large, damaging hail is projected to become more frequent as global warming provides more energy for stronger storm updrafts. Specifically, hailstones the size of a golf ball or larger are expected to increase in frequency by up to 75% based on current projections, while smaller hail may decrease as it melts before hitting the ground.
• While the total annual number of tornadoes has remained relatively stable since the 1970s, there is an increase in tornado outbreaks (days with multiple tornadoes). In the US, these outbreaks have shifted east from Texas and Oklahoma toward Tennessee and Alabama over the last 30 years, and favorable conditions for supercells are appearing more often outside the traditional early spring season, including in fall and winter.
• Heavy rainfall has increased in frequency and intensity across most of the world since the 1950s because a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture. Precipitation extremes are expected to continue increasing globally, including in areas where average precipitation is declining.

APA

CCNow (2025). Spring Weather Reporting Guide. Covering Climate Now. https://coveringclimatenow.org/resource/spring-weather-reporting-guide/

Chicago

CCNow. Spring Weather Reporting Guide. Covering Climate Now, 2025. https://coveringclimatenow.org/resource/spring-weather-reporting-guide/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=CCNow |title=Spring Weather Reporting Guide |publisher=Covering Climate Now |date=26 February 2025 |url=https://coveringclimatenow.org/resource/spring-weather-reporting-guide/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{ccnow2025spring, author = {CCNow}, title = {{Spring Weather Reporting Guide}}, institution = {Covering Climate Now}, year = {2025}, month = feb, url = {https://coveringclimatenow.org/resource/spring-weather-reporting-guide/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }