Central Ohio

May 1st Severe Weather

Posted by: Buckey2745, 8:03 PM GMT on May 01, 2012

Not long after I made my last post the NWS issued a Tornado Watch for the southwestern portion of Ohio. While this wasn't a total shock, it was interesting to see something that went from a low risk severe day go to a Tornado Watch being issued.

Here's the watch area not including the Columbus area:

A warm front is lifting through our area with storms firing along the boundry. What's noticeable is an area of partly cloudy skies to the south of I-70 which should help feed this instability.

Map highlights area of greatest instability lifting slowly to the north.

There's a sharp cutoff of instability that coincides with the break in the clouds. Most of Kentucky has moderate instability while areas north of I-70 has almost none.

So far there's been little spin in the upper atmosphere over Kentucky where the greatest instabity is. However it appears decent shear sits over Indiana and will move east, while the greatest instability moves northeast. That'll put southern Ohio in the crosshairs.

It'll be interesting to see how quickly the atmosphere recovers after these debris clouds move out later. We have a small window for any supercells, but bowing segments will be probable overnight. Right now I feel like the worst won't make it much further north than Cincinnati. We'll see. I'll post more as storms develop.

Permalink | A A A

View Comments (0)

Quiet April

Posted by: Buckey2745, 2:51 PM GMT on May 01, 2012

I've gone almost a month without posting because putting filler in the blog seemed kind of pointless. April was too quiet for any type of update. In all we had one Severe Thunderstorm Warning for this hail storm on the morning on April 26th:

...and a Severe Thunderstorm Watch yesterday, our last day of the month, for a complex of storms that never panned out.

That was it.

But when you look closer and the quiet month of April you'll notice the temperature difference compared to March, our warmest March ever. How much of a difference? We were actually COOLER in April than in March:

March: 55.2°
April: 54.1°

A cooler April than March in Ohio? That hasn't happened since 1907!

But now we're in May. This is our busiest month of the year for severe weather, so expect posts to be much more frequent with every severe event we experience.

More Change
For those of you who have followed me for a while on this blog you've noticed I've moved around the area quite a bit lately. I'm currently on my third address in less than a year. But finally, I'll have a house again coming soon.

Starting in July I'll be writing from my new digs in Canal Winchester, a subburb of Columbus. Canal is in Franklin County, which means I'll no longer be a Pickaway County homer. Good news? Sure, for people reading in Columbus!

Until then, bring on the severe weather.

Severe Weather Stats:
Severe Thunderstorm Watches: 2
Severe Thunderstorm Warnings: 4
Tornado Watches: 2
Tornado Warnings: 0
Flood Watches: 1
Flood Warnings: 1
Heat Advisories: 0
Excessive Heat Warnings: 0

Permalink | A A A

View Comments (1)

About Buckey2745