While injury from lightning strikes has increased since 1940, fatalities have decreased dramatically. In fact, lightning deaths have become exceedingly rare relative to other weather phenomena, but they still occur. The most dangerous lightning strikes are those that occur when our guard is down; lightning strikes from a sky that appears to be clear and … Read more
Record-Breaking Hail: Oklahoma Storm Shatters Local Record Oklahoma recently experienced a record-breaking hailstorm. The National Weather Service measured a hailstone at a staggering 5.25 inches, making it the largest on record for the area since the 1950s. This massive hailstone nearly broke the state record. The storm caused significant damage, impacting approximately 170 cars at … Read more
Determining the type of supercells that may occur within a given severe weather environment is important for a multitude of reasons. A supercell is a thunderstorm that rotates. There are three types of supercells: low-precipitation (LP), classic, and high-precipitation (HP). The configuration of the wind shear profiles within a severe weather environment is critical in diagnosing … Read more
Now more than ever, many people find themselves wrestling with anxiety. Having anxiety issues is more than just feeling a little nervous or anxious. Anxiety and panic attacks can make a person feel like the world will crush them, or like they might implode. For many, simply calming down is not an option. Learning to … Read more
Like humans, our pets can have phobias, such a stress-inducing fear of loud noises, fireworks, and thunderstorms. As a pet-owner, you have an awareness of your dog’s mood and her behavior likely alerts you to an approaching thunderstorm, even before you hear the first clap of thunder. She may cry or whimper, tremble, or scurry … Read more
On Sunday, November 17th, 2013, an outbreak of deadly tornadoes occurred across the upper midwest region of the United States. 73 tornadoes were confirmed across Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio. Two of the seventy-three tornadoes were violent, of which both earned damage ratings on the Enhanced Fujita Scale of EF-4 (166-200mph winds). Both … Read more
If you are searching for diverse weather or extreme temperatures and precipitation, the U.S. is certainly one of the places to be. Have you ever wondered what U.S. city is the coldest or the warmest? What city experiences the most rainfall or the most thunderstorms? I thought that it would be interesting to come up with … Read more
Do you have a dog that is terrified of loud noises such as thunder or fireworks? It can be devastating to watch as your dog shakes uncontrollably, pants, and paces every time a storm approaches or during Independence Day celebrations. Not too much is known as to why some dogs have a phobia of loud … Read more
On the evening of Sunday, March 26th, 2017, severe thunderstorms affected portions of southern Oklahoma and North Texas. These storms were scattered, as predicted in our forecasts leading up to the event, and many people received no rain. We also expected that thunderstorms forming along the dry line would quickly develop updraft rotation (i.e., become … Read more
This past Christmas Day resulted in interesting weather across the central Plains. From strong thunderstorms in Kansas to the blizzard conditions in the Dakotas, the stockings were full of interesting weather Christmas morning. Nearly the entire state of Kansas, excluding the extreme western parts of the state, were impacted by a low-end squall line. I spent the … Read more
The day after Christmas Day in 2015, an outbreak of tornadoes across the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex and northern Texas. There were a total of 12 confirmed tornadoes, including one violent tornado that was rated an EF-4 with estimated winds to 180mph that devastated the communities of Garland and Rowlett as it crossed Interstate 30. Below … Read more
● Educational Archive ● DFW Records ● Atlanta Records ● Active Cells With this tool, you can search any date or range of dates, to display all of the official storm reports within your desired range in an interactive graphical format. Once your data are displayed, you can glean great insight about the temporal and … Read more
This phenomenon is NOT unusual, but it doesn’t always happen. Today, the dry line and the resulting squall-line were perfectly aligned. The data presented a teaching moment that I couldn’t pass up. At the end of the animation, I zoom in so you can see the wind barbs pointing toward the dry line. The air … Read more
I typically do not share model data because they can be very complex. I do want to show one of the state-of-the-art programs that I use in my operations to analyze model-simulated soundings. The models do not automatically compute these data; the additional software turns the raw output into meaningful information. At least one of … Read more
On the afternoon of March 24, 2016, a stunning mesoscale convective vortex (MCV) formed within a mesoscale convective system as it moved over southern Alabama. I created the animation below using a sequence of radar images provided by the College of DuPage. What is an MCV (Mesoscale Convective Vortex)? An MCV is an area of … Read more
On Monday, March 7th, 2016, a spectacular supercell formed in far northwestern Oklahoma and entered southern Kansas. A supercell is a thunderstorm that rotates. Conditions on Monday were favorable for a couple of supercells to initiate off the dryline in far western Oklahoma, and into western Kansas. However, given weak convergence along the dryline and meager … Read more
● Future Radar ● Storm Chasers Live ● Storm Reports ● Rainfall Totals ● StormNet Browser for Lightning (Beta testing) ⚡️ Live Street-level Lightning Map When thunderstorms develop, remember to watch this page or our regional lightning maps to see live strikes near your area or anywhere around the nation.
Imagine yourself as a cloud, happily floating over the surface of the Earth without a care in the world. As you drift across the sky, the millions of tiny water droplets and ice crystals that you are composed of brush against each other, causing a buildup of electric charges in your cloud body. The negative … Read more
