A powerful Arctic cold front will collide with rich Gulf of Mexico moisture to bring a plethora of wintry mess to the Gulf Coast before continuing on to the Georgia and Carolina coasts. Behind the frontal passage this evening, temperatures will quickly plunge into the 20s and 30s along the […]
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Big Cool Down Coming to Much of the Continental US
Well, it appears fall is finally arriving to much of the continental US. A strong upper level low is slowly moving east across the northern US, dragging a strong cold front behind it. While it will not be a crushing winter storm like we recently saw in South Dakota, some […]
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May 31st El Reno Tornado May Be the Most Powerful Tornado Ever Recorded
Just a few weeks after the National Weather Service downgraded the May 31, 2013 El Reno, Oklahoma tornado from EF-5 to EF-3, a research paper published this week suggested that this tornado may be the largest most powerful (note that I say powerful, not destructive) tornado ever recorded, having been […]
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2 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Lightning (and 1 You Probably Did)
Have you ever been watching a thunderstorm and witnessed someone counting the seconds between the lightning and the thunder (or even counted yourself)? You probably know that you can determine how far away the lightning strike was from the length of time between the lightning flash and the thunder clap. […]
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Why the May 31st El Reno Tornado was Downgraded to EF-3
The deadly tornado that ripped through Canadian County, OK on May 31st has been downgraded back to EF-3 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. Back in early June, the National Weather Service initially rated the tornado EF-3 after surveying the damage, but after receiving data from several doppler radars in the […]
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Basic Physics and Dynamics of a Tornado
Ever wonder what goes on inside a tornado? If you cut it all down to just basics, it’s pretty simple. A tornado is just a column of air violently rotating around an area of low pressure (how they form will be discussed at some future date). They work in the […]
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Looking Back at the May 19-20 Tornado Outbreak
MOORE, OK — May 3rd, 1999. It’s a date that anyone with ties to Oklahoma knows very well. If you don’t know, an F5 tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma that day, packing winds of 318 miles per hour (no, that’s not a type-o), which to this day remains the strongest wind […]
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Mini Tornado Outbreak in Southwestern Oklahoma
FREDERICK, OK — The April 17th severe weather event was easily the highlight of April. I got to chase as part of one of my classes, which was a lot of fun. A warm front had stalled over the Interstate 44 corridor, with extremely unstable air on the warm side […]
Read MoreA Weather Event of the Most Absurd Kind
NORMAN, OK — A day that started as an epic bust/lack of a storm chase turned out to be anything but disappointing. It was an event that nobody could have predicted (not even the models), featuring golf ball sized hail and freezing rain falling out of a severe thunderstorm at […]
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What Is the Difference Between a Tornado and a Landspout
On May 19, 2012, I observed and photographed a landspout and two tornadoes near Harper, Kansas. The term “landspout” is not used very often so I will attempt to explain what it means and how it differs from a tornado. Tornadoes Most tornadoes are driven by a mesocyclone in a […]
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Central Plains Tornado Outbreak
NORMAN, OK — Two straight days of taking a gamble and targeting areas close to home left me with the two extremes as far as results go: one day put me up close and personal with a fairly serious tornado less than a mile from my house, and the other […]
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A Simple Meteorological Synopsis of the 3/31/2011 West Florida Tornado Outbreak
On March 31, 2011, nine tornadoes broke out across West Florida as a strong front moved across the region, leaving heavy damage in its wake. While the Tampa Bay area does see the most tornadoes per square mile than anywhere else in the country, the tornadoes it does see are […]
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