Tornadoes ravage the plains... in August??

SKY WATCH FRIDAY time! I might not have time to respond to you, but I will try my best to visit!!!
Our hosts: Klaus Sandy Ivar Wren Louise Fishing Guy

Thanks, also,to Dot and Tom, who were instrumental in the success of this blogging event. You should definitely come fly with us!This is a capture of what our skies are generally looking like by early to mid afternoon here these days... We have had some amazingly brilliant blue skies with splatterings of clouds that build and boil to generate those late afternoon boomers that are so common in south Georgia summers.

Well, though it was pretty mild and normal summer-like thunderstorms here, yesterday was a banner severe weather day, especially for an August day!! As a cold front creeps its way across the CONUS, we watched as severe weather became the top story throughout the plains (especially Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa), with the big story coming out of Minnesota, specifically downtown Minneapolis, where an apparent tornado ravaged its way through downtown, destroying structures, downing trees... insanity. All in all, we saw 18 tornado reports and a total of 195 severe weather reports. My weather radio actually went off one time, alerting us of a severe storm to our east, which appears to have generated some severe wind reports in north Florida. Our company (Mini-Dew's friend), heard the blaring EAS tone and asked, "WHAT IS THAT?!" sigh... you have no weather radio?? All we got out of that was a bit of rain and some gorgeous lightning, which I was too busy with company to shoot. So, what does this whole tornado outbreak mean...? Well, this year has actually been a below average year for storm reports and tornadoes. Last year, an exceptionally active year, most likely raised the average quite a bit, so we are probably on target for "normal".I love the site that the image above links to... it's a great tornado trend resource. Unfortunately for the people over a large part of the eastern US, it looks like things might get severely active again today. If you fall within the green outlined area, be especially mindful of rapidly changing conditions.

Now, looking at the Tropics, we see that Hurricane Bill (the only show in town), actually lost some of his oomph. Now, downgraded to a category 3, still powerful, yet slightly less symmetrical, Hurricane Bill is a major hurricane most likely destined for a life at sea. He ran into a bit of westerly shear overnight, which slowed his winds down a bit, but as the shear settles, and with a maintained pressure, we could expect to see him ramp up speed again, through the course of today. He has begun a slight turn to the northwest, which is falling in line with what the models have consistently boasted about Hurricane Bill's course. In fact, a great degree of uncertainty arises with the expected trajectory of Bill after 72 hours...

IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT BILL WILL PROBABLY NOT TURN AS SHARPLY BETWEEN 72-96 HR AS IMPLIED BY THE TRACK GRAPHIC...AND THUS IS LIKELY TO PASS CLOSER TO NEW ENGLAND THAN THE GRAPHIC WOULD SUGGEST.

Have a stupendous day!!
~Dewdrop