Shed blown down in Union Township (via Bill Wadell)
It’s time for a little math…
80 minutes of live coverage
+3 tornado warnings
+2 confirmed tornadoes
+1 waterspout
_________________________
= 1 crazy night at work!
That was the setup for May 27, 2011. I got in to work at around 2 PM that day and started working on my forecast. The day looked like it had the potential to bring some severe weather and we were already under a Severe Thunderstorm Watch.
Around 3:30 or so, we popped our first Severe Thunderstorm Warning for a portion of Bedford and Somerset Counties. With that, I broke in during some promo time we had allotted for the station. I broke in three times. Once was a minute and the other two were 30 seconds each.
Yet another cold front will approach the Alleghenies tomorrow afternoon from the west, bringing a round of showers and thunderstorms. The amount of sunshine we see tomorrow morning will be a huge factor in how strong the storms get. More sun = stronger storms. Right now, the Storm Prediction Center has about half the [...]
It’s incredible just how many tornadoes we have had across the United States in the past month. I was doing some digging for final numbers, but they are not out yet. I did find some preliminary numbers through April 29th, so that’s pretty close.
Here’s what the Storm Prediction Center says on their storm [...]
I am seriously shaking my head as I write this because I feel it is just one more thing to confuse people in an already complicated weather world… but I’m getting ahead of myself.
I ran across a tweet from @cuevman81 today and he linked to a story done by Accuweather.com that asks whether or not we should rank thunderstorms in a way similar to that of tornadoes and hurricanes. Included in the tweet and in the story was a chart created by Henry Margusity detailing five levels of thunderstorm severity.
I have mixed feelings about this. Let me explain: (Read More)
I posted an update on the potential for severe weather last night before I left. Now, here’s an update on today’s storm potential.
The Storm Prediction Center, like yesterday, has us under a ‘Slight Risk’ for severe weather. Our best bets will come into the afternoon. Once we get onto the day of the event, the SPC breaks the risks down into percent chances for tornadoes, hail, and damaging winds. Here’s a look at those graphics.
After a quiet weekend, the weather is changing into the coming week. Here’s a quick look at a couple of graphics that illustrate the timeframe of the passing of the cold front. The front will likely bring gusty winds and hail.
Here’s the first graphic showing the available energy in the atmosphere at each hour tomorrow. The actual name is called CAPE or Convectively Available Potential Energy. The higher the CAPE, the bigger the potential for storms.
CAPE (Convectively Available Potential Energy)
Notice the higher values come between 2:30 PM and 5:00 PM and then another spike with what appears to be the actual passage of the front at 7:00 PM or so. (Read More)
I woke up to a post on my Facebook wall from Jamie with a link to this site. There are 30 pictures of natural disasters. As always with pictures sent to us, I can not vouch for their authenticity. Most look legit, but some may not be. Take a look. Either way, they’re pretty [...]
Think this is big? Well, that’s the specs for the OLD record. There’s a new hail record and it happened on July 23rd in Vivian, South Dakota.
Here’s the report from the National Weather Service and NOAA…
NOAA’s National Climate Extremes Committee, responsible for validating national weather records, has declared a hailstone found last week in Vivian, S.D., to be the largest in diameter and heaviest ever recovered in the United States.
Found after a July 23, 2010, severe thunderstorm by Vivian resident Les Scott, the hailstone is 8.0 inches in diameter and weighs 1.9375 pounds (1 pound, 15 ounces) with a circumference of 18.62 inches. (Read More)
The National Weather Service has ruled that the damage in Mingoville, Centre County was caused by a powerful downburst. WJAC-TV reporter Bill Wadell went along with NWS officials as they surveyed the damage from Sunday morning’s storms. While the damage was significant, it wasn’t caused by a tornado, as some had claimed.
Take a look at the video by clicking the link below.
It’s been an active couple of days in the area weather-wise. We had lots of lightning and thunderstorms on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. On Friday, I captured this image on our Johnstown tower cam.
I was back in Pittsburgh on Wednesday and they were hit hard with weather. There were places with golf ball sized hail and even a tornado confirmed just to the west in Jefferson County, Ohio. While I was there, I managed to record some video of the heavy rain and lightning. There was also a lot of ponding (or laking) on the roads. You’ll see in the video below how much water was on the road. That comes towards the end of the video.
We normally say “turn around, don’t drown” but there really isn’t anything you can do when you don’t see the water coming. That was the case yesterday on Route 22 between Imperial and Robinson, PA (near the Pittsburgh International Airport). With it raining so hard, I didn’t see the water on the road until the last minute. I got about 3/4 of the way through the miniature lake and my car started to slow down. I got a little nervous, but made it through… luckily. You can see the truck in front of me go through it in the video below.
Are you sensing a pattern here? May 31st has traditionally been a day of weather devastation in western Pennsylvania. Let me explain each of those dates.
May 31, 1889: The Johnstown Flood – The flood was the result of the failure of the South Fork Dam and resulted in a torrent of 4.8 billion gallons of water. The result was over 2,200 people dead and $17 million in damage.
May 31, 1985: Tornado Outbreak – There were at least 41 tornadoes and the death toll was 88. There were over 1,000 injuries, too. This is the 25th anniversary of this outbreak. It’s notable for our region because of the Moshannon State Forest tornado. The F4 tornado traveled over 70 miles and was over one-half a mile wide. For more details, right click and save target as on this link.
May 31, 2002: Kennywood Macroburst – I include this one because it hits home for me. A lot of people here go to Kennywood, too. It was an extremely volatile day and a macroburst hit Kennywood Park. I remember this well because my brother was at the park when this hit. He had to jump into a vendor’s booth and they shut the window. Here’s how the National Weather Service describes the day:
You see pictures of tornadoes all the time. It’s not too often that you see a tornado forming, however. That’s what you’ll see if you click into the link below or the picture. The video comes from Sedalia, Missouri as the chopper stays with the rotation from start to finish. This video is really impressive and I urge you to take a look.
At around 1:30 PM on Friday, April 16, 2010, the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center issued a severe thunderstorm watch for the entire viewing area. It couldn’t have been 2:00 PM when the first batch of rain come pushing through the region. It provided a good soaking but that was about it.
A couple of hours later, Tony and I are watching radar and seeing a lot of lightning strikes. At one point, I remember seeing 800+ strikes in the area from Zanesville, OH to Lancaster, PA within a half-hour period. It was pretty impressive.
I took a walk outside and it was pretty dark. The flag was whipping in the wind and it looked like it was going to start at any time.
I walked around the building. No sooner did I get back to the studio and the lights started to flicker. That’s not a good sign. A couple of minutes later, we took a power hit (assuming it was from lightning, but not positive). We could hear the wind from inside our studio.
We decided to walk outside to take a look and were blown away… almost literally!
The storm moved through bringing winds over 80 MPH and a boatload of lightning. Just take a look at some of the storm reports and you’ll see that this storm packed a punch. The one that really stands out is the 86 MPH wind at the airport in Latrobe. It was strong enough to push an unsecured airplane into a fence. A listing of the storm reports is below. I’ve bolded the ones that are the most impressive!
Wow… talk about a shock to the system! A sharp cold front slid through the region yesterday bringing showers, thunderstorms, gusty winds, and MUCH colder temperatures.
Here’s a wrap-up of the damage along with some numbers that are a shock to the system.
A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING WAS ISSUED FOR PART OF THE VIEWING AREA:
04:56 PM TO 05:30 PM 04/08/2010
COUNTIES AFFECTED:
CLEARFIELD COUNTY, SOUTH CENTRAL CAMERON COUNTY, SOUTHEASTERN ELK COUNTY
AT 453 PM EDT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING DAMAGING WINDS IN EXCESS OF 60 MPH. THE STORM WAS NEAR LUMBER CITY…MOVING NORTHEAST AT 45 MPH. THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WILL BE NEAR… S.B. ELLIOT STATE PARK AROUND 505 PM… LECONTES MILLS AROUND 510 PM… PARKER DAM STATE PARK AROUND 515 PM… FORCE AROUND 520 PM… BENEZETTE AND MEDIX RUN AROUND 525 PM…
There was also some storm damage. These reports come directly from the National Weather Service…
Take a look at some temperatures from before and after the front. Also have a look at the temperature change over 24 hours. The post was set up around 1 PM on Friday. Yesterday’s highs happened before the front crossed the region. The temperatures below are from noon on Friday. The same holds true for the 24-hour temperature change.
It is almost severe weather season here in the Alleghenies and with that… the risk of tornadoes.
When doing school visits, I always get asked where the best place to be during a tornado would be. I give them the usual answer of ‘the basement.’ Another good answer would be [...]
It’s that time of year… Severe Weather Awareness Week! Every year the National Weather Service puts out a public statement telling the general public what to do in severe weather. They cover everything from lightning to tornadoes to flooding.
It’s hard to believe that we’re already talking tornadoes… but we are. Yesterday, there was severe weather in Oklahoma that caused a tornado that took out several houses.Â
I know this is a little out of our viewing area, but a lot of these events impacted the Alleghenies, too.
NWS in Pittsburgh has listed the top 10 weather events for 2000 through 2009. I have to agree with the biggest weather event, as it was a major disaster in my hometown, as well. The only good that came from all the flooding is the fact that we ended up getting a McDonald’s in our little town.
Here’s half the list… To read more, click the link at the end to be taken to the NWS page.
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