Cloud Stalker: May days

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

May days

While the weather remain calm here the plains are alive and are taken lives. My Prayers to those who lost loved ones,friends and homes. Sometimes I wonder why I am in love with this crazy weather. It's not the devastation but the beauty and the science. So much is going on in the world so much devastation. From Tornadoes,cyclones, earthquakes, wild fires. I just want to turn the news off and stop reading the paper and put some blinders on. I know I can't do that but this month there has been so much death my heart weighs heavy.

We have not had any rain this month and I read an article in the paper that said we are up 2 feet from April's showers but right now as we speak their is a wild fire raging in central Florida taken homes from people. I hope this year we have some good tropical rains to saturate are lands.

On a good note it is quite beautiful today, dry air has dominated are state producing blue Sky's and a beautiful breze,today makes it seem like all is well with the world. ( I have yet read any news today to ruin this euphoric thought).
Well its off to work for me, I owe I owe its off to work I go.......
Jess
Cloud Stalker

1 comment:

Dewdrop said...: Great post, Jess!; May 13, 2008 at 3:08 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.