Lighthouse Lightning
We really are saying goodbye to the summertime now and hello again to some more dry conditions (unfortunately) in the Northeast. Stratford Point had a good run of thunderstorms for a week or so in mid-August, but even these photos show a storm that is over Long Island Sound and ended up providing a very light shower for literally a minute or two. Nevertheless, the pink explosions against the blue clouds all lit by the setting sun provided a pretty scene. I was also able to capture one of the few cloud to ground lightning strikes on the Sound to the east of the Stratford Point Light. Parts of...
Read MoreSevere Thunderstorms
I spent most of yesterday at Stratford Point, arriving at the tail end of the Connecticut Ornithological Association Shorebird Identification Seminar as the group wrapped up a walk and moved indoors. It was a dangerously hot day with an excessive heat warning and unbelievable tropical-feeling dew points. We decided to bring the Bridgeport WildLife Guards to the office instead of the beach, and that is how the rest of my day went. I left in the late afternoon but had to return in the evening as well-timed and positioned thunderstorms exploded to our west. I hopped in my Jeep for the office...
Read MoreLake effect snow on radar
This heavy band of lake effect snow was ripping off of Lake Erie and belting Buffalo earlier this evening. It has since moved south, remaining mostly just north of Chautauqua County and hitting Erie County into Wyoming County. How much is falling? A midnight update from the National Weather Service said: * AT 1153 PM EST…NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED AN INTENSE LAKE EFFECT SNOW BAND CAPABLE OF PRODUCING SNOWFALL RATES OF 3 TO 4 INCHES PER HOUR…AND VISIBILITY OF A QUARTER OF A MILE OR LESS. THIS LAKE EFFECT SNOW BAND WAS ABOUT 10 TO 15 MILES WIDE WITH THE...
Read MoreMore thunderstorms and flooding
I would say “another day, another thunderstorm” but we get multiple events in a matter of hours lately. We’re well past water capacity in a number of areas in the Chautauqua-Allegheny region as flood advisories and flash flood warnings are already posted in places getting even more heavy rain now. Lightning is flashing intermittently as I type this. Stubborn and “stuck” patterns are becoming more and more common thanks to climate change and our jet stream. We need a trough in the west and a ridge in the east soon please. Be safe out there and remember…turn...
Read MoreHailstones
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...
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