The highly anticipated meteor shower, the Perseids, illuminated the night sky with dazzling shooting stars on Monday and Tuesday, peaking on Monday night. "The Perseids are the most popular meteor shower as they peak on warm August nights as seen from the Northern Hemisphere," according to the American Meteor Society (AMS).
During the peak evening, dozens of meteors fell per hour, according to AccuWeather Astronomy Blogger Dave Samuhel. The beautiful celestial display, which Samuhel said is most active after midnight through daybreak, comes in second only to December's Geminids in terms of the number of meteors.
"Perseids are not only numerous, they are beautiful," Samuhel said of the multi-colored meteors. "Most of the meteors leave a glittering trail as they pass."
Samuhel warned any observers that the bright moon during nature's light show would wash out many of the meteors; however, the Perseid meteors are known for their brightness.
Viewers across most of the western United States and southern Plains enjoyed stargazing in cloud-free conditions Monday night, while patchy clouds interfered in the Southeast. Clouds mostly obscured the view in the Northeast, Great Lakes and most of Canada.
Huge hailstone sets new Colorado record
Just as AccuWeather Extreme Meteorologist Reed Timmer predicted on Aug. 13, monster hail hammered parts of the central U.S. on Tuesday, with one intense storm shattering Colorado's state hail record.
The Colorado Climate Center and the National Weather Service office in Goodland, Kansas, confirmed Wednesday that a piece of hail with a maximum diameter of 4.83 inches dropped from the sky the afternoon before in Bethune, Colorado, tossing the state's old record of 4.5 inches out the window. To put this new record into perspective, a DVD disk's diameter is about 4.75 inches.
The whopper hailstone weighed 8.5 ounces, and it's possible that it could have originally been even larger than the recorded measurement because of the time that passed between when it first fell and when it was placed and preserved in a freezer, according to the Colorado Climate Center.
Severe Tropical Storm Krosa makes landfall in Japan
At least two people have been killed and at least 49 others injured across 13 prefectures after Tropical Storm Krosa made landfall and unleashed its wrath upon Japan. The damaging storm brought torrential rain and locally damaging winds to the country, and hundreds of flights were canceled.
Krosa moved ashore around 3 p.m., local time, on Thursday near Kure City in Hiroshima as a severe tropical storm, the Japan Meteorological Agency reported. The powerful storm is now the third tropical cyclone to make landfall across Japan in three weeks, coming on the heels of Typhoon Francisco and Tropical Storm Nari.
Dogs die after swimming in toxic algae-contaminated lake
Melissa Martin and Denise Mintz are warning pet owners to be careful with letting them splash around in local beaches or lakes to cool off in the summer heat. Their beloved animals, Abby, Izzy and Harpo, were poisoned during a doggy play date on Aug. 8 by toxic algae after a swim at a local lake near midtown Wilmington, North Carolina.
The animals started showing signs of sickness about 15 minutes after exiting the water, and two of the dogs began seizing. All three pets unfortunately died by midnight last Friday.
Martin's veterinarian said blue-green algae in the water where the dogs swam was the culprit. The dangerous blooms of cyanobacteria, the vet told the grieving pet owner who hadn't noticed the algae, looked like flower debris in the water.
'Do not let your dogs near standing water. Our Westies didn't even get in the water, but played in the mud at the edge,' Martin wrote in a heartbreaking Facebook post. 'What started out as a fun night for them has ended in the biggest loss of our lives. We need your prayers.'
Portland, Oregon, sees wettest August day in more than a decade
Portland, Oregon, has seen its wettest August day in 14 years, with 0.80 of an inch officially recorded in the city on Saturday, Aug. 10. This was the soggiest August dayin Portland since Aug. 29, 2005, when 1.05 inches fell, according to AccuWeather meteorologists.
Last Friday and Saturday in the Northwest were two days with unusually potent storms for the region, which endured record rain, hail and mudslides. The two-day rainfall total was 0.91 of an inch. The wet weekend made Saturday, Aug. 10, the second-wettest day in Portland so far this year. The city's wettest dayin 2019 has remained Jan. 18, when 1.11 inches of rain fell.
The average August rainfall in Portland is 0.67 of an inch.
Flooding kills more than 300 in India, Myanmar and Pakistan
Hundreds of people are dead and hundreds of thousands of others were forced from their homes after torrential monsoon rain inundated parts of India, Pakistan and Myanmar over the past week. Photos show people attempting to wade in almost waist-high waters through the region following the heavy downpours.
In addition to the more than 100 deaths reported in Kerala, over 50 people are unaccounted for, with more than 290,000 people impacted by the severe flooding, according to Asian News International.
The flooding was so high at the Cochin International Airport in Kerala on Friday morning that officials closed the airport and ceased operations until Sunday. The western coast of India saw a decline in the intensity and coverage of monsoon rain this week, AccuWeather meteorologists reported, although some areas still endured flooding.
Kangaroos hop through snow in Australia
As a rare snow blanketed Curraweela, New South Wales, on Aug. 10, a driver came across an interesting sight - dozens of kangaroos hopping across the snowy countryside, perhaps in an effort to keep their feet warm.
Stephen Grenfell posted the video on Twitter after he drove past the animals. "Not something you see every day in Australia," he wrote.
"Kangaroos in the snow."
It happened during what meteorologists have called one of Australia's coldest outbreaks in recent years, according to the BBC.
Multiple AccuWeather staff writers contributed to this story.