Storm Tracking
>> Sunday, May 27, 2012
Tracking summer time storms can be as exciting as tracking a snowstorm. Only difference is these pop up showers tend to catch people off guard at the last minute as also judge by the continuous forecast of a 30% chance of rain.
Yesterday was another prime example. As storms fired up across the northern sections of the area, flood warnings popped up in minutes. As interested as I was to see what was going on, I followed the radar. Slowly the storms got closer to our area as other places such as Hazelton were caught in the deluge. Then the skies opened and the rain poured down. Shortly after the worse of it had passed, I headed home. Water was gushing out of everything. Sirens were blaring. One car even pulled over on a well-traveled road to put the manhole cover back on as it had been moved 15 feet down the street. If you can avoid damage, these little events can be a blast to watch.
After the rain had passed the air cooled a bit. Not much, but enough. Even saw a rainbow. Without the day light heating I figured our little dance with rain was over like in many instances during the summer where the rain stabilizes the atmosphere. I opened my bedroom window like I do every night (for now). And on this humid night I even upped it a notch. I opened the living room window and patio door. First time I had ever kept anything other then my bedroom window opened throughout the night. Then it came. Had this been a few decades ago in a different part of the world I would have thought the German blitz had shown up above my town. A thunderous crack awoke me. In a daze I made my way to all the open windows and quickly shut them. I dove back in bed trying to figure out what the hell was going on. I grabbed my ipod and pulled up the radar to see a dandy of a storm rolling through. So much for no storm after the sun goes down. I had to put my headphones back in at 3 in the morning just to get away from how loud the thunder was.
Nobody knows what today will bring. Chances are looking good for rain. There was already some tracking going on and I've seen estimates of up to four inches of rain in some areas. I haven't seen any totals come out but between the past two days and the next two, some areas are going to have high totals.
Meanwhile...
Tropical system Beryl looks to come in along the Florida/Georgia before spinning back out from the direction it just came. In other words, we won't see anything out of this system. Tropics go pretty quiet for awhile after this one.
It is snowing in Montana. Go figure. I would make a bigger deal out of this if I did not have first hand experience of being stuck in a June snowstorm.
For those of us who are not into warm weather, take some relief in the long range. Cool air is going to invade from Canada Friday and will swing into the northeast by Saturday. However, another shot of warmth comes back from the 5th-8th.
