The superstorm Sandy inflicted serious damage to the east coast of the United States this week, drawing attention and interest from all over. In the United States, "Hurricane Sandy" was YouTube's top rising search of the past seven days as residents in affected areas as well as those beyond, sought out information as well as bystander footage of the disaster.
Over 30,000 videos mentioning "Sandy" were uploaded Monday alone and these and other videos from this week have been viewed tens of millions of times.
With over 5 million views in just 2 days, the most-watched video from the storm is the footage of the power plant explosion in lower Manhattan that left much of the city in the dark.
The Weather Channel livestreamed their forecasts of the storm on YouTube as it battered the East coast, reaching 13 million livestream views over the course of their coverage.
Other popular videos include footage of flooding in New York and the rescue of passengers from the HMS Bounty.
Interest in "Hurricane" searches Monday were at their highest since 2008 (as far as our records go back). The most recent search interest spike prior to this was last summer, when Hurricane Irene threatened the east coast as indicated in the chart below:
While the damage across the Midwest was not quite as bad as originally thought, there were six tornado-related deaths this weekend in Oklahoma. Over 800 videos (of varying types) were posted over the weekend with the keyword "tornado."
An unusual series of devastating tornadoes tore through parts of the South and Midwestern United States late last week. >Over 100 are said to have been reported on Friday alone. A number of residents -- as well as storm chasers -- captured images of these disasters in action.
In this video, for example, a tornado is seem forming over what's said to be West Liberty, Kentucky on Friday.
Over 4,000 videos with "tornado" in the title were posted in the past week. Several of them have been collected in the playlist below.
(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here.)
For amateur and professional photographers and videographers living at high latitudes, the aurora boralis, aka the Northern Lights, are popular subject matter... when they appear, that is. This week, the lights, which are normally visible in areas close to the arctic circle, were seen as far south as Scotland and England.
In the past, these sightings have generally caused a surge in uploads. Below you can see some of the numerous videos posted by those who were lucky enough to witness the phenomenon this week.
(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here.)
Palm Springs, California witnessed a sudden, intense wind storm this weekend that left many trees down and homes without power. Some of the gusts were reportedly 80-90 miles per hour.
A number of residents captured video of the unusual weather occurrence and posted them to their channels on YouTube. We've collected eight of them in the playlist below.
(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here.)
A major storm in the United Kingdom resulted in hurricane-force winds whipping through parts of Scotland Thursday. A number of residents braved the sometimes 165mph winds to get some footage on the street of the effects of the wild storm:
(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here.)
Some areas of Oklahoma experienced hail and even tornadoes Monday as severe weather blanketed the region. A number of storm chasers were out capturing video of the tornadoes as they touched down and a number of videos have already been posted of the twisters.
CitizenTube collected several in the playlist below.
(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here.)
It's not uncommon to see flood videos on YouTube, but it's rare to see them trending from three separate regions around the world.
A number of videos are being heavily shared this week that depict flooding in Dublin. Among the most popular is this bystander video shot by a bus rider as the vehicle was supposedly filling with canal water.
Meanwhile, storms in Italy resulted in the flooding of picturesque town Monterosso. This footage is among the most-shared and -viewed in that country today.
(See some more recent footage from the town of Levanto here.)
And we've documented videos from Thailand before, but we're still seeing clips spreading from that region. This video appears to show a crocodile captured in the floodwaters. Over 100 were purported to have escaped into the waters around Bangkok.
A major solar storm reportedly resulted in a rare, vivid display of the Northern Lights -- a.k.a. the Aurora Borealis -- around the world during the evening and early morning of October 24th and 25th. A number of time-lapse videos have been posted depicting the uncommon phenomenon that were uploaded from as disparate locations as Missouri and Michigan in the United States and the Scandinavian nations of Sweden, Norway, and Finland.
We've pulled together a playlist of higher quality videos and photomontages capturing the dazzling meteorological event:
(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here.)
As Typhoon Roke made landfall in Japan, residents in the area began documenting and uploading the conditions in their area. A search for "typhoon" in Japanese results in nearly 2,000 videos of various kinds from the past 24 hours.
(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here.)
One of the top spiking search terms on YouTube Sunday night was "vermont flooding irene" as footage began to surface of significant rises in water levels in Vermont in the wake of Hurricane Irene. Other, related video searches that were on the rise included Bennington and Brattleboro, VT, Shelburne falls, MA, and Yonkers, NY.
Spreading Sunday night were dramatic videos of two Vermont covered bridges being destroyed, the Bartonsville Bridge and the Quechee Bridge, respectively embedded below.
(Alternate footage of the Quechee Bridge flooding, which was also a rising search, can be seen here.) Update: Footage of another wrecked bridge in Jamaica, VT has also been posted.
Here's a UPDATEDplaylist of 15 videos of the major flooding Sunday in New England, beginning with this clip of a car floating by in a powerful current:
As Hurricane Irene makes landfall in the Southern United States, those in the Northeast and elsewhere have begun preparing for the storm. In the past day or so, we've seen a great many videos regarding the storm that have been uploaded to YouTube.
In fact, roughly 4,000 "Irene"-related videos have been uploaded in the past 24 hours. Many of these videos consist of on-the scene footage -- like those we began receiving late this morning from Jacksonville and North Carolina -- aftermath footage, or clips people have posted of the preparations they're making.
On a lighter note, searches for a number of songs relating to the storm are sharply on the rise, including "Goodnight Irene," "Rock Me Like a Hurricane," and a certain popular song from 1982 though it's not 100% clear if these are searches specifically for parodies or just searches by people who have mistaken the songs lyrics:
Over 25 videos have been posted in the past 24 hours of a waterspout that was spotted off the coast of North Carolina yesterday afternoon.
Below is a collection of several clips said to have been taken as the waterspout approached the shore. The first video in this series, which captures its landfall, is picking up views quickly and is the Most Shared video in every major city in NC and is among the Most Shared videos nationally.
(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here.)
YouTube's most-viewed waterspout was captured just earlier this year, in May off the coast of Australia. It's been seen over 2 million times:
Snow landed in downtown Auckland Monday for the first time since the 1930s in what some are calling a "once-in-a-lifetime event." Up to two feet of snow was reportedly measured in some parts of New Zealand in what, for that country, is a very unusual blizzard.
Videos have been coming in of the strange weather from New Zealand, including this peaceful short film from Wellington that's the most-shared video in that country today:
As other videos show, the snow became quite heavy in some places.
Over 500 New Zealand snow videos have been posted this week, some of which are among the most-viewed overall there. Many of the videos are coming from Auckland, where excited Kiwis ran outside to enjoy and capture the uncommon snowfall. Below you can see a sample of 10 videos from people who clearly don't get to see snow very often:
(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here.)
Contrast that with the reaction of some Americans in the Southeast this past winter.
A tornado struck the city of Blagoveshchensk in eastern Russia Sunday night, reportedly killing one and injuring thirty others. A number of dramatic videos have been posted by bystanders who managed to capture some up close images of the tornado, some of which are among the most-viewed today in the country:
(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here.)
At least 32 people were reportedly killed Wednesday in South Korea, when major flooding and a landslide hit Seoul. We've begun to receive an influx of video from the streets of the city depicting the conditions there and collected a number of them in the playlist below.
A major dust storm blanketed parts of Arizona, including the Phoenix area, late Tuesday and some residents were able to capture plenty of video of the unique event. The storm -- also known broadly as a "haboob" -- is a top rising search today on YouTube and over 1,000 videos tagged "dust storm" have been uploaded in the past 24 hours.
We've collected a number of incredible, recently-uploaded videos of the sand storm in the playlist below:
(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here.)
