| Author | Comment |
Jayhawk
Dragoon
Posted: 15 Jan 2005
13:03 GMT
Total Posts: 80 | I know to a lot of people here, I'm just another name that nobody knows anything about. And for what it's worth, I don't really know any of you either. Just for the heck of it, I thought I'd post a little of what I've been up to lately, though.
For those who don't know, I live on the eastern plains in Columbia, Missouri. The plains are known for a few things -- being extremely flat, being extremely boring to drive through, having lots of farms and few towns, and severe weather. For a storm chaser such as myself, winter is just about the most boring time of winter. There's just nothing to chase this time of year.
On Wednesday, however, winter was briefly interrupted across parts of the plains and midwest to bring a taste of spring. In Columbia, a warm front passed over late Tuesday night bringing temperatures into the 60s. That morning, there was a cold front to the west and an area of low pressure to the north. A line of showers had developed ahead of the cold front. Forecast soundings showed warm unstable air ahead of the cold front with little wind shear. As a result, there was a threat of small hail, winds, but little or no threat of supercells and tornadoes.
Sure enough, early that afternoon, thunderstorms began to develop within the line of showers as the line moved into the unstable air in the warm sector. Shortly after 2 PM, the first warning was issued -- a severe thunderstorm warning for Henry County, which is in west central Missouri. Within the hour, a couple of other warnings went up in western Missouri. Radar showed the storms continuing to develop and taking a linear shape within the line.
At this point, I knew I'd probably end up seeing a shelf cloud and getting some gusty winds. A shelf cloud is a structure often associated with squall lines. Cool air tends to sink since it is denser than warm air. Heavy rain also helps to "drag" cool air to the surface. Once the cool air reaches the surface, it starts to spread out. Most of the cool air advances out ahead of the storm where it meets up with warm humid air. This warm moist air rises over the advancing cool air, and eventually the moisture condenses. This is the process which produces a shelf cloud. The boundary between the cool and warm air is known as a gust front. The passage of a gust front generally brings gusty winds and a sharp drop in temperature.
Shortly after 3 PM, NWS St. Louis issued severe thunderstorm warnings for Boone, Audrain, and Monroe counties. Columbia is in central Boone County. At this point, however, radar still showed the storms being a good distance away from Columbia. While there were some dark clouds outside, there wasn't much in the way of interesting storm structure. I decided to go snap a few pictures anyway and wait for the storm to approach. Returning just before 4 PM, I noticed the storms were much closer to Columbia. I turned on the radio to listen to the local storm spotters and at that point, there wasn't any formal activation of spotters. Around 4 PM, I went back out, and at that point, I saw a shelf cloud off in the distance to the west. And I think the photos speak for themselves.
http://www.missouri.edu/~gll883/01-12-2005/
Within about 10 minutes, the gust front was passing over and a burst of rain started and quickly stopped. About 15 minutes after, the heavy rain started, and the show was over.
I hope, if you've read this all the way through, that you enjoyed the story and the photos.
For anyone who's curious, all the pictures are taken from Columbia. There wasn't any need to head out chasing that day.
[Edited by redux on 15-Jan-05 22:07] |
JcCorp
Probe
Posted: 15 Jan 2005
14:13 GMT
Total Posts:
Edit | Wow. Cool hobby. |
DrumMajor33
Marine
Posted: 27 Jan 2005
14:01 GMT
Total Posts: 35 | Whoa, those are some crazy storm clouds. Cool hobby indeed. Keep safe. :thumbup: |
