First, here are my forecasted Highs for today for select cities with the actual next to them
Raleigh-Durham : 98; actual 97
Fayetteville: 99; actual 98
Greensboro: 96; actual 95
Winston-Sale: 96; actual 95
Charlotte: 98; actual 97
So as you can see, I was one degree too high at each city. If you remember what I posted yesterday about increased moisture, more cloud cover, and potential for storms.. well this seemed to hold the mercury just short of my predicted highs everywhere. There was not one 100 degree reading anywhere officially across NC today. Whats incredible is that we are in the middle of summer with stronger sun, and we couldnt top the heat wave of early June.
As far as Dolly goes, She became a hurricane this evening at 5pm and now is packing 80 mph winds as of 11pm. She is expected to make landfall just south of the US border tomorrow morning. Here is a nice Infrared Satellite capture of the 'Cane...
Now.. of more interest closer to home was the amount of severe weather across the state today. The atmosphere was quite unstable today and sure enough there was low-level triggers all over the place in the form of a surface trough, old outflow boundaries from storm complexes over the mid-west yesterday and more recent outflow from new storms. Outflow boundaries are like mini cold fronts in that they form from rain cooled thunderstorm air. The atmosphere largely supported what is known as pulse severe storms where the storms rapidly develop, become severe with hail, and damaging winds, and then die off. This occurred all over the place ( But not in Cary.. we missed.. hopefully we can get some storms on my BDAY tomorrow) including just NW of Charlotte where one of my friends witnessed a pulse severe storm. Stanton Lanham witnessed strong winds probably close to 60mph that snapped trees near a golf course he was at, then got penny sized hail with lots of lightning and heavy rain, and then more strong winds. When he got home to his house 2 miles from the course, he saw trees down everywhere. One of these trees fell on his friends roof. In Raleigh, we largely missed severe weather although at I-540 and US-64 Bypass there was a report of penny sized hail and also at RDU there was a 47 mph wind gust reported (Not severe.. needs to be 58 mph or greater) with .48 inches of rainfall. RDU got a pulse storm as well that formed and dissipated about 15 minutes later.
As for Wednesday, more storms are a definte possibility. Severe weather is still up in the air but with the amplyfication of an upper lever trough and approach of a cold front, I think more folks will at least see thunderstorms. These storms should begin in the afternoon and last through the evening.
1 comment:
Really was one of the more intense storms I've been in (besides the storm chasing trip). The air was so full of rain and hail and leaves that for a few moments I couldn't see more than 20 feet. I purposely got "stuck" on the course knowing where the storm shelter was, but looking back I'm lucky a tree didn't fall on it. I of course was loving the experience but I feel for the people having to clean up. The golf course was probably not going to be able to open for play today, and I even saw some people that couldn't get to work this morning because trees had them blocked in their driveways. Crazy stuff. I'm hoping for more today but it looks to be more over your way this afternoon I think. Have fun!
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