Severe Weather

Assignment 3
By: Megan Haskin
MET1010

Statement by the SPC:

URGENT IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH
NUMBER 130 NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK 325 PM CDT MON MAY
4 2015
THE NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER HAS ISSUED A

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH FOR PORTIONS OF CENTRAL AND

NORTHEAST KANSAS
NORTHEAST MISSOURI
EXTREME SOUTHEAST NEBRASKA
EFFECTIVE THIS MONDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING FROM 325 PM UNTIL
900 PM CDT.
PRIMARY THREATS INCLUDE. . .
SCATTERED LARGE HAIL AND ISOLATED VERY LARGE HAIL EVENTS TO 2
INCHES IN DIAMETER
POSSIBLE
SCATTERED DAMAGING WIND GUSTS TO 70 MPH POSSIBLE

SUMMARY. . . SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO DEVELOP ALONG A

BOUNDARY FROM CENTRAL KS INTO NORTHWEAT MO THIS AFTERNOON AND
EVENING. CONDITIONS ARE MARGINALLY FAVORABLE FOR SEVERE WEATHER. . .
INCLUDING LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS.
THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WHICH AREA IS APPROXIMATELY ALONG AND 50
STATUTE MILES NORTH AND SOUTH OF A LINE FROM 20 MILES SOUTH SOUTHEAST
OF LAMONI IOWA. FOR A COMPLETE DEPICTION OF THE WATCH SEE THE
ASSOCIATED WATCH ONLINE UPDATE (WOUS64 KWNS WOU0).
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPARDNESS ACTION. . .
REMEMBER. . . A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH MEANS CONDITIONS ARE
FAVORABLE FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS IN AND CLOSE TO THE WATCH AREA.
PERSONS IN THESE AREAS SHOULD BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR THREATENING
WEATHER CONDITIONS AND LISTEN FOR LATER STATEMENTS AND POSSIBLE
WARNINGS. SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CAN AND OCCASIONALLY DO PRODUCE
TORNADOES.
AVIATION. . . A FEW SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH HAIL SURFACE AND ALOFT TO
2 INCHES. EXTREME TURBULENCE AND SURFACE WIND GUSTS TO 60 KNOTS. A FEW
CUMULONIMBI WITH MAXIMUM TOPS TO 500. MEAN STORM MOTION VECTOR 25025.

Infrared color image.

Infrared black and white image.

Visible image

Doppler image.
From what I read up on this thunderstorm watch and saw from the images
that there is a massive severe thunderstorm approaching the mentioned areas in
the watch above and I watched the storm for more than a minute it looks like there
is a very large area of high clouds forming to create a massive thunderstorm and
there was also an area where there could be a possible tornado sighting and

landing. I also have found a color and black and white infrared image of this
thunderstorm also a visible image as well. The Doppler image that I found was
pretty interesting as well and looks like a huge cluster of a storm. From all of the
warnings that were mentioned I would like to explain some of the main ones and
how they form. First and major one is a thunderstorm; a thunderstorm is a storm
that produces thunder and lightning. It frequently produces gusty winds, heavy rain,
and hail. Can be produced by a single cumulonimbus cloud and influence only a
small area or it may be associated with clusters of cumulonimbus clouds covering a
large area (which is the type of storm we have here in this weather watch).
Thunderstorms form when warm, humid air rises in an unstable environment. One
main form of precipitation that was mentioned in the watch was that there was
going to a possible chance of hail 2 inches in diameter. Hail is in the form of hard,
rounded pellets or irregular lumps of ice. Hail is only produced in large
cumulonimbus clouds where updrafts can sometimes reach speeds of about 100
miles per hour and where there is an abundant supply of super cooled water.
Hailstones begin as small embryonic ice pellets that grow by collecting super cooled
droplets as they fall through the cloud. If they encounter a strong updraft, they may
be carried upward again and begin the return downward journey and just grow to be
larger in size and adds a layer of ice each time it makes this journey. The process
repeats itself until the hailstone grows too heavy to remain suspended by the
thunderstorms updraft or encounters a downdraft. One thing that was mentioned
was that there was a possible chance of a tornado in some areas and yes severe
thunderstorms have a high chance of getting tornadoes and having hail of large
sizes shows more of a risk because a tornado is normally sometimes soon to follow
behind from all of the high winds. The winds do need to get up to about 70 miles
per hour to have a tornado watch. Tornadoes can sometimes be called twisters or
cyclones, and are violent windstorms that take the form of a rotating column of air,
or vortex, that extends downward from a cumulonimbus cloud. Pressures within
some tornadoes have been estimated to be as much as 10 percent lower than
immediately outside the storm. Drawn by the much lower pressure in the center of
the vortex, air near the ground rushes into the tornado from all directions. As the air
streams inward, it is spiraled upward around the core until it eventually merges with
the airflow of the parent thunderstorm deep in the cumulonimbus tower. From what
Ive seen from all of the images that I have collected you can visually see especially
in the color infrared and in the Doppler the dark blue in the infrared and the light
blue in the Doppler that there is a large amounts of tall cumulonimbus clouds which
indicates a massive thunderstorm and sever weather that is in effect.