Shelf, Severe, and a Rainbow

What a wonderful weather day yesterday was!!! I was finishing up on my Thursday afternoon, when this great cell moves into the area. The cell spanned 4 counties... and in Georgia, the counties are HUGE! Well, anyhow, the radar capture here, translated to this beautiful shelf...
With this beautiful cumulus congestus (that I watched bubble up)...
Produced this severe wind damage...
And ended with this beautiful reminder from God...
All in all, a great day!
~Dewdrop

Action in South Georgia

Meso Mike has deployed to the red dot. We just got the EAS for the rapidly approaching cell. There is still some opportunity for blow up with continued gulf feed interaction with the front.

0715 PM CDT THU OCT 15 2009

AREAS AFFECTED...SRN GA

CONCERNING...SEVERE POTENTIAL...WATCH UNLIKELY

THE THREAT FOR ISOLATED SEVERE STORMS CAPABLE OF LOCALLY STRONG WIND GUSTS AND PERHAPS A BRIEF TORNADO IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE ACROSS PARTS OF SRN GA TONIGHT. A WW IS NOT ANTICIPATED.

Mike is going to the southeast to try to get ahead of it.

Significant weather alert...
1014 PM EDT THU OCT 15 2009

...A SIGNIFICANT WEATHER ALERT IS IN EFFECT FOR BERRIEN...COOK...
LANIER AND LOWNDES COUNTIES...

* UNTIL 1100 PM EDT

AT 1013 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A
STRONG THUNDERSTORM NEAR RAY CITY...OR 5 MILES SOUTHEAST OF
NASHVILLE...MOVING EAST AT 30 MPH.

THIS STORM WILL BE NEAR...
LAKELAND BY 1035 PM EDT.

WINDS AROUND 50 MPH ARE EXPECTED WITH THIS STORM.

THIS STORM IS CAPABLE OF PRODUCING TORRENTIAL DOWNPOURS WHICH MAY CAUSE LOCALIZED FLOODING OF STREETS AND LOW LYING AREAS...AND IS ALSO PRODUCING NEARLY CONTINUOUS CLOUD TO GROUND LIGHTNING. MOVE INDOORS IMMEDIATELY! LIGHTNING IS ONE OF NATURES NUMBER ONE KILLERS. REMEMBER...IF YOU CAN HEAR THUNDER...YOU ARE CLOSE ENOUGH TO BE
STRUCK BY LIGHTNING.

~Dew

Pretty skies and severe weather

I would like to start today's message by saying the Vonage is a company of crooks. They have immoral business practices, and I am at my wit's end with them... if anyone can dispute that with credible facts, I welcome that. I have just filed my dispute with the Better Business Bureau. Grr...

Aside from that, we had some amazingly beautiful skies last night. I was returning home from picking the doggone dog up from Mini-Dew's dad's house, and I looked into the southern sky to see and amazing and largely swelled cumulonimbus cloud. Its western side, as it towered into the sky glowed a brilliant golden hue. It was quite impressive, and I just knew that it was producing hail. With updraft like that, it couldn't help but... it was well enough to my south southwest, and I had some super yummy white chocolate key lime cookies to bake for my wonderful groom, so I didn't bother. We've had plenty of thunderstorms lately, and I am holding out for the real mccoy. As I was gathering ingredients, my weather radio sounded... Severe thunderstorm warning for the county to my west.... hail and wind. Yeah, no doubt. I pulled up radar, where the VIL supported 1.25" hail. Ugh. Incidentally, there was a hail report of penny sized hail yesterday in Quitman, GA.Pretty random, eh? (No, I'm not Canadian.) Anyways, I don't have the radar capture, so you'll just have to trust me. Well, then, this amazing thing happened in the southern sky... the clouds lit up with all this amazing texture and an array of colors, and brought about this truly heavenly scene... God is a masterful Artist.

As the evening wore on, and we were about to sit down to eat, I put the doggone dog outside, and I looked up to see an amazing explosion of cloud to cloud lightning, in that amazing structure now to my southeast. I mean, the whole cloud had streaks of lightning lacing through it, brilliantly shining through in a lavender glow. I did the only thing I could do... I raced inside for my camera. Unfortunately, it had slowed down in frequency, and our mosquito population prevailed. I only got the tail end of one strike, not even worth posting, which is a downer, but... oh well. It was incredible to watch. So no, we're not getting all the severe weather that others are getting, and yes, we are dealing with heat indices approaching 110°F (yes, you read that right), but we still have AWESOME skies! I'll take it.

Speaking of severe weather, the Storm Prediction Center has outlined an area of moderate risk for severe weather once again.

THE NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER IN NORMAN OK IS FORECASTING THE DEVELOPMENT OF...LARGE HAIL...DAMAGING WINDS AND A FEW TORNADOES OVER PARTS OF THE CENTRAL PLAINS LATER TODAY AND TONIGHT.
SOUTHWESTERN IOWA
EXTREME NORTHERN KANSAS
NORTHWEST MISSOURI
MUCH OF NEBRASKA

Once again, geographically misplaced, and a slight risk extends into ALL of Georgia... hey, it expanded, I am in the slight risk! :D

Toodles,
Dewdrop

Chasing nothing...

Well, let's see... the last time I posted, I was leaving to run some errands, attend my rescheduled physical therapy (for the shoulder that never ended up needing a really big shot, just lots and lots of PT--pain and torture), which I had just resceduled to slightly earlier in hopes of being able to chase with Meso Mike when he got off of work... I knew that with the fast motion of that approaching squall line that I was cutting it close, but it seemed worth it to hook up with my chase partner... plus he's got a data card. Anyways... I ran to a bunch of places first taking care of some errands, got a ton done in that hour and talked with a few of the Brigade guys to get updates and input along the way. It was after I finished the errands and right before the pain and torture session, when my weather radio starts going ballistic... special weather statement for my county for an approaching cell that could go severe. WHAT?! Are you kidding me?! It was then that I turned the corner and facing the northwest, there is this mass of turmoiled cloud bottoms boiling by! They were rumbling and rolling and stirring, and you could see them tightening up, drawing in together. It was an impressive convective display, and I was mesmerized. It was minutes from my appointment time, but I HAD to stop (you understand, right?). This structure went right over me, and I searched those masses of scud for any signs of rotation. I never did see any, but I thoroughly enjoyed the show, and I called the guys to let them know what I was seeing. The base of that cell was phenomenal! That's the video above. Here are a couple more shots. It really doesn't do it any justice. So, then I dragged myself away from that, as hard as it was and called the guys at NWS-Tally to let them know what I was seeing and feeling and got an update about a cell over Thomasville, headed right for me, which should arrive in 30 minutes or so... smack dab in the middle of my pain and torture appointment. Fabulous. Can you say Dewvoid?! So, there I lay, with electrodes pulsating my shoulder, my dear son calling frantically to ask if we were under a tornado warning based on what he was seeing in the sky, as the thunder starts rumbling. Granted, it was only three total claps of thunder, but still, I missed it all. sigh. When I left there I called Meso Mike to see where he was, so I could catch up with him. On my way, I got to experience slightly more than normal street flooding, which I called the guys about. The pond along the way was well past its normal banks. After grabbing a quick bite, Mike checked the radar, which made it clear that the storm was barely there. We went slightly north to see if it would fire some, but it did not... so I drooled over his new Canon 40D for a few, and then he was on his way. Here is a side-by-side comparison of the radar before and after...




So... not a chase, but another batch of fabulous memories. The video doesn't work, but I am too tired to mess with it anymore... so sorry. OK, I changed it to a youtube thing, so there you have it. Anyone else have problems with the blogger video feed?

~Dew