Eeegads. I know I talk about 'boundaries' a lot in weather as they are very important to understand where they may set up shop and what they are capable of producing. I'm pulling a few days at News 14 for the early morning shift, with Tara Lane now at the helm through the mid-day hours.
Heavy localized rains began after midnight in the western half of the Triad, and as the early morning progressed, the storms and rain became especially prodigious along the Surry/Stokes border, down into Yadkin County. I figured a flash flood watch if not warning was eminent today, and the the watch and warnings are up as I write now at 1130am.
Below is the storm total just through 11am at the latest. Colors can be coded on the left (in inches), and while this is an estimate from the doppler radar and not actual amounts, you can rest assured it ain't too far off the mark...click on pic to enlarge as I discuss it a little more...
If you connect the red blobs in a fat line, you see it run NNE to SSW...the red colorations represent the heaviest rainfall (in inches)...and notice the red areas begin at a particular point. Cell after cell after cell kept generating in the same spot in the atmosphere and running the same direction, leading to a very limited area getting threatening rainfall amounts...one of the last weather hits I did live was to put my hand at one point on the map while the storms looped a 3-hour cycle...as I held the hand still, you could see the storm generation from the one 'hole' in the atmosphere.
Thank goodness the boundary is also flexible and generally shifts through the day to 'spread the wealth'! Whew!
Just another classic case why I focus on boundaries so much...when you add in other factors that aid in uplift, those boundaries can spell 'trouble' as today's storms did...and are, still.
No rain over my head so it's sander-time for some new half-pipe flutes...before I get sleepy!
Glub, glub, glub, y'all!
1 comment:
The siren call that is News 14. It paid/pays the bills... that's about it. :-)
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