Hailstones
With all this talk about severe weather lately I wanted to show everyone what some real hail looks like. I collected these stones from my yard after a storm in Connecticut (really) in October (really!) a couple of years ago. These are not the uniform, smooth, rounded and typical hailstones we routinely find in severe storms. They look like something that came out of a Midwest or Great Plains monster supercell. The “severe thunderstorm” that dropped these in the middle of a quiet, cool afternoon was technically that but not a drop of rain fell, no lightning was seen and thus no...
Read MoreSevere tornadic thunderstorm: six years later
The best – or worst, however you’d like to classify it – thunderstorm I have ever directly been impacted by and experienced fully happened six years ago today on August 7, 2008. As a weather nerd I will never forget that date. As a human being who values his life I will always remember what it was like to feel a tiny taste of the true power of the atmosphere. I was living in Stratford, Connecticut, a coastal town, and after a relatively typical warm, humid August day we entered the evening as I kept an eye on a large cell moving very slow to the east/southeast further...
Read MoreSevere hail in Jamestown
Turn up the volume on this one! Here’s Twan’s yard being deluged with hail during last evening’s severe thunderstorm. There are a bunch of very large stones that come down in the middle of the video especially. Most break and begin to melt by the later post-storm time Twan took the photos in the earlier post today but it is obvious some are around golf ball size.
Read MoreSevere hail Jamestown yard
Here are a few photos of Twan’s yard in the aftermath of the severe thunderstorm that hit the Jamestown area last evening. The hail was enough to leave dents in Twan’s car! It had very localized intense and dangerous conditions with some folks having this severe hail, others gaining an inch or two more of rain on top of one to two inches already had by most, some with stronger gusts of wind or more lightning than others. Later tonight I will post a video of this hail dumping down from the sky. Early August in the Northeast is a busy time for severe weather in recent years in my...
Read MoreSevere thunderstorm in Jamestown
In the 5:0o PM hour today, August 2, 2014, we had a very severe thunderstorm in the Jamestown area despite it not being warned as one. Apart from nonstop cloud to ground lightning strikes and torrential rain dumping inches in a short period it had severe hail at least quarter-sized and perhaps nearing golf ball in some locations with vehicle damage reported, downed trees and lines, flooding and a host of other problems. Here was the cell on radar as it peaked regionally and close-up as it hammered Jamestown – pink and purple, over 70dBZ at times! We’ll show you some of hail and...
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