Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Numerous Severe Thunderstorms And Tornadoes Yesterday


Numerous severe thunderstorms and many tornadoes reported yesterday from the Dakotas and Nebraska eastward to Michigan. One supercell in northeastern Nebraska produced two and at times three tornadoes that were occurring simultaneously - videos of this storm were all over the media last evening. The storm reports chart from SPC (above) indicates well over 400 reports. An IR satellite image during the event (below) depicts the cold cloud shield taking the form of a gigantic hook echo. Also note the very cold cloud tops with thunderstorms over the Mexican Sierra Madre Occidental.



The graphic above shows cloud-to-ground lightning flashes that were detected during the 12-hours ending at 0545 UTC on 17 June. There was an amazing amount of lightning with the severe thunderstorms in the upper Midwest. Considerable lightning detected over northern Mexico also.


Precipitable water (PW) over southern Arizona has crept over an inch this morning (blended total PW from CIRA at Colorado State for 6 am MST above). Green tones begin at one inch PW. The Tucson morning sounding exhibits some CAPE, particularly in middle levels, however, the early forecasts from the WRF-NAM continue to keep storms  off to east and south of Pima County. Check the new morning runs in a few hours.

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