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 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.
First off, this weekend will not be a complete washout. Secondly, temperatures are going to cool off compared to today, but they will actually be close to average.
Ok, here’s the details.
An upper level low will move eastward tonight through Sunday, spreading a few thundershowers into the area. The best chance for rain [...]
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 a little early to be talking about severe thunderstorms, but the NWS recently made a change to their severe thunderstorm guidelines and it impacts everybody.
For years, the definition of a severe thunderstorm has been:
…a storm with hail equal to or greater than 3/4″ in diameter or convective wind gusts equal to or greater than 58 mph.
Now, they have bumped up the hail criteria to 1″ (or quarter-sized).
It’s been quite a week as far as rain goes, and we didn’t even have that many thunderstorms! Typically we get most of our rain in July and August from cold fronts and thunderstorms, but not this year. We had our second steady rain-event for the week on Friday, and here’s what we ended [...]
Thunderstorms with heavy rain and frequent lightning will cross the area tonight as a cold front moves through. This front will move south of the state on Friday, bringing in some slightly cooler air. There will be enough moisture left over to generate a pop-up thundershower tomorrow, but most spots will stay dry. Whatever [...]
Check out these nice shots sent in from our weather spotter in the Moxham section of Johnstown. The first is prior to our rainstorm in the Laurel Highlands, and the latter is after the storm had passed:
It’s a busy night in the Severe Weather Center (both of them actually… more on that in a second!).
Here’s what we have going on… a storm system is moving through the Alleghenies and bringing very heavy rains to parts of the viewing area. Along with that, expect some thunderstorms, high winds, and even [...]
Below are some cool pictures of mammatus clouds (thanks Chuck Mahon)Â from the severe thunderstorms that rolled through the region on Monday. Mammatus clouds are extremely rare in our area as they are found on the underside of the anvil of a severe thunderstorm. The mammatus cloud indicates an intense severe thunderstorm as rain [...]
Today finished my second week at WJAC, and I continue to learn things from the Severe Weather Team. Today I was able to watch Chief Meteorologist Jim Burton during the noon news and get another viewpoint on the things Tim was telling me on Monday. I helped Tim “build” a new five day forecast [...]
I came into work around 3:00 PM today and looked at Early Warning Doppler 6. It shows a decent line of storms moving into the viewing area. I tracked them through the afternoon. As of 8:50 PM, when I’m writing this, there are still a few storms in the eastern portion of the viewing [...]
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