Like a cat toying with its prey, an intense area of low pressure took swipes at New England and the mid-Atlantic.

Residents of the mid-Atlantic can be forgiven if they’re craving a bit of calm. The weekend of 5–6 February brought what’s been variously dubbed Snowpocalypse II, Snowmageddon, Snowtastrophe, and the Superbowl Superstorm.

The giant comma-shaped storm systems that traverse the Midwest from fall through spring carry more than a few secrets. Radar, lidar, and profiler beams are now slicing through those storms, hunting for small-scale features that normally go unobserved.

No matter how you slice it, the last few weeks have been consistently wintry across large chunks of North America and Eurasia.

How do people and organizations respond to extreme weather events—in particular, flash floods? Flash floods are already on average the leading cause of weather-related fatalities in the United States and second most common worldwide.