Heat Turns to Storms
Today was another scorcher. My weather station actually made it hotter than yesterday, with a high of 99°. Today just felt worse than yesterday with higher humidity, dewpoints in the upper 60's. These high temps mixed with the higher dewpoints brought insane instabilities of up to 6000 J/kg, something rarely seen around here.
You can have extreme instability, but without a spark you have nothing. Today there's a spark. A stalled out frontal boundry with small distrubances running along it became a focal point for a large bowing MCS that developed around Chicago and has made a beeline for Central Ohio.
This feature prompted the SPC to increase our severe risk from slight to moderate for the rest of the day:
Many high wind reports with this large bow eventually gave way to our third severe thunderstorm watch of the season:
This is a mixed blessing. We need the rain, but we sure don't need a massive high wind MCS... but it looks like that's what we're getting.
The leading edge of these storms will be here in about an hour, right around evening rush hours, which is just about the worst timing you could have. Expect to see a squall line type shelf cloud approach from the west-northwest, with winds in excess of 60mph and warnings all along the line.
Severe Weather Stats:
Severe Thunderstorm Watches: 3
Severe Thunderstorm Warnings: 6
Tornado Watches: 3
Tornado Warnings: 0
Flood Watches: 2
Flood Warnings: 1
Heat Advisories: 1
Excessive Heat Warnings: 1
Red Flag Warnings: 1
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