This is alist of weather events which occurred during wars and how thoseweather events affected thewars.

• Siege of Katsurayama – The siege in 1557 was fought between the forces of the JapanesedaimyōTakeda Shingen andUesugi Kenshin as part of theKawanakajima campaigns. Katsurayama castle was a strategically vitalUesugi stronghold in the contestedShinano Province and, when it was isolated from reinforcements due to late snow in early 1557, theTakeda clan used this opportunity to seize it underBaba Nobuharu, shielded from view by heavy snowfall.^[1]

• Spanish Armada – In 1588, theSpanish Empire created theSpanish Armada and set sail to invade theKingdom of England. While the Spanish ships were anchored off the coast ofFrance, the British set fire to eight ships, letting the wind and tide help set fire across the fleet. Soon after, the British launched an attack on the Spanish Armada during sea storms. These storms are attributed to the reason the British defeated the Spanish invasion.^[2][3]

• Battle of Nantwich – In 1643 or 1644,Prince Rupert made an abortive attack on the Parliamentarian stronghold ofAylesbury England. 500 men are reported to have frozen to death on 21 January. On 25 January a sudden thaw caused a bridge to collapse over the River Weaver, splitting Royalist cavalry forces at theBattle of Nantwich resulting in their defeat.^[4]

• Swedish invasion of Russia – In theGreat Northern War,Charles XII of Sweden invaded the Russian Empire, crossing theVistula on 1 January 1708. The Russians retreated, adopting ascorched-earth policy. The winter of 1708–1709 was the most brutal of the 18th century, so severe that the seaport ofVenice froze during theGreat Frost of 1709. Charles' 35,000 troops were crippled, and by the spring of 1709 only 19,000 were left. TheBattle of Poltava in the UkrainianCossack Hetmanate in late June 1709 sealed the end of theSwedish Empire.^[5]

• George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River – On December 25, 1776,George Washington and theContinental Army crossed the icyDelaware River. During the crossing, the weather became progressively worse, turning from drizzle to rain and then to sleet and snow. "It blew a hurricane," one soldier recalled.^[6]

• Battle of Long Island – During the battle, theBritish trapped and laid siege toGeorge Washington and theUnited States'Continental Army with their army and theEast River. Instead of directly attacking the Continental Army, the British began digging trenches. On the afternoon of August 28, 1776, rain fell, which concealed the Continental Army cannons, which attacked the British forces. Over the next day, the Continental Army planned on how to evacuate across the East River to escape the British siege. During the night on August 30, a dense fog set across the river, which allowed the entire Continental Army's 9,000 troops to cross the river with no casualties.^[2][3]

• Battle of Monmouth Court House – During the battle, most of the casualties occurred from heat-related illnesses.^[7]

• Battle of Rhode Island – A French naval force under AdmiralCharles Henri Hector d'Estaing was sent to assist Washington; deciding New York was too formidable a target, in August they launched a combined attack on Newport, with GeneralJohn Sullivan commanding land forces.^[8] The resultingBattle of Rhode Island was indecisive; badly damaged by a storm, the French withdrew to avoid putting their ships at risk.^[9] Further activity was limited to British raids onChestnut Neck andLittle Egg Harbor in October.^[10]

• French invasion of Russia –Napoleon'sGrande Armée of 610,000 meninvaded Russia, heading through territory of today's Belarus towardsMoscow, in the beginning of summer on 24 June 1812. TheRussian army retreated before the French and again burnt their crops and villages, denying the enemy their use. Napoleon's army was ultimately reduced to 100,000. His army suffered further, even more disastrous losses on the retreat from Moscow, which started in October. Multiple sources concur that winter and its aftermath was only a contributing factor to Napoleon's defeat and retreat.^{[3][2][11][12][13]}

• Burning of Washington – Following theUnited Kingdom's capture ofWashington, D.C., the capital of theUnited States, a sudden, very heavy thunderstorm—possibly ahurricane—put out the fires started by the British. It also spun off atornado that passed through the center of the capital, setting down onConstitution Avenue^[14] and lifting two cannons before dropping them several yards away and killing British troops and American civilians alike.^[15] Following the storm, the British troops returned to their ships, many of which were badly damaged. There is some debate regarding the effect of this storm on the occupation. While some assert that the storm forced the British to retreat,^[14] historians have argued that their intention was only to destroy the city's government buildings, rather than occupy it for an extended period. The British occupation of Washington lasted only about 26 hours. Despite this, the "Storm that saved Washington", as it became known, did the opposite according to some.^[2] The rains sizzled and cracked the already charred walls of the White House and ripped away at structures the British had no plans to destroy (such as the Patent Office).

• Burnside's Mud March – During the march, the weather deteriorated, with a strong storm producing cold temperatures, strong wind and heavy precipitation.^[16]

• Nazi occupation of Poland – A strongF2 tornado struck the village ofBorzymy, killing a farmer who was thrown 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) away. The exact date of the tornado is unknown, but modern meteorologists with theEuropean Severe Storms Laboratory believe it occurred 21 July 1940 in occupied Poland.^[17]

• Operation Barbarossa – DuringWorld War II, theWehrmacht lacked necessary supplies, such as winter uniforms, due to the many delays in the German army's movements. At the same time,Hitler's plans for the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union,Operation Barbarossa, actually miscarried before the onset of severe winter weather.^[2][3] Neither Hitler nor the General Staff anticipated a long campaign lasting into the winter. Thus, they failed to make adequate preparations for a possible winter campaign, such as the distribution of warm clothing andwinterization of vehicles and lubricants.^[18] In fact his eastern army suffered more than 734,000 casualties (about 23% of its average strength of 3,200,000) during the first five months of the invasion before the winter started in recently occupied Poland and Soviet Belarus, Ukraine, and western Russia. On 27 November 1941,Eduard Wagner, theQuartermaster General of the German Army, reported that "We are at the end of our resources in both personnel and material. We are about to be confronted with the dangers of deep winter." Also of note is the fact that the unusually early winter of 1941 cut short therasputitsa season, improving logistics in early November, with the weather still being only mildly cold.^[13]

• Battle of the Atlantic /North Atlantic weather war – In October 1943,Nazi Germany establishedWeather Station Kurt, inLabrador,Dominion of Newfoundland, marking the only knownarmed German military operation on land in North America during theSecond World War. Weather Station Kurt was established byU-537, commanded byKapitänleutnant Peter Schrewe, who carried WFL-26, codenamed "Kurt", a meteorologist, Dr. Kurt Sommermeyer, and his assistant, Walter Hildebrant. En route, the U-boat was caught in a storm and a large breaker produced significant damage, including leaks in the hull and the loss of the submarine's quadrupleanti-aircraft cannon, leaving it both unable to dive and defenceless against Allied aircraft. The weather station functioned for only a few days before its signals became degraded and within three weeks it permanently failed.^[19] The U-boat undertook a combat patrol in the area of theGrand Banks of Newfoundland, during which she survived three attacks by Canadian aircraft, but sank no ships.^[20][21]

• D-Day –See also:Weather forecasting for Operation Overlord – Eisenhower had tentatively selected 5 June as the date for the assault. However, on 4 June, conditions were unsuitable for a landing: high winds and heavy seas made it impossible to launch landing craft, and low clouds would prevent aircraft from finding their targets.^[22] The weather forecast that reported the storms was sent from a weather station on the western coast of Ireland.^[23] Group CaptainJames Stagg of theRoyal Air Force (RAF) met Eisenhower on the evening of 4 June. He and his meteorological team predicted that the weather would improve enough for the invasion to proceed on 6 June.^[24] The next available dates with the required tidal conditions (but without the desirable full moon) would be two weeks later, from 18 to 20 June. Postponement of the invasion would have required recalling men and ships already in position to cross theEnglish Channel and would have increased the chance that the invasion plans would be detected.^[25] After much discussion with the other senior commanders, Eisenhower decided that the invasion should go ahead on 6 June.^[26] A major storm battered the Normandy coast from 19 to 22 June, which would have made the beach landings impossible.^[22] Allied control of the Atlantic meant German meteorologists had less information than the Allies on incoming weather patterns.^[27] As theLuftwaffe meteorological centre in Paris was predicting two weeks of stormy weather, many Wehrmacht commanders left their posts to attendwar games inRennes, and men in many units were given leave.^[28] Field MarshalErwin Rommel returned to Germany for his wife's birthday and to petition Hitler for additionalPanzer divisions.^[29]

• Sinking of the SSOria – The ship was hit by a severe windstorm, which capsized and sank the steamer. At least 4,102 people were killed, which included 4,000 Italian prisoners (43 officers, 118 non-commissioned officers and 3,955 enlisted men), 60 German soldiers to guard the Italian prisoners, and 54 Greeks.^[17][30][31]

• Battle of the Bulge – The Germans achieved a total surprise attack on the morning of 16 December 1944, due to a combination of Allied overconfidence, preoccupation with Allied offensive plans elsewhere and pooraerial reconnaissance due to bad weather. American forces were using this region primarily as a rest area for the U.S. First Army, and the lines were thinly held by fatigued troops and inexperienced replacement units. The Germans also took advantage of heavily overcast weather conditions that grounded the Allies' superior air forces for an extended period. Improved weather conditions from around 24 December permitted air attacks on German forces andsupply lines. On 26 December the lead element of Patton's U.S. Third Army reached Bastogne from the south ending the siege.^[2]

• Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – Following the atomic bombing ofHiroshima on August 6, 1945, theUnited States was preparing to drop anotheratomic bomb on theEmpire of Japan. The second atomic bomb, codenamedFat Man, was set to be dropped on the Japanese town ofKokura. On the morning of August 9, 1945, MajorCharles Sweeney was ordered to drop the bomb using only visual targeting and not with any radar capabilities. Due to nearby firebombings, visibility was low over Kokura. After circling the city for 50 minutes, Sweeney abandoned the city and flew to the secondary target ofNagasaki.^[2][3] Coincidentally,Tetsuya Theodore “Ted” Fujita was a resident of and in Kokura the morning of August 9, 1945. Fujita went on as ameteorologist to create theFujita scale used to ranktornadoes and Fujita studied the damage caused by thenuclear explosions, which contributed to his understanding ofdownbursts and microbursts as "starbursts" of wind hitting the Earth's surface and spreading out.^[32]

• United States invasion of Afghanistan – In October 2001, just before the United States began their invasion ofAfghanistan, three U.S. Air Force meteorologists were secretly deployed into the remote mountains of South Asia, with the tasks of collecting and transmitting weather data. The first weather report from these meteorologists were read by the U.S. commanding officers before the invasion began. Over the course of the invasion and subsequent war, “tens of thousands of weather forecasts” were taken and dispatched by military meteorologists.^[33]
• On April 6, 2005, a United StatesCH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed in asandstorm nearGhazni, killing all aboard (14 American soldiers, 1 marine and 3 civilian contractors).^[34][35]

• Battle of Nasiriyah – By 28 March, a severe sandstorm slowed the coalition advance as the 3rd Infantry Division halted its northward drive halfway between Najaf and Karbala. Air operations by helicopters, poised to bring reinforcements from the 101st Airborne, were blocked for three days. There was particularly heavy fighting in and around the bridge near the town of Kufl.^[36]

• Russian invasion of Ukraine – During the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022,a tornado outbreak affected bothRussia andUkraine.^[17]

• Russian invasion of Ukraine – During the winter months of the invasion, Russian forces targeted Ukrainian electricalinfrastructure, which was widely described as Russia "weaponizing the Ukrainian winter" to degrade civilian morale.^{[37][38][39][40]}

• Military meteorology
• Cold-weather warfare

• Beevor, Antony (2009).D-day: the Battle for Normandy. London: Viking (Penguin).ISBN 978-0-670-88703-3.
• Ford, Ken; Zaloga, Steven J. (2009).Overlord: The D-Day Landings. Oxford; New York: Osprey.ISBN 978-1-84603-424-4.
• Traub, Alex (2 January 2024)."Maureen Flavin Sweeney Dies at 100; Her Weather Report Delayed D-Day".New York Times. Retrieved4 January 2024.
• Whitmarsh, Andrew (2009).D-Day in Photographs. Stroud: History Press.ISBN 978-0-7524-5095-7.
• Wilmot, Chester (1997) [1952].The Struggle For Europe. Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions.ISBN 1-85326-677-9.

• Weather-related lists
• Military meteorology

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