Cloud Stalker: Link to severe weather from 2/5/08/Severe weather for Florida Today

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Link to severe weather from 2/5/08/Severe weather for Florida Today

PEGGY WILLENBERG of the Twister sisters sent me a really cool link on the storms of February 5th 2008. It shows what happened how it happen and you can read about the long track tornado that caused so much devastation.

In the picture: A tornado rated EF4 tracked through portions of Yell, Pope, Conway, Van Buren, Stone and Sharp Counties on 02/05/2008.
Click HERE for the link.
Today we have some interesting weather going on for our state thanks to a low in the gulf and an approaching cold front.

This is what my sky looks like:

TWO WEATHER SYSTEMS HAVE THEIR SIGHTS SET ON THE
WEST COAST OF FLORIDA. AN AREA OF LOW PRESSURE OVER THE GULF OF
MEXICO NEAR 90W IS EXPECTED TO INITIATE A PERIOD OF THUNDERSTORMS
THIS EVENING AND INTO THE EARLY MORNING HOURS WEDNESDAY.
You can click on any part of the discussion above to read it in its entirety.
The southeast part of Florida is where there saying most of the severe weather will take place with a 10% chance of tornadoes. Even so everyone should keep an eye on the weather tonight. Stay tuned for updates.
Jess
Cloud Stalker

1 comment:

Dewdrop said...: Great posts, Jess. Meso Mommas rule!!!; February 12, 2008 at 2:35 PM

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HAIL (3/4 inch or greater)

Hail can cause significant damage to your vehicle, break windows and damage roofs of homes and businesses.
Hail can cause significant bodily injuries such as broken bones and even blindness if wind blown.
Softball (4.5 inches) sized hail was reported in Lake Wales, Florida on March 30, 1996.
Haildrifts, up to four feet deep of dime to nickel sized hail, occurred in low-lying areas near Zephyrhills, Florida on January 29, 1997.
Hailstones the size of softballs can fall at speeds faster than 100 mph

supercell

Supercells derive their rotation through tilting of horizontal vorticity (an invisible horizontal vortex) caused by wind shear. Strong updrafts lift the air turning about a horizontal axis and cause this air to turn about a vertical axis. This forms the deep rotating updraft, the mesocyclone.
A cap or capping inversion is usually required to form a downdraft of sufficient strength. The cap puts an inverted (warm-above-cold) layer above a normal (cold-above-warm) boundary layer, and by preventing warm surface air from sinking too far, allows one or both of the following:
Air below the cap warms and/or becomes more moist
Air above the cap cools
This creates a warmer, moister layer below a cooler layer, which is increasingly unstable (because warm air is less dense and tends to rise). When the cap weakens or moves, explosive development follows.
In North America, supercells usually show up on Doppler radar as starting at a point or hook shape on the southwestern side, fanning out to the northeast. The heaviest precipitation is usually on the southwest side, ending abruptly short of the rain-free updraft base or main updraft (not visible to radar). The rear flank downdraft, or RFD, carries precipitation counterclockwise around the north and northwest side of the updraft base, producing a "hook echo" that indicates the presence of a mesocyclone.