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Irene Satellite Photo, Courtesy: NASA We talk from time to time about hurricane categories. Do you know the scale? If you do, nice job by you. It’s not something I use all the time, so I have to look up the categories and what they mean whenever I mention them. Here’s a rundown [...] Hey gang! Irene sure has been making a mess along the Atlantic seaboard over the last 24 hours. The good news for us, locally, is that there isn’t much expected from Irene during the course of the storm. The latest track is similar to what we’ve been saying the last 24 hours or so. Take a look at the track below.  Current Track Of Irene As of the 7 PM update on Saturday, the storm is a category 1 hurricane with winds of 81 MPH and the eye is located near Virginia Beach. (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.  Overall Outlook - Slight Risk  Damaging Wind Outlook - 30%  Tornado Threat - 5%  Severe Hail Threat - 15%
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) A line of strong to severe thunderstorms raced through the Alleghenies Wednesday evening, with a bullseye on Johnstown. Take a look at some peak wind gusts:
Plenty of trees were snapped and even uprooted, causing numerous power outages in Cambria County. Outages were reported in many counties on Wednesday, [...]  Our Building Suffers Minor Damage 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! It’s hard to believe that it’s been 17 years since the Blizzard of ’93. I was a kid (10 years old) in Pittsburgh at the time and can remember making snow tunnels and going out with my dad as he plowed driveways. It didn’t seem like that big of a deal, even though we were off school for a while because of it. Enter 2010. We have a snowstorm on February 5th and 6th that drops 24-36 inches of snow across parts of our region. Now, I’m driving and have a job. I have to shovel all of the snow off of my driveway. Now I understand the big deal! The Blizzard of ’93 happened on March 12-14 (give or take) and dropped a lot of snow with blowing winds across record-cold temperatures. It also caused many deaths up and down the east coast. Our Presidents’ Day snowstorm wasn’t a huge storm, but the snow did come down hard at times. Many of us have received 2 to 4 inches through late Monday evening. Accumulating snow will continue through early Tuesday morning in Centre and Cameron counties, with another 1 to 2 inches likely. West and southwest of there is where the bigger snow totals will show up. High winds will be the story for the rest of tonight through a good portion of Thursday. We’ll see gusts as high as 45 mph across Cambria, Indiana, Jefferson, Somerset and Westmoreland counties, sure to blow around the decorations and garbage cans! The winds will also usher in colder air tomorrow, with rain showers [...] Even though we didn’t like the timing, the rain this weekend was just what we needed. Amounts from Saturday morning through this afternoon ranged from 1.5 to 3.0 inches! The highest totals were in Indiana County. The rain will be much lighter over the next few days, but the big story will be the [...] This is so much more than the title suggests, but I can only make the title so many characters. Anyway, you need some background here… The meteorologist at KNBC, a station on the west coast, is being harassed by a woman insisting that he stop using the terms onshore and offshore. She states that they are confusing. This has gone so far that the station has taken out a restraining order against the lady and she’s to refrain from contacting the KNBC meteorologist. This situation prompted a mentor of mine to go on the offensive. Take a look at the video after the jump… I’ll be the first to admit that I like wind farms. They help provide energy in a time when we need it and I actually think they look cool. I get mad when people complain about them, but that’s just me. (This does not necessarily represent the views of WJAC-TV.) Wow. I watched this video and it’s kinda scary. Check out this video of a truck being blown over. It was captured by a highway patrol officer’s in-car camera. http://www.wjactv.com/video/19270641/ We’ve seen our fair share of gusty winds this season, and we have another round right in front of us. A cold front will cross the area tomorrow morning, accompanied by a line of thundershowers. Along the front and for several hours behind it, west winds will gust as high as 50 mph. With [...] A strong storm will race through the Alleghenies over the next 24 hours bringing Here’s a quick wrap-up of the wind event from Sunday night. This information comes from the National Weather Service… High winds associated with a strong low pressure system that was once Hurricane Ike knocked down numerous trees and power lines across central Pennsylvania late Sunday night (9/14) and early Monday morning (9/15). Below is [...] I talked earlier about how bad it was on Friday morning during my live shot in Richland Township near the Galleria… here’s the proof!
Those of you who live in, or travel through the West End of Johnstown, know all too well that the winds seem to follow the channel of the river. For the most part, the winds will race down the Eastern face of the Laurel Mountains, then roll through the community of the [...]
Jan. 30 2008 High wind warning issued. I clocked the wind at 63.3 on top of Chickoree summit. I feel the winds were much higher, but I was a little late in getting to my look out point. I’m not in the Alleghenies right now… I’m actually home, just southwest of Pittsburgh. It’s now 1:51 in the morning and I’m listening to the howling winds. It sounds like it is getting pretty active out there. I’m able to see AND hear the sheets of rain pounding my house. (My room is on [...] |
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