Threat for thunderstorms Tuesday, March 13th, 2012

[weatherwiz]

Well wow...not bad for early March.

It's unfortunate I had to wake up at 6 AM for work and I only got two hours of sleep yesterday so I went to bed right after the Bruins game.

[Damage In Tolland]

Well at least we know Ray still cares about the wx

[amarshall]

driving into Boston last night, said to my wife, I think I just saw lightning. She said you're seeing things.

[weatherwiz]

driving into Boston last night, said to my wife, I think I just saw lightning. She said you're seeing things.

That's what my mom said to me when I told her I saw a mouse...she told me to lay off the booze.

[weatherwiz]

I was technically wrong though b/c I said west of the CT River Valley and most of the reports were in eastern MA.

[CoastalWx]

MARBLE SIZED HAIL~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

See..it can happen. It's not the forcefield that you claim it is.

[CoastalWx]

party's winding down... impressive that it's kept intensity so close to coast.

of course, true to winter 2011-2012 character, hardly a few rain drops in boston metro.

that's some legit .5-.75 hail, ray, great pic for the poo-pooers tnite.

LOL, you have to get off that depression.

[Hailstoned]

Whatever dynamics were present on a cool March night to set off such pyrotechnics is food for thought for what lies down the road in the new tornado alley of southern New England.

[wxsniss]

LOL, you have to get off that depression.

you're misreading my tone lol... was a tongue-in-cheek comment about boston. this winter has been more amusing and intriguing than anything else.

and unlike snowstorms, i find any severe weather anywhere in the country fascinating to follow.

[Mr Torchey]

Congrats Paul!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great job, you were all over it, good luck this season!

[MarkO]

tornadic signature from last night

[subdude]

Pic to come soon.....just about the most impressive hail that I have ever seen.

Best night of the winter.

I was scared to death that my car was going to be damaged

Amazing, It came rolling in at about 12:15am never in 22yrs of living in Westminster had I witnessed anything like it IMBY. The noise of marble sized hail pounding on my house was scary. Both the Wife and I got up out of bed, turned the lights on, made sure our kids and pets were ok. I was literally waiting for windows to start breaking in both house and car. It went on for a solid 5 minutes before changing over to large heavy raindrops. Still had some piles of hail in the yard this morning with temps at 44.

[CoastalWx]

Best event of the year??

[#NoPoles]

Best event of the year??

yeah, just like the octobersnow...

i'm thinking the suicide rate would go up for real!

[CT Rain]

Wiz FTW.... those trolling him FTL.

[subdude]

Best event of the year??

2nd best of the season with the Oct storm taking the lead. The way this wacky Winter has been, we'll probably get belted with a 12"+ dumping sometime in April.

[ChrisM]

Wiz FTW.... those trolling him FTL.

This thread is a triple bunner I think.

:weenie:

[CT Rain]

Still a triple bunner. I posted in the other thread a couple days ago that today probably would wind up as a see text day.

[Clinch Leatherwood]

Wiz FTW.... those trolling him FTL.

Technically he busted, most of this occured on the 14th.

[Typhoon Tip]

Yeah, no question… The evening was pretty fantastic up at my place in Ayer.

First, about an hour before the hail event there was a spurious, small little thunderstorm cell that popped up and scooted by about 2 miles N of my house. This thing was so tiny that it would fit inside of about 5 or 6 pixels on the radar image. Yet, boy was that sucker beaming lightning bolts. I had about 5 loud CG explosions over about a 3 minute time period as the cell made its closest pass. It was fascinating to see that, because at sunset I was up on the ridge line of the Harvard overlook – there was this hazy pal to the air over the valley. It was as though it were a humid sunset in June! There were a few sparse, shallower cumulus towers around, but they weren't really demonstrating a lot of vertical growth. But an hour after sun set things got interesting.

Then T-Bone calls to tell me he’s got marble-sized hail covering the ground. I was just going to take a look myself as renewed thunder began shaking the windows. I stood out there peering at the sky to the west. The air was dead calm, enough so that you could hear the thunder echoing passed. You could see the sky literally differentiating heavier toward that butterscotch hue (glow of city lights reflecting), right before you. You got the sense that something unusual was immediately pending. Then it happened: BANG! I was standing under my awning to my front door when a nickel-sized diameter white ball smashed down and bounced off it. It caught the corner of my eye and when I went on the lawn and picked it up, it was solid. You could hear distance roar coming from the west. Oh boy! Then there was another …and another. Big hail, some up to a quarter in size started bouncing off everything in this loud cocophany. So loud that it drowned out the thunder. It, too, covered the ground, then changed to heavier rain. It rained uber hard for about 4 or 5 minutes, then it was over.

Later on in my sleep I was kicking myself for not thinking to grab a few of the larger pieces and stick them in the freezer.

March. Unbelievable.

[ChrisM]

Yeah, no question… The evening was pretty fantastic up at my place in Ayer.

First, about an hour before the hail event there was a spurious, small little thunderstorm cell that popped up and scooted by about 2 miles N of my house. This thing was so tiny that it would fit inside of about 5 or 6 pixels on the radar image. Yet, boy was that sucker beaming lightning bolts. I had about 5 loud CG explosions over about a 3 minute time period as the cell made its closest pass. It was fascinating to see that, because at sunset I was up on the ridge line of the Harvard overlook – there was this hazy pal to the air over the valley. It was as though it were a humid sunset in June! There were a few sparse, shallower cumulus towers around, but they weren't really demonstrating a lot of vertical growth. But an hour after sun set things got interesting.

Then T-Bone calls to tell me he’s got marble-sized hail covering the ground. I was just going to take a look myself as renewed thunder began shaking the windows. I stood out there peering at the sky to the west. The air was dead calm, enough so that you could hear the thunder echoing passed. You could see the sky literally differentiating heavier toward that butterscotch hue (glow of city lights reflecting), right before you. You got the sense that something unusual was immediately pending. Then it happened: BANG! I was standing under my awning to my front door when a nickel-sized diameter white ball smashed down and bounced off it. It caught the corner of my eye and when I went on the lawn and picked it up, it was solid. You could hear distance roar coming from the west. Oh boy! Then there was another …and another. Big hail, some up to a quarter in size started bouncing off everything in this loud cocophany. So loud that it drowned out the thunder. It, too, covered the ground, then changed to heavier rain. It rained uber hard for about 4 or 5 minutes, then it was over.

Later on in my sleep I was kicking myself for not thinking to grab a few of the larger pieces and stick them in the freezer.

March. Unbelievable.

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[Typhoon Tip]

tornadic signature from last night

There was no question that was a supercell. But there is no way rotation would have taken place in the 0-3km depth as the kinematics were not there. But there was an meso. It was a long track SC that came down the Mohawk Trail. I watched the entire time. A Met friend in FIT said he had marbles and nickels banging away off everthing when it come over his place just N of Rt 2. I'm in Ayer - I had quarters and nickles. Keeping in mind ... that's a diametric reference. They were balls. Hard as a rock in case anyone is wondering.

Low freezing heights contributed. What was also typical of super cellular activity was that the hail was front end loaded. Anyone that was close to that "notched" core got into the primary hail shaft and was pelted pretty good.

If SB-CAPE were there, and there was any S component at all the 0-3km level, that cell probably at a minimum would have had a dangler.

[CT Rain]

Yeah no question the storm was a mesocyclone... this helped enhance the updraft and give a decent hail storm for some even in a marginal elevated CAPE environment.

[cheetah440]

Best event of the winter...hands down.

yeah that was something else. Hail was hammering down and quite the lightening and thunder event too.

[CT Rain]

Yeah no question the storm was a mesocyclone... this helped enhance the updraft and give a decent hail storm for some even in a marginal elevated CAPE environment.

Also no question the storm had 0 chance of dropping a tornado given the time of year and more importantly time of day. Getting a tornado in the overnight hours in SNE is extremely difficult.

[Turtle]

What a way to work a mid shift. Walked in the door, and the storms started about 15 minutes later (around 1045 PM). Started getting reports of small hail (1/8-1/4") in Franklin county, but my cohort in crime (Hayden) watched the radar closely, issuing the first warning around 1124 PM (this was on 3/13, so technically Wiz was on it...well, except for time and location!! <HEHE!>). We DID get the TVS alert after issuing the second warning. Started getting large hail reports after that. Largest was in Littleton at 1.25 inches. It was pretty amazing to get this type of a nocturnal event in MARCH (for crying out loud!!).

If you can get a hold of water vapor satellite imagery for that timeframe (from around 00Z to 07Z 3/14), you will see that this set up right between two jets, so jet interaction definitely played a part. Also, the backdoor front was trying to nose down into S NH, and I think that played a part, too, with subtle low level convergence. I also noted decent low level wind convergence on the obs, though winds were light. Hayden said there was also just enough instability to kick these things off. They would let up, though, as Special Marine Warnings were even issued off Cape Ann.

Very interesting overnight shift. Oh, Ray, thanks for sending the photo. I did see your web spotter report, but didn't have time to visit here to see your photos. We are not supposed to download photos off any website (office already lost a computer by someone doing that through FB). We have to have folks e-mail them to us so they go through virus scans before coming into the work computers. Anyway, that Wilmington report is YOURS! THANKS!!

Off to sleep now.

--Turtle

[cheetah440]

There was no question that was a supercell. But there is no way rotation would have taken place in the 0-3km depth as the kinematic were there. But there was an meso. It was a long track SC that came down the Mohawk Trail. I watched the entire time. A Met friend in FIT said he had marbles and nickels banging away off everthing when it come over his place just N of Rt 2. I'm in Ayer - I had quarters and nickles. Keeping in mind ... that's a diametric reference. They were balls. Hard as a rock in case anyone is wondering.

Low freezing heights contributed. What was also typical of super cellular activity was that the hail was front end load. Anyone that was close to that "notched" core got into the primary hail shaft and was pelted pretty good.

If SB-CAPE were there, and there was an S component at all the 0-3km level, that cell probably at a minimum would have had a dangler.

The sound they made were very unique. I can't recall ever hearing anything like that in my 14 yrs here.

[Typhoon Tip]

What a way to work a mid shift. Walked in the door, and the storms started about 15 minutes later (around 1045 PM). Started getting reports of small hail (1/8-1/4") in Franklin county, but my cohort in crime (Hayden) watched the radar closely, issuing the first warning around 1124 PM (this was on 3/13, so technically Wiz was on it...well, except for time and location!! <HEHE!>). We DID get the TVS alert after issuing the second warning. Started getting large hail reports after that. Largest was in Littleton at 1.25 inches. It was pretty amazing to get this type of a nocturnal event in MARCH (for crying out loud!!).

If you can get a hold of water vapor satellite imagery for that timeframe (from around 00Z to 07Z 3/14), you will see that this set up right between two jets, so jet interaction definitely played a part. Also, the backdoor front was trying to nose down into S NH, and I think that played a part, too, with subtle low level convergence. I also noted decent low level wind convergence on the obs, though winds were light. Hayden said there was also just enough instability to kick these things off. They would let up, though, as Special Marine Warnings were even issued off Cape Ann.

Very interesting overnight shift. Oh, Ray, thanks for sending the photo. I did see your web spotter report, but didn't have time to visit here to see your photos. We are not supposed to download photos off any website (office already lost a computer by someone doing that through FB). We have to have folks e-mail them to us so they go through virus scans before coming into the work computers. Anyway, that Wilmington report is YOURS! THANKS!!

Off to sleep now.

--Turtle

Did you see my post? I was/live in Ayer; that cell come directly over head there. Had hail similarly to Littleton - 1.00 at my house (~Quarter size), and it wasn't just a piece or two in a marble storm. There were a lot of them, bouncing pretty loudly off everything for a good 3 minutes.

[CoastalWx]

That was one of the few left exit region event that worked out. I don't know if anyone saw but mid level lapse rates were >7C/KM. Fire up Albany sounding at 00z.

[CT Rain]

That was one of the few left exit region event that worked out. I don't know if anyone saw but mid level lapse rates were >7C/KM. Fire up Albany sounding at 00z.

Yeah the models actually did a nice job showing the steep lapse rates. Sunday the NAM and GFS had lapse rates in parts of CT near 7-7.5 c/km 500-700mb.

There was enough of a trigger to get things going above the inversion. I'm not sure the backdoor front was deep enough to get lift up to the LFC though.