Torchageddon

It was an excellent summer solstice (technically 11:32 pm EDT tonight) with a 30C high and variable skies to get a little of everything except rain. My low was abnormally cold for this date at 11C!!

I see Tues is going to be utter crap in the temps department, a prank from TWN and DarkSky? 14C? gtfo with that stink.

I just got an amazing 3 rounds/cells of storms within a hour that was actually substantial! Got fantastic lightning that was non-stop with multi-modes - the 3rd was high-based lightning that transitioned to traditional near the end when a cell merge occurred. Reminds me of the good stuff when I was a kid, its been too long lol. One of the most fearsome strikes shook the windows harder than it has in years. What's ironic is there were no thunderstorms shown on either my quarterly or hourly forecast when usually its vice-versa. Not much rain, likely around 2-3 mm and I didn't get any high winds nor hail. Even as I'm writing this somehow more lightning is persisting off in the distance. These were the most potent in all of SON thus far, I thought it was going to be a non-story with the way this line weakened after moving through Huron hours earlier. I have to say I'm impressed.

Somehow despite looking to be a clear day, I'm clouded over and chilled at 18-19C (windchill at 16C) . I'm now uncomfortable during a mid-June day, not fine. I think I need a little trip to PNX.

What is a thunderstorm? That word is slipping from my vocabulary.

I somehow managed to get down to 6ºC or 43F at 6am.

Today is even better than yesterday, clear blue skies with an unusually high constant wind for June standards at 20+ km/h, gusts to 35 km/h. Its been about 20ºC since mid-morning with my dp plummeting down to 0ºC - that's likely the lowest in a few months. My overnight low coming - 9ºC 

6 hours ago, WestMichigan said:

Speaking of 100, how about this how forecast out west.

https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=36.2466&lon=-116.817#.YMeIYDpE3mE

I noticed this when I checked PNX's forecast, I'm jelly. A week out from the summer solstice - the best time of the year.

I have rain (15-20 mm) forecast for this Fri, I have my doubts.

I like this airmass too, a tad on the chilly side with those winds but sets a different mood. Ideal for exercising. None of the showers teased occurred for the 8th time in 10 days.

Over the past week I've been constantly dodging all the rain that has surrounded me including what must have been a torrential downpour just 20 miles to my south Weds evening. Either the cell splits and I'm in the middle, or like yesterday a cell formed nearly on top but the heavy precip was a minuscule 1/4 mile away from me!  Then the line of weak showers weakened where I just got light sprinkles by evening (not even 1 mm). Those light showers that I was suppose to get overnight? Nothing . Today's precip where it looked like a rainy, crappy day - removed and its bright and sunny with high temps once again . This is getting neat.

I believe it was the hottest day of the year so far on Sat, at 32.5ºC. Lots of clouds and breezy.

3 hours ago, Hoosier said:

Biggest unanswered question has to be whether this upcoming stretch of heat will warrant a thread started by Chi Storm.  For pre-solstice (so prior to climo warmest time of year), it could be a relatively impressive stretch.  I mean, the last time there was a streak of 5+ days of 90s in Chicago prior to the summer solstice was in 1994 (which was 6 days long).  I'm just sayin.

That surprises me, would've thought there would be at least a few years with a pre-solstice streak as stated.

What kind of June will the Gods bestow upon us, I'm loving the long range so far and tonight I'll be dreaming of 600 dm heights right over my head. Let not last Friday's disgrace be for nothing. 

I got down to 3C with a windchill of 0C, had some rain-snow mix in the last hour. This is the coldest I've been so late as far as I know.

I've already reached 30ºC or 86F and its not even noon yet. This is far beyond the forecast high from yesterday, hopefully the same over-performing for Thurs.

Its the 10th anniversary of the major tornado outbreak that hit Oklahoma and surrounding areas as part of an epic outbreak sequence from the 21st to 26th. It was one of the most exciting tornado outbreaks I've ever followed with a near perfect synoptic setup that even Jim Tang approved of! The forgotten EF5 of the previous decade formed as  known as El Reno I. Other notable violent tornadoes included the Chickasha–Blanchard–Newcastle EF4 and Bradley–Washington–Goldsby EF4. The evening was very memorable as intense footage was being shown on TV as the media tends to latch on to any new juice related to the hot topic of the week. All hell started breaking loose as not only were violent supercells heading towards OKC metro, but new clusters were forming in the Dallas region and central KS. Of course nothing interesting like that day happens anymore, in the Plains.

It was suppose to be around 20ºC this morning and very uncharacteristically stable with the high later rising another 1C. Instead of party sunny and 20, it was overcast and dropping earlier 0.5C every 20 minutes!!  It literally got down to 14C. What in the fresh hell is this?

Sun is coming out a bit now and temp rising again to 17C. Why can't something freaky like that drop happen in reverse, so 26C? Reminds me of a certain year.

Started off 2ºC cooler than forecast for my min, now exceeding points as I'm at 24C now up 14C from 3 hours ago. Hope to see the highest temp of 2021 so far today.

I've never seen more tornado reports (sitting at 9) than both hail and wind reports combined (4) til now. I've also not read the phrase "orphan anvils" .

There were training showers to my east this afternoon that slowly crept west towards me; I got some cloudy conditions now but no rain as it fizzled out. It was a great day before those clouds and would've been mad if the rain was just 25 miles west of where it was.

15 hours ago, nrgjeff said:

6:21 AM Central Time, Tuesday May 4

Is that the only known tornado footage that was captured at 6am? By that I mean ever, not just for yesterday.

1 hour ago, Castaway said:

Still love that movie. Love the soundtrack too. Remember when it first came out at blockbuster I was 12 and it was rented out. I ran back home to get more money and buy it on VHS instead. Still try to save it yearly to watch it when our first somewhat severe tstorm comes at night in spring which hasn’t yet. Maybe later this evening finally lol

Which side of the F5 debate do you fall on regarding the last one in the movie? On the ground at night or just forecast to be a future F5?

Yes that El Reno EF5 in 2011 isn't mentioned much and is possibly the least talked about EF5 of that decade. The truly forgotten modern F5 is the Birmingham tornado in 1997 that leveled neighborhoods.

There was a conveyor belt of pure rain just miles to the north for half the day with a nice gradient by evening. While I had peaks of sunshine it was steady rain 30 minutes north. My temp really shot up mid-morning from 52F to 68F in just a few hours. The evening was good but increasing clouds then some lightning streaks and rain a hour ago. I'm just happy I wasn't in the belt's path.

Yeah I was right on the fringe of the rain for most of the day, just miles to the north it was steady. My temp really shot up mid-morning from 52F to 68F in just a few hours. The evening was good but increasing clouds then some lightning streaks and rain a hour ago.

About the movie Twister, something I never understood was when the group is in Wakita after the F4 tore through, the final boss baddy F5 is "just forming" and you can see radar imagery of the supercell in question on a screen briefly. Well this is basically nearly in the middle of the night and then somehow the team travels somewhere overnight (??) and then catches up with the in-progress F5 tornado that is what we assume to be mid-morning or early afternoon. Even for Twister, this goes too off the rails and even a normie is scratching his/her head over that. Wiki has, "When a record-breaking F5 tornado is predicted to hit the next morning, Bill has the idea to use the rubble to allow for Dorothy 3 and 4 to be more aerodynamic."  I also loved Dusty telling Bill and Jo the NSSL is predicting an F5 tornado in the morning . 

Unfortunately the director's commentary doesn't explain anything on that,  and using the fun-to-read plot write from the anyone can edit site, "The next day, the F5 is revealed to be “at least a mile wide” and has recorded wind speeds of over 300 miles per hour." . The question is, what on earth is the writer attempting to convey here? Did the F5 form in the middle of the night while the group was in Wakita and somehow stay the same for more than 10 hours, or did the NSSL and other forecasting bodies just predict a supercell that would produce a violent tornado? If you watch the scene its first mentioned its hinted the tornado is already on the ground, especially that radio report.

What I find interesting is 10 years ago today there was a similar swing in temps from cold to warm (20ºC change) as is now.

11 hours ago, CheeselandSkies said:

My lifelong interest in following the weather is rapidly dwindling.

My interest will never disappear but I know what you mean, this ain't good. I don't want to be just tracking heat wave streaks and researching historical climate heat events. I wish I could swap out today for 10 years ago this moment because I was sleeping on the big one til I realize it wasn't just another outbreak. 

I guess today had something, Reed's giddiness and a white cone.

From a little while ago, from Connor McCrorey in Lockett TX. Most photogenic of 2021 thus far: