Monday, October 20, 2008

The Second Severe Weather Season…..

Monthly Tornado FrequencyAs we leave Summer and head into fall, we enter a secondary peak in the severe weather season, usually not as great as our primary severe weather season in Spring but, there have been some historical severe weather events across Texas and the United States this time of the year. Over the next few months we will be looking at a few historical fall severe weather events and local fall severe weather events here in East Texas. The fall severe weather season got off to an early start this October as we saw four tornadoes touch down across East Texas on the 6th of October, two near Montalba in Anderson County, one near Bullard along the Cherokee Smith County Line, and one in Cass County southeast of Atlanta.Montalba Severe ThunderstormVelocity Data.  Green shows winds moving towards the radar, red away.  This image shows rotation(possible tornado) near Tennessee Colony.An area of low pressure formed across Oklahoma Monday morning and moved east across the state dragging a cold front across East Texas. This brought Southerly winds at the surface and Westerly winds aloft causing the atmosphere to be favorable for rotating thunderstorms and the possibility of tornadoes. The severe Storm Prediction Center outlooked most of East Texas for a slight risk of severe weather and tornadoes.

Around 6 PM a severe thunderstorm developed across over western Limestone county and began to show signs of rotation. This storm continued to move northeast into East Texas, producing three of the four tornadoes for the day. Another tornado formed Earlier Monday afternoon in a severe storm that formed over Cass County.


This week is looking active as well. A strong upper level low pressure system will move north of our region dragging another cold front through East Texas. Right now it looks as though the best dynamics needed for severe weather will move into our region after the cold front moves through, meaning the chances of severe weather are pretty slim however, heavy rain could be a threat with this next system. We will watch it closely because if upper level dynamics move into our area while we are still ahead of the cold front, we could see a round of strong to severe thunderstorms with the chance of isolated tornadoes.

Stay Tuned………………………..

Friday, October 17, 2008

Winter is Brewing

A very pleasant air mass will be in control of our weather over the next few days. Fantastic temperatures with most areas dropping into the upper 40s tonight and tomorrow night with a light Northeast Wind. With dry air in place and mostly sunny skies temperatures will warm into the upper 70s each afternoon this weekend. Cold air continues to develop in the northern latitudes of North America.Temperatures over the Greenland Ice Cap could dip to near 60 below zero over the weekend. The image above shows forecast surface temperatures at 1:00AM CDT. Notice a large area of dark blue and purple across the northern sections of the continent. This indicates a large area below freezing and some areas close to 0 degrees. The little spec of yellow, in the top center of the image surrounded by purple, shows temperatures between 60 and 65 below zero over the northern ice sheet of Greenland. This is the start of the foundation of cold air that will eventually move south across the United States. Of course, we will not see temperatures near that cold but, it is a sign that winter is not too far away.