Latest Thunderstorm Stories
RedOrbit Meteorologist Joshua Kelly Big Story Weather from April 27-29, 2012: Thunderstorms moved through the Plains this weekend. Expect that to continue through the next couple of days. Over the weekend strong storms hit the St. Louis area, causing one death and numerous injuries when strong winds took down a party tent full of Cardinals fans. There were also several reports of tree damage, power lines down, and reports of hail in the region as big as tennis balls. Big Story...
RedOrbit Meteorologist Joshua Kelly Big Story Weather from April 26, 2012: Some thunderstorms did move through the Mid-Atlantic yesterday. No major damage was reported other than some stronger wind gusts. Winds whipped through the Central Plains yesterday which has increased the fire hazard for this region. Expect to see some relief starting today. Big Story Weather News for April 27, 2012: A few remaining showers and isolated snowflakes will be found up in the Northeast in...
RedOrbit Meteorologist Joshua Kelly In this lesson, we are going to look at how a thunderstorm is created from the ground up. To begin with, we need to identify the known as stages of a thunderstorm’s life. There are three stages that we will be talking about -- the first is the Cumulus stage, followed by the Mature stage, and then leading into the Dissipating stage. The cumulus stage is the first stage in our life cycle of a thunderstorm. This is when the warm air from the...
Red Orbit Meteorologist Joshua Kelly In this lesson we will look at different components of a thunderstorm. The first is the thunder which is the audio shockwave that is released just after a flash of lightning occurs. There is a rule of thumb that if you count the seconds after a flash of lightning to the sound of thunder you can determine how far away the thunderstorm is. For example if you count 5 seconds after a flash of lighting to the sound of thunder this would tell you the...
RedOrbit Meteorologist Joshua Kelly Big Story Weather from April 19, 2012: Thunderstorms passed through Florida yesterday along with some light snow back in Wyoming and coastal rains in Seattle. Big Story Weather for April 20, 2012: Low pressure moving through the Great Lakes will work its way eastward today bringing showers to the Ohio River valley. Also, a new developing low in Southern Texas will begin moving towards the Gulf of Mexico and bring with it strong winds and the...
RedOrbit Meteorologist Joshua Kelly Big Story Weather from April 16, 2012: Yesterday saw snow flying in Northern Minnesota and I am afraid that is not the end of the snow yet, possibly more to come for some Northern Cities. A few strong t-storms around the Texas Gulf Coast led to hail and strong winds. Big Story Weather News for April 17, 2012: Mostly cloudy skies will be found for the majority of the Eastern seaboard today with temps in the 70’s south and upper 50’s north. The...
RedOrbit Meteorologist Joshua Kelly Big Story Weather from April 15, 2012: This past weekend was one that many want to forget after a large severe weather outbreak. Over the weekend, we saw well over 100 tornadoes stretching from Oklahoma all the way northward into South Dakota and Minnesota. Big Story Weather News for April 16, 2012: Today is going to be another active day. Along our cold front expect to see more thunderstorms continue along the front with the potential of seeing...
RedOrbit Meteorologist Joshua Kelly Big Story Weather from April 10, 2012: Last night a few strong thunderstorms made their way through Oklahoma and Texas and in the overnight hours headed into Louisiana. Early reports are mostly of wind and hail. Big Story Weather News for April 11, 2012: Today we will see light showers through the Northeast which will give away later in the day to mostly cloudy skies and cool temps overnight. Into the Northern Plains we will see another nice day...
RedOrbit.com Meteorologist Joshua Kelly Now that the 2012 severe weather season is upon us it is time to look at a few things that you can do to help prepare yourself and family. First, the National Weather Service this week has started working with new alarm systems that are going to provide more significant terminology meant to get the point across that these storms can and will cause damage. So expect to see this slowly start making its way across the country to other warming...
RedOrbit Meteorologist Joshua Kelly Big Story Weather from April 2, 2012: Yesterday we saw thunderstorms move through the Southern Plains. Towards the evening they moved into the Gulf Coast Region. Also, out west in the Colorado Rockies they saw snowfall amounts near a half a foot or more in some places. Big Story Weather for April 3, 2012: A new frontal system will begin pushing onshore towards the Pacific Northwest where they can expect to see rain showers move back into the...
Latest Thunderstorm Reference Libraries
Surface Dew-points can play a huge role in weather forecasting. The first such role is that it helps determine the amount of moisture in the atmosphere for a given point. If we look at the current dew-point map above from January 28, 2013 we can note several things of interest. First, if we look at where the black circle is around the number 70, we can make note that this air right off the coast of Texas is at a dew point of 70F. The temperature outside must be above 70F, because the...
Air mass thunderstorms are found in marine time tropical air. In short they are also known as MT Thunderstorms. Air mass thunderstorms represent what is known as the common three stage thunderstorm development. This means that an air mass thunderstorm goes through the stages of Cumulus which is represented by the updrafts only being present; secondly it moves into the mature stage where it has both updrafts and downdrafts; finally it goes into the dissipating stage where you see only the...
In this lesson we are going to take a look at super-cell thunderstorms and what they mean and how they impact our daily lives. First, a super-cell thunderstorm is formed from a cumulus-nimbus cloud. Super-cell thunderstorms are the most advanced form of thunderstorms known on earth. This is because these types of thunderstorms need so many things to come together in the atmosphere at the same time. The first thing they need is the warm moist air at or near the surface. Secondly, is...
Orographic thunderstorms are formed when the air is pushed up a mountain side. This type of thunderstorm is found only on the windward side of a mountain range. In the United States we would find these types of thunderstorms on the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains and also on the western slopes of the Appalachians. Things that make this thunderstorm important: First of all they only form in certain geographical places on the earth as mentioned above. But they can form anywhere in the...
September 5: The southwest was encompassed in the monsoon rains yesterday bringing areas of flash flooding to portions of Arizona. Another smaller but large flooding event occurred along the Mississippi Gulf Coast where places in Jackson County received 7inches of rainfall in 2 1/2hours which lead to large flooding problems of already saturated grounds from Isaac-1. The heat persisted in Eastern Texas and into Louisiana and northward into Arkansas as some places felt temps hit the100’s with...
