Hail reports this afternoonPosted May31, 2007 at 04:23 PM
A thunderstorm cloud towers in the sky southeast of Roanoke at 6:30 p.m. This storm carried a severe thunderstorm warning for Franklin County. Wind damage was reported in Rocky Mount about the time of this photo. UPDATE 5 p.m.: A small storm dropped some 3/4 to 1 inch hail on Brambleton Avenue in Roanoke, according to reports turned into the National Weather Service. Click here and scroll down for latest storm reports Click here for more on current warnings for Southwest Virginia. Click here for current National Weather Service-Blacksburg radar Picture it: Typical summer weatherPosted May30, 2007 at 12:41 PM
The summerlike weather pattern may change over the weekend as a new front moves in, giving us a better chance of more organized thunderstorms, and eventually, some cooler temperatures. Memorial Day severe weather reportsPosted May28, 2007 at 07:59 PMTwo area reports of severe weather from thunderstorms have been turned in to the National Weather Service: a tree blown down in Southwest Roanoke, and 3/4-inch hail west of Rocky Mount, shortly after 2 p.m. These came on a Memorial Day where some folks got awesome deluges of rain laced with lightning, while others a few distance away stayed dry while only hearing the thunder. Click here for a complete listing of today's severe weather reports nationally. Strong wind gusts, heavy rain possiblePosted May28, 2007 at 10:07 AMMuch of Virginia from here eastward and northward has a slight risk of severe weather today, according to the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., primarily for the threat of strong wind gusts. A similar episode of storms, triggered by a weak cold front and heat and humidity, triggered numerous reports of wind damage through northern and eastern Virginia on Sunday. Also of note this weekend: Roanoke Regional Airport received a Saturday afternoon deluge of 1.34 inches of rain in an isolated thunderstorm, while much of the rest of the Roanoke Valley got little or no rain. I drove right smack into that downpour on the last leg of my trip ... I guess that was the last "storm intercept" of the 2007 storm chase. Wrapping up Storm Chase 2007Posted May25, 2007 at 08:35 AM
Though we are keeping an eye on severe weather possibilities along our route and to the north as we head eastward today across Arkansas and Tennessee, most likely the chase part of this trip is in the books. 
Also, here's a link to the inset photo from North Carolina-Asheville student David Ramsaur, our group's student trainer. The photo shows our chase team and vans under a swirling supercell structure over Kansas on Tuesday. Click here for additional photos from the chase trip. Weather Journal columns related to the chase trip can be clicked on here (June 2) and here (June 13) Once again, here is a list of the members of our 2007 chase team: Dave Carroll, co-leader, Pulaski County High School teacher and Virginia Tech adjunct instructor
Audio: Click the play button to hear Dwayne Yancey talk with Kevin Myatt about the final leg of his Midwest storm-chasing trip. Another big supercell -- maybe another tornadoPosted May24, 2007 at 08:33 AM
Our group of storm chasers caught another spectacular supercell Wednesday before sunset in the northeast corner of the Texas Panhandle. Unlike Tuesday, when we were almost constantly on the move, we were able to pull along a roadside and watch the rotating storm for about an hour without moving. It appears we may have observed and filmed another tornado (click here for still frame) ... also detected on radar and reported by a sheriff's deputy in the same time frame ... but it wasn't as immediately obvious to us as Tuesday's tornado was. In any event, it was a spectacular show of atmospheric violence amid the peaceful pastures of Texas.
Images from a great, grueling chase dayPosted May23, 2007 at 09:16 AM
I'll be working on getting images and video from Tuesday's chase in northwest Kansas for many days -- especially since we're expecting another potentially very active chase day today in southern Kansas. We targeted an area along and north of Interstate 70 between Hays and Colby, near and just west of WaKeeney. By 4 p.m., storms began to fire just west of where we were waiting for them, and we spent about the next five hours chasing storm structures of incredible beauty and power over the open plains of Kansas. We did see a tornado, as you can see in the middle of the attached video and also in the still shot linked below. Below is a sampler of some of what we saw, beginning with a big image of the "mother ship" supercell in the inset photo ... the structure of the storm rounded by powerful winds aloft.
"Mother ship" supercell Tornado in Graham County, Kansas Rotating wall cloud near silos Chaser Amanda Chambers of Buchanan photographing precipitation shaft and "rain foot" Tornado, hail and morePosted May23, 2007 at 01:33 AMI could write a book on today's storm chase, which included 5 hours of hard chasing on Kansas back roads, golfball-sized hail, numerous other-worldly supercell thunderstorms, and, almost as an afterthought, a tornado. But pulling in late to McPherson, Kan., late after an exhausting day, I'm much too tired to write much now. Hope to get some photos and video up soon. A serious gamblePosted May22, 2007 at 12:55 AMWe weren't sure we had a bird in the hand with expected severe weather in the Dakotas on Monday, but even if we did, we still would have probably let it go for a whole flock of birds in the bush here in Kansas. By mid-afternoon Monday, our group of 12 storm chasers made a decision to entirely forego chasing in the Dakotas in order to get an early jump on placing ourselves in Kansas for what may be a big severe weather event, with the potential for powerful supercells and tornadoes, today. So Monday became a travel day, and we arrived at Hays, Kansas, late Monday. We'll likely travel a bit more southward toward Dodge City or so today as we set up in the best place where instability, wind shear and moisture will be maximized. This could be a huge storm day ... or a huge bust day. So it is when you follow the whims of weather. NOTE: We seem to be having some trouble getting our location to show on the tracking map. We're unsure what the problem is. Hopefully, this can be corrected later today as we get near more digital repeaters that would pick up our signal. Today's tornado potential from Storm Prediction Center
Audio: Click the play button to hear Dwayne Yancey talk with Kevin Myatt about chasing storms in Kansas. An All-American storm chase dayPosted May20, 2007 at 11:35 PMSunday was the best day of our storm chase trip so far, as we succeeded in catching a supercell thunderstorm as it blew off the Black Hills over Rapid City, South Dakota. We targeted western South Dakota and southeast Montana as the area most likely to have significant severe weather despite limitations in moisture and deep atmospheric shear, or changing winds with height. But as we approached Rapid City, this storm (click here for larger version of photo) was already firing, and somewhere it was finding enough spin in the atmosphere to become a supercell. What we saw was a textbook look at a "low precipitation supercell," or "LP" as it's known in weather geek talk. It produced little rain but spit out quite a bit of hail in the Rapid City area, and a few larger stones dinged our vans as we headed southward to observe the storm. For a time, the storm produced a rotating lowering known as a wall cloud (click here for video still frame), which in some situations can be a precursor to a tornado. In this case, though, there wasn't enough low-level spin and the cloud base was too high for a tornado ... a very good thing for Rapid City! 
A supercell thunderstorm dominates the sky over Rapid City, South Dakota In between ... we found we were only 15 miles away from a great American landmark, so the chase vans pulled in for an afternoon stop at Mount Rushmore. Here I am below the presidential quartet set in stone. It's hard to beat a day like this, but the severe weather outlook continues to look more active for the next 3 or 4 days. So the best may be yet to come.
Another small chase; big chase days loomPosted May20, 2007 at 12:50 AM
We're in Chamberlain, South Dakota, tonight facing a confusing, but potentially very active, severe weather forecast the next few days. Sunday may yet produce a chase day in the Dakotas, and the Monday-Thursday time frame may produce several opportunities. For the first time during this trip, tornadoes become a serious possibility on Sunday, and that potential only grows as the week goes along. Maybe some action today?Posted May19, 2007 at 08:38 AMNo matter what the tracker map shows (link at upper left), we're in North Platte, Nebraska, this morning after pulling in early, a great meal at a steakhouse and a relatively early bedtime. We're drifting north toward South Dakota today on the lookout for isolated storms firing along a frontal boundary. There looks to be some chance of storms each of the next five days, with the best chances still focusing on Monday-Wednesday when widespread severe weather may occur advancing eastward from the northern Plains to the Ohio Valley. I've heard it's oddly chilly back home in Virginia. We're in a holding patternPosted May18, 2007 at 09:15 AM
Alicia Bayse of Pulaski County High School takes a photo over Palo Duro Canyon on a pretty West Texas day ... but a slow day for storms. Things look to change by Monday, and the next couple of day we will mainly be preparing for that. Unless something pops up in eastern Colorado today, we will not be chasing storms again until Sunday night at the earliest, and more likely, Monday onward, when we will likely have three or more very tiring days.
Audio: Click the play button to hear Dwayne Yancey talk with Kevin Myatt, in Liberal, Kan., about storm-chasing in the Great Plains. Chasing flying breadPosted May17, 2007 at 09:14 AMWednesday was a travel day as expected, headed west. The highlight of the day was a stop at Lambert's Cafe in Sikeston, Mo., where servers hurl rolls across the room to dinner guests ... the famous "throwed rolls." (Catching the roll in the video is David Ramsaur, a senior majoring in meteorology at North Carolina-Asheville and our group's trainer and lead forecaster.) We like to throw in a little tourist type stuff in the long downtimes between storms. We're in Shawnee, Okla., just east of Oklahoma City this morning. We're going to be headed west toward the region where Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Kansas meet, watching for storms to fire on moist flow up the higher terrain and then translate southeastward. We're not expecting much severe weather, just some photogenic clouds and maybe lightning in the early evening. The big thing for us now is the Sunday-Wednesday period next week when a potent severe weather setup may be developing in the Plains. Getting positioned for that will be the most important thing for us.
Audio: Click the play button to hear Dwayne Yancey talk with Kevin Myatt about storms, travel and flying rolls. An ill wind blows through IllinoisPosted May16, 2007 at 12:29 AM
Wednesday looks to be a travel day as we head toward the western High Plains to see if we can get any upslope thunderstorm action and to wait on potential weather pattern changes early next week that could turn things very active.
Audio: Click the play button to hear highlights of Kevin Myatt's trip Stormy day in IowaPosted May15, 2007 at 12:59 AM
Today, we head to central Illinois to follow the cold front responsible for Monday's storms farther south. Central Illinois provided a particularly memorable storm chasing experience on last year's trip, as this blog entry from May 17 recalls.
Audio: Click the play button to hear highlights of Kevin Myatt's trip A long drivePosted May14, 2007 at 01:32 AMWe left Blacksburg around 9:30 a.m. and arrived in Moline, Ill., on the eastern shore of the Mississippi River, at midnight Central time (1 p.m. Eastern). We made an 800-mile first-day journey to set us up for a possible storm chase in western or northern Iowa, perhaps eastern Nebraska, today. A cold front will be moving into warm, moist air in the region, but there are mixed signals on the upper air wind dynamics. So we're not sure yet if there will be a lot of severe thunderstorms or just a few isolated ones. But with even lesser prospects for storms later in the week, we're going all out for this event. Will let you know tonight or Tuesday whether our long drive was fruitful or futile. You can follow our position, relative to the map and to the radar, on the storm tracker page linked at the upper right of this blog. Storms here ... will we find storms out there?Posted May12, 2007 at 11:21 PMThe irony today: I spent most of the day in Blacksburg, getting our two storm chase vans wired up for our trip that begins Sunday, and while I'm away, a severe thunderstorm blows up very near my south Roanoke County residence. Hail up to golfball-sized was reported in parts of Franklin County, just east of Callaway, as the storm that formed near the south edge of Roanoke this evening moved southward. Other reports of wind damage and hail have been received mostly in areas east and south of Roanoke from scattered thunderstorms. As for our storm chasers ... we head out early Sunday in the general direction of Iowa, where a severe storm outbreak may be possible late Monday. Follow the storm chasersPosted May12, 2007 at 11:13 PMNOTE: Technological problems have rendered our tracking page kaput, so I have removed this from the home page for the blog. This isn't really your typical weather bulletin ... I just want to keep the link for the storm chase tracking page in the upper right corner of my blog for the next two weeks so I don't have to repeat it in every blog entry. Click here for the current tracking of the storm chase team The page has been constructed by Ben Mills, a Virginia Tech engineering student and amateur radio enthusiast. There may be a few times when we're out of radio range and the page isn't current ... but every year, the gaps in coverage get smaller and smaller, so it should have us pinpointed most of the trip. Come ride along with us -- virtually! It's almost time to chase storms againPosted May10, 2007 at 03:38 PM
You can follow our progress on the Web site linked here, created by Ben Mills, an engineering student and amateur radio enthusiast at Virginia Tech. I will also be updating this blog from time to time as we go along. Chase team members are listed below: Dave Carroll, co-leader, Pulaski County High School teacher and Virginia Tech adjunct instructor Click here for a closer look at our chase trip poster. I shot this photo of a rotating wall cloud, with the sun shining under it, in a supercell thunderstorm near Maroa, Ill., on last year's trip. It has a name, but not quite a tropical stormPosted May09, 2007 at 03:32 PM
Click here for a larger version of the inset satellite photo More on subtropical storm Andrea on the National Hurricane Center's Web site. Sorta looks like a tropical systemPosted May07, 2007 at 05:38 PM
A couple of cold nightsPosted May06, 2007 at 07:22 PMThough the overall pattern this week is for more sunshine and gradually warming days, the drier air that has moved in will also allow for temperatures to drop sharply at night. Temperatures tonight could be around 40 in the Roanoke Valley and as low as the mid 30s in outlying areas. That is why a frost advisory has been issued for areas along and west of the Blue Ridge. Some patchy frost is possible tonight, especially in the lowest valleys away from urban areas. This will not be the major killing freeze like happened a month ago, but you might want to take a few tender plants inside. Monday night will also be pretty colder, just a few degrees warmer than tonight. Aerial photos of Greensburg, Kansas, damagePosted May05, 2007 at 11:01 PMThe aerial photos of what Friday night's tornado did to Greensburg, Kansas, are jaw-dropping in their severity. And the region from Texas to South Dakota had another rough severe weather this afternoon into the evening. We'll see what the light of day reveals on Sunday about the new damage. Deadly night for small town in KansasPosted May05, 2007 at 11:47 AMGreensburg, Kansas, was hit by a large tornado on Friday night, with at least seven people killed. (Click here for story) Tornadoes can be deadly at any time of day, but are particularly frightening after dark when they can't easily be seen. It looks like another dangerous day in the central Plains. Much of central Kansas and Nebraska are under a high risk of severe weather today, according to the Storm Prediction Center. Another dank day ... then improvementPosted May05, 2007 at 12:00 AMThe current regime of cool, showery weather will hang on one more day before a warm-up and dry-out last several days begins Sunday.. Meanwhile, several days of severe thunderstorms and heavy rains are affecting the central U.S. It is May. More or less normalPosted May04, 2007 at 11:29 AMThursday's temperature readings in Roaoke are an example of why you have to take "normals" with a dose of salt. It was a day that averaged only 1 degree below normal even though afternoon temperatures were stuck in the low to mid 50s on an afternoon that's typicall in the lower 70s. The high of 68, 5 degrees below normal, was recorded just after midnight ... temperatures fell the rest of the day in chilly rain and breezes behind a cold front. The low, in the late evening just before midnight Friday, was 52 ... actually 3 degrees above the normal low of 49. It did not feel like a "normal" May day outside. The month of April is similar: It ended up essentially a normal month in temperature, averaging 0.2 degree below normal. It was very warm a few days early, very cold in the middle, and very warm again at the end. Normal is the average of extremes, once again. Does this count as a "widespread, soaking" rain?Posted May03, 2007 at 03:08 PM... there is little indication our area will experience any kind of widespread, soaking rain in the next week or so.So I wrote in my Wednesday column. Since I've been writing Weather Journal, I've learned the easiest way to get something to happen is to write that it won't or can't happen. 
It's certainly a widespread rain, and for some, it may be a soaking rain. Though many of you don't like this chilly, dank day after so many warm, sunny ones, it is certainly a welcome and needed rain, and one we may appreciate even more if the Southeast drought begins expanding northward in the weeks ahead. |
