Mother’s Day Weather
By Phillip Williams
Friday, May 09, 2008
Hello, I’m Storm Team 9 Chief Meteorologist Phillip Williams
You may have been hearing a lot of talk about the possibility of severe weather on Mother’s Day. Let me break down what may happen for you.
A large low pressure area will be swirling strong winds over the southeastern United States Sunday. The upper winds will be splitting over our region which means air below must lift to fill the gaps. When air is lifted is cools and condenses out the moisture into clouds and rain. What is needed for severe weather is a variety of other things happening.
To get severe weather there needs to be a turning of the wind direction as you go up in the sky. A warm front lifting over our area Sunday afternoon could provide that. We could have southeast winds at the surface ahead of this front and southwest winds at about 5,000 feet overhead. That different wind direction causes the air to spin as air is lifted into showers and storms. If this wind is strong enough then a tornado threat would result.
Since the upper low pressure system is made of cold air up high, as it gets closer to us, the chance of hail increases from thunderstorms. That is another severe threat. The last severe threat is a wind gust threat from strong storms that take the cold air up high and pull it down to the ground.
What could prevent severe weather on Mother’s Day? There are several possibilities that would prevent a severe weather outbreak. First would be a day with total cloud cover and light rain. That would prevent the temperature at the ground from getting warm enough to lift into taller storms and thus prevent any hail, strong winds, or tornadoes. Also, if a surface low pressure forms along the coast or off the coast, then the turning of the warm front would remain off the coast and prevent any tornadoes.
If you have any questions, feel free to add them as comments here. I’m sure others would want to know also.
Thanks,
Phillip Williams
COMMENTS
You guys are doing a great job of keeping us informed! Thanks for your hard work!
Thank you Jason! I’ll be posting some storm reports on this blog soon.
Phillip
Here are some of the storm reports from the Storm Prediction Center for our region on Mother’s Day.
Read these reports with the time first, then location, county, latitude and longitude, then report.
The time is zulu time, so 2243 means 6:43pm Sunday. The last report is from 8:08pm.
LEWISTON WOODVILLE BERTIE NC 3611 7718 *** 2 INJ *** TORNADO CONFIRMED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT. NUMEROUS TREES REORTED DOWN IN THE TOWN OF LEWISTON. (AKQ)
2243 4 SW POWELLSVILLE BERTIE NC 3619 7699 CONFIRMED EF1 TORNADO DAMAGE ALONG HEXLENA ROAD. NUMEROUS TREES DOWNED OR SNAPPED OFF IN REMOTE AREA. EXTENSIVE DAMAGE TO A FEW MOBILE HOMES. DAMAGE PATH WAS APPROXIMAT (AKQ)
2245 BELGRADE ONSLOW NC 3487 7724 911 CENTER RECEIVED SEVERAL REPORTS OF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN IN THE BELGRADE AREA. (MHX)
2248 1 S POWELLSVILLE BERTIE NC 3621 7693 CONFIRMED EF0 TORNADO DAMAGE ALONG SALLY FREEMAN RD. TORNADO COMPLETELY DEMOLISHED PORCH ATTACHED TO MOBILE HOME. SEVERAL TREES SNAPPED OFF. (AKQ)
2257 SE MAYSVILLE JONES NC 3490 7723 (MHX)
2353 CURRITUCK CURRITUCK NC 3645 7601 TORNADO CONFIRMED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT…AT HIGHWAY 158 AND AIRPORT ROAD IN CURRITUCK…JUST SOUTH OF CURRITUCK COUNTY AIRPORT. (AKQ)
0008 1 N MOREHEAD CITY CARTERET NC 3474 7673 BRIEF TOUCHDOWN WITH TREES DOWN AND TRAMPOLINE FLIPPED NEAR BRANDYWINE SUBDIVISION. (MHX)