Literally minutes before turning in for the night for this morning's shift work at WSOC, a tornado warning popped for the storm that had just passed on the west side of Cherryville in NW Gaston County. The problem with the cell was it's not-terribly-fast movement and the explosive nature in which the cell grew.
The following are images I quickly grabbed from my Gibson Ridge Level 2 data radar system feeding from GSP National Weather Service office. The time was roughly 6:15p through 6:35p, though I mistakenly didn't save all of the screen image which had the actual scan time. The purpose of these grabs is simply to let you look at a powerful storm and see some neat features that came out as a result...this is by no means a scientific, 'official' discourse, just a weatherman-heading-to-bed-who-had-to-tear-himself-away-from-the-radar-because-he-needed-to-sleep-and-couldn't-do-anything-about-it-anyway type of moment., kapish?
(click on pics to enlarge)
Just a rough approximation of the storm cell that headed south and a tad east yesterday around supper time...I-85 is the red line dropping down to the left of Gastonia, and Highway 74 is the yellow road running west through Shelby, FYI. Kings Mountain is at the bottom of the yellow circle where 74 splits from I-85.
When a radar image has substantial 'white' in it, it is producing a good bit of hail, and probably at a decent size. We refer to these as "hail cores"....
Within each color 'level' (white being stronger than purple being stronger than red, etc.), I can still manipulate through the intensities...and noticed a strong growth at the top of the storm indicating very cold temperatures and significant freezing in this cell intensifying...
Soon enough hail was reaching the surface, along with damaging winds and a strong likelihood of a tornado on the ground. One particular scan of the storm as it neared the Kings Mountain area was noting 3.7" hail aloft...ouch!
As I switched to scanning the purple intensities, it removed the significant hail core...and you can see straight through the storm to the surface below. Yet more proof in the pudding that this was a serious tornado-producing storm , with the funnel somewhere at the base of this tube...
One could argue for two likely funnel formations...the strongest with the hail core, but also a potent vortex to the left, SE edge...
Same image as the previous one, just a bit of re-shading and positioning...
In stepping back to the red levels, which are strong enough indicators in any storm, notice how the mass aloft is narrowed to a more specific area in the lower altitudes, stressing again the focusing nature of the winds in this cell...
While the hail shaft is not showing up on the surface coloration, this cell was still in tornado mode...
And with that I had to force myself to go to sleep...nothing like getting all worked up when the 1am alarm is a mere hours away! I hope the following link works, which is a nice representation of the local storm reports made on this storm. More reports will be made after daylight comes this morning, for sure:
STORM REPORT GRAPHICS
We're not out of the woods just yet, but I need to wrap this up and head into the station. Have a great and calmer day!
The following are images I quickly grabbed from my Gibson Ridge Level 2 data radar system feeding from GSP National Weather Service office. The time was roughly 6:15p through 6:35p, though I mistakenly didn't save all of the screen image which had the actual scan time. The purpose of these grabs is simply to let you look at a powerful storm and see some neat features that came out as a result...this is by no means a scientific, 'official' discourse, just a weatherman-heading-to-bed-who-had-to-tear-himself-away-from-the-radar-because-he-needed-to-sleep-and-couldn't-do-anything-about-it-anyway type of moment., kapish?
(click on pics to enlarge)
Just a rough approximation of the storm cell that headed south and a tad east yesterday around supper time...I-85 is the red line dropping down to the left of Gastonia, and Highway 74 is the yellow road running west through Shelby, FYI. Kings Mountain is at the bottom of the yellow circle where 74 splits from I-85.
When a radar image has substantial 'white' in it, it is producing a good bit of hail, and probably at a decent size. We refer to these as "hail cores"....
Within each color 'level' (white being stronger than purple being stronger than red, etc.), I can still manipulate through the intensities...and noticed a strong growth at the top of the storm indicating very cold temperatures and significant freezing in this cell intensifying...
Soon enough hail was reaching the surface, along with damaging winds and a strong likelihood of a tornado on the ground. One particular scan of the storm as it neared the Kings Mountain area was noting 3.7" hail aloft...ouch!
As I switched to scanning the purple intensities, it removed the significant hail core...and you can see straight through the storm to the surface below. Yet more proof in the pudding that this was a serious tornado-producing storm , with the funnel somewhere at the base of this tube...
One could argue for two likely funnel formations...the strongest with the hail core, but also a potent vortex to the left, SE edge...
Same image as the previous one, just a bit of re-shading and positioning...
In stepping back to the red levels, which are strong enough indicators in any storm, notice how the mass aloft is narrowed to a more specific area in the lower altitudes, stressing again the focusing nature of the winds in this cell...
While the hail shaft is not showing up on the surface coloration, this cell was still in tornado mode...And with that I had to force myself to go to sleep...nothing like getting all worked up when the 1am alarm is a mere hours away! I hope the following link works, which is a nice representation of the local storm reports made on this storm. More reports will be made after daylight comes this morning, for sure:
STORM REPORT GRAPHICS
We're not out of the woods just yet, but I need to wrap this up and head into the station. Have a great and calmer day!
No comments:
Post a Comment