Storm

Storm

A storm (Proto-Germanic *sturmaz "noise, tumult") is any disturbed state of an astronomical body's atmosphere, especially affecting its surface, and strongly implying severe weather. It may be marked by strong wind, hail, thunder and/or lightning (a thunderstorm), heavy precipitation (snowstorm, rainstorm), heavy freezing rain (ice storm), strong winds (tropical cyclone, windstorm) or wind transporting some substance through the atmosphere (as in a dust storm, blizzard, sandstorm, etc.). Storms generally lead to negative impacts to lives and property, such as storm surge, heavy rain or snow (causing flooding or road impassibility), lightning, wildfires, and vertical wind shear; however, systems with significant rainfall can alleviate drought in places they move through. Heavy snowfall can allow special recreational activities to take place which would not be possible otherwise, such as skiing and snowmobiling.

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Famous quotes containing the word storm:

    When the storm rattles my windowpane
    I’ll stay hunched at my desk, it will roar in vain
    For I’ll have plunged deep inside the thrill
    Of conjuring spring with the force of my will,
    Coaxing the sun from my heart, and building here
    Out of my fiery thoughts, a tepid atmosphere.
    John Ashbery (b. 1927)

    Think of the storm roaming the sky uneasily
    like a dog looking for a place to sleep in,
    listen to it growling.
    Elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979)

    Thee for my recitative,
    Thee in the driving storm even as now, the snow, the winter-day
    declining,
    Thee in thy panoply, thy measur’d dual throbbing and thy beat
    convulsive,
    Thy black cylindric body, golden brass and silvery steel,
    Walt Whitman (1819–1892)