National Hurricane Preparedness Week & Safe Boating Week

It's time to start thinking about hurricane season - it starts a week from tomorrow, on June 1st.

This week there is a national campaign to educate coastal citizens on the dangers of hurricanes. It isn't just the wind and rain, but flooding, tornadoes too.

So if you live on or near the Gulf or Atlantic coasts, please click the link below and check it each day this week for a new topic.

Click here for National Hurricane Preparedness Week

It's also National Safe Boating week in the United States - and even if you have been on the water all your life, it doesn't hurt to just take a few minutes and review the latest thoughts on boating safety.

Topics include lightning safety, navigation rules, dangerous waves and more.

Click here for National Safe Boating Week information.

Live Storm Chase

Follow storm chaser Verne Carlson right now LIVE from his car in east-central Wyoming. As I blog he is watching a wall cloud.

Click here to chase with Verne!

Pattern Shift Ahead, And Maybe Some Tropical Trouble?

Well after weeks of cool, unsettled weather for a large portion of the nation - a pattern shift over the next few days will change things up a bit and give some of our southern states a much needed break from the severe weather.

A ridge of high pressure is currently building across the center of the US. This will shift the main storm track well to the north, bringing plenty of low-level moisture into the northern plains on southerly winds.

We may see some strong to severe thunderstorms as far north as the Canadian border in the coming days.

Along with the ridge means an increase in the temperatures - with widespread 80s and even lower 90s across the middle states - possibly as far north as southern Minnesota!

Meanwhile, looking out into the future - the GFS forecast model shows an area of low pressure developing off the coast of the Carolinas as we head into the middle of next week.

The low pressure sits and spins off the coast for at least 2 to 3 days.

In the event this happens, it will definitely be the cause for unsettled weather along the Atlantic coastline as we head into the Memorial Day weekend.

Will it be a tropical low? Hard to say this early in the game....it's hard to say if the low will even form....but we are approaching the 2010 Atlantic Hurricane Season which officially starts on June 1.

So stay tuned!

Meanwhile, here is a look from the Gulf Coast of Florida as a cold front approaches. This shot is courtesy of one of our CoCoRaHS observers. The system produced strong gusty winds up to 60 MPH!

Tornado Outbreak Wasn't As Intense As Feared

The tornado outbreak that was forecast for Oklahoma and vicinity did in fact happen - but the 2 dozen reported tornadoes were mostly weak, short-lived events that happened over open range.

A few towns did manage to get a little damage from the storms and there were some power outages, but all in all, it wasn't nearly as bad as the outbreak a few weeks ago.

Here is a map of the storm reports from Wednesday.

If you look on the map above you will notice a tornado report from eastern Washington state. There was a reported tornado touchdown near Moses Lake on Wednesday afternoon. One resident saw it up close.

Click the link below to read more and see a video.

Link to story about Washington State tornado.

Here is the official report to the National Weather Service.

TORNADO TOUCHDOWN REPORTED 5 MILES NORTHEAST OF MOSES LAKE ON NE ROAD P. TORNADO ESTIMATED 300 FEET WIDE AND WAS ON THE GROUND FOR 1/2 TO 3/4 OF A MILE. LIFTED AN OLD BARN 20 FEET OFF THE GROUND AND DROPPED IT 30 FEET FROM ITS ORIGINAL LOCATION. TIME ESTIMATED 615-620PM PDT.

Incredible Hail Video

Check out this link to a video of the hailstorm that hit Oklahoma City earlier this week.

It is amazing! You can see the force of the hail by the splash in the pool. It gets pretty wild about 2 to 2.5 minutes into the video.

Amazing hail video!

Poor Oklahoma, Under The Gun Again!

The Storms Prediction Center just issued a meso-scale discussion for central Oklahoma - storms will initiate soon and they will likely grow into large supercells very quickly.

The ingredients are in place for the storms to rotate and put down long-track tornadoes.

Tornado Outbreak Forecasted Wednesday

From current indications, we could have another large tornado outbreak on our hands Wednesday across sections of Oklahoma and north Texas.

If you watch The Weather Channel, Dr. Greg Forbes has came out with his official tornado forecast called TOR:CON - giving a rating on a scale of 1 to 10 for the threat of twisters within 50 miles of a particular area.

He is giving southern Oklahoma a 9 out of 10 - pretty darn high!

So if you live in the mentioned areas - be alert to the weather over the next 24 hours.

Tornado Touches Down In Wyoming

Check out this tornado caught after 3pm Tuesday just outside of Cheyenne, Wyoming. I didn't take the pic - it was from a traffic camera I belive is what I saw.

Severe Weather Outbreak Begins Today

Severe thunderstorms and possible tornadoes are possible today from eastern Colorado and New Mexico into western Oklahoma and Texas.

That threat will spread eastward over the next few days.

The most intense day as it stands right now looks to be Wednesday for areas of central Oklahoma and north-central Texas - including Dallas, Abilene, Wichita Falls and Oklahoma City.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma City is still cleaning up from not only the deadly tornadoes earlier this month, but also from a significant hail storm on Sunday.

Hail the size of grapefruit pummeled the city and caused millions of dollars in damage.

A jogger was caught outside during the hailstorm and was pelted with the large hailstones - you have to click the link below to see his picture. It is just amazing!

Click here to see jogger!

Below is a map of the new storm system in the west that will spawn a 3-day severe weather outbreak starting today.

Week Ahead: Continued Active

On the map below, I have drawn two large purple circles around the main weather stories we'll be looking at this week.

#1 - the stalled front over the Ohio River Valley in the southeast. Showers and thunderstorms are in the forecast today from St. Louis to Washington DC. This is the same upper-level storm system that sat over the central Rockies last week bringing day after day of inclement weather to places like Colorado.

The southern end of that disturbed area is a little cold front over north Texas and Louisiana. This will be the focal point for isolated severe thunderstorms later today.

#2 - a new storm system is moving on shore in the Pacific Northwest today and it will spread showers and thunderstorms with some mountain snow into Washington and Oregon, as well as the northern half of California. It will spread into the central and northern Rockies for the middle of the work week. BY Wednesday, it will spawn some severe weather in the central plains states.

Think It's Been Wet?

The map below shows the total accumulated precipitation for the last 7 days across the nation - it's been a wet one for many! With few exceptions - just about the entire lower 48 states have seen measurable precipitation.

And it has been a rather cool spring thus far for many of us. Here in Denver, we are running almost 8 degrees cooler than average so far this May! Other cooler-than-normal locations thus far in May include...

Phoenix, Arizona - 2 degrees cooler than average

Pendleton, Oregon - 3 degrees cooler than average

Bismarck, North Dakota - 8 degrees cooler than average

Grand Rapids, Michigan - 1 degree cooler than average

Waterloo, Iowa - 4 degrees cooler than average

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma - 2 degrees cooler than average

Places from Atlanta, Georgia to Burlington, Vermont are running about 1 to 2 degrees ABOVE normal thus far this May.

Texas Rains - Holy Buckets!

Texas received widespread heavy rain on Friday - with daily rainfall records set in several cities - including Houston, Galveston and Midland.

This morning, heavy rain has been falling in Victoria, Texas.

It prompted an alert to be issued that I have never seen before on the National Weather Service maps. It was called a "Shelter In Place" warning. Here is the text.

MANY STREETS ACROSS THE COUNTY OF VICTORIA HAVE BEEN INUNDATED WITH


FLASH FLOODING. THE EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT COORDINATOR HAS REQUESTED

THAT RESIDENTS OF VICTORIA COUNTY STAY AT HOME DURING THE MORNING

HOURS OF MAY 15TH 2010 DUE MANY STREETS ARE IMPASSABLE. THIS

MORNING...EMERGENCY SERVICES ARE OVERWHELMED WITH HIGH WATER

RESCUES.

Nashville Flooding Video

Look at this amazing video as flood waters rush into a retail store in the Nashville area during the recent flood event.

Watch Flood Video Here

We all have heard about the power of water, and for many, have either witnessed or maybe even personally experienced it.

This is video confirmation of it!

Hurricane Season Days Away

This Saturday marks the beginning of hurricane season for the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Forecasters will be watching the waters off the west coast of Mexico for any signs of tropical storm formation.

Shortly thereafter, on June 1, the hurricane season gets underway for the Atlantic Basin, which includes the Gulf of Mexico and the Carribbean Sea.

The National Hurricane Center has made some changes to their products for the upcoming season, one of the biggest is they will be adding 12 hours of additional lead time to all watches and warnings that are issued.

Another change is to the actual advisory products issued to the public. They will now be organized into sections and will use bullet points and lists to highlight important information - letting the eye quickly identify keywords and find specific information quickly.

There will also be some changes to the "forecast cone" as well as some new experimental forecast products.

Click here to read a full listing of these changes and additions!

Here We Snow Again

Well below are some pictures from traffic cameras around the Denver metro. Most of the city saw 1 to 3 inches with some 3 to 6 inch totals in the higher suburbs and up north toward Wyoming.

This is a great radar from the Denver area around 10 pm Tuesday. Snow, rain, thunderstorms - you got it all with a good spring storm in the Rockies!

Currently getting thundersnow at my house!