Another non-tornado, but some heavy rains and gusty winds
On Tuesday I posted a non-tornado photo from just east of Roanoke near Explore Park — scud clouds being pushed along a ridgetop by outflow winds. Danny Vinson e-mailed me a photo of something similar today at Blacksburg, taken by his-co-worker Ross Spoon. This, too, has a tornado-ish appearance, but is really steamy scud clouds lifting upward toward a somewhat lowered cloud base. No rotation, just sort of a “funnel.”
While no tornadoes have been reported in today’s storms, there has been some wind damage and street flooding in Franklin County, which experienced a strong thunderstorm this afternoon. With tropical moisture firmly in place, daytime heating and some upper-level disturbances preceding a rather strong cold front on Friday, additional thunderstorms will be likely intermittently over the next 48 hours. Locally flooding rain will be the biggest threat, but some high winds can’t be ruled out.
August 19, 2009 - 5:02 PM
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Kevin,
A lot of tree and powerline wind damage in Franklin County at the intersection of Grassy Hill Rd and 220 from today’s storm. It looks like it’s very localized.
Thanks for replying to me, Rick and Other John, and of course you too, Kevin. Speaking of dreadful heat and humidity combos, my first summer as a letter carrier was probably my worst, even worse than August 2007 (because I was on the “disabled list” for the last 3 weeks of that month). For a 5-week period from roughly mid-July until mid-August in the Washington, DC area, the daily maximum heat indices AVERAGED slightly over 100 degrees. Absolutely take-your-breath-away humidity. The worst day was a Saturday around the 18th or so of July. Temp reached 105, but the heat index reached 119. Some of us would return to the post office once or twice a day and pour very cool water over our heads to knock down our body temps. Weird thing was that on those days when the heat index was “only” 95 or so, we would not feel bad at all. Our bodies had acclimated quite a bit to the intense heat/humidity.
I could see and hear that Franklin County storm rumbling just south of where I live in south Roanoke County. I could tell it was pretty nasty. The wind dynamics aren’t there for a lot of widespread or long-lived severe weather, but these tropical downpour kinda storms can always unleash a “wet microburst” that can cause wind damage in a very local area.
Not much rain at my house near Meadowview in Washington Co but between Abingdon and Bristol, there was between 1 and 2 inches yesterday afternoon. Flooding reported in lower Washington Co and in Bristol, Va and TN. Not making for much fun at the Bristol Motor Speedway this week.