Latest news with #supercell
Yahoo
17 hours ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Watch: Supercell cuts path through 2 states producing tornadoes live on FOX Weather
LUBBOCK, Texas – A powerful supercell thunderstorm trekked across eastern New Mexico and West Texas on Thursday, producing tornadoes, large hail, damaging winds and flash flooding. The storm traveled more than 80 miles, producing its first tornadoes around Causey, New Mexico, and not giving up before reaching Lubbock, Texas, during the evening hours, where most of the impacts were felt. The thunderstorm was one of several that developed across the Southern Plains, where the Storm Prediction Center had issued Severe Thunderstorm and Tornado Watches earlier in the day. Despite the potential for showers and thunderstorms across much of the Lower 48, the most dangerous activity was centered over the Plains and West Texas. Phoenix Has Already Hit 100 Degrees. What Does This Early Heat Mean For Summer? The supercell that storm chasers had their eye on was able to break through the atmospheric cap and produce its first tornado not far from the New Mexico-Texas line. FOX Weather Exclusive Storm Tracker Brandon Copic was able to take video of the cell, which produced a rope-like, dusty twister out in what many would proverbially call 'the middle of nowhere.' Outside of possibly a small outhouse or a utility line, no damage was reported in much of eastern New Mexico, but the storm wasn't done. As it moved into West Texas, atmospheric conditions allowed the cell to grow in size and intensity, ultimately producing what may have been the strongest tornado of the event. Video captured dust and anything not bolted down in the rural countryside being picked up by the wedge-shaped vortex. Fortunately, again, much of the track of the storm remained over sparsely populated areas, but its sheer size did not prevent the National Weather Service from issuing warnings with headlines such as "Particularly Dangerous Situation." Despite the storm's longevity, the supercell didn't conclude after impacting areas around the town of Morton and still had the largest city in its path – Lubbock, Texas - which is about 50 miles away. "I've been watching this storm since I got into work several hours ago… People were posting videos of tornadoes that it was producing, and it's been just moving ever so slowly from west to east, and unfortunately it's got a bullseye right on Lubbock right now," FOX Weather meteorologist Ari Sarsalari said while tracking the supercell. As the tornado approached the region of more than 250,000 residents, it became rain-wrapped, causing additional dangers, as vortexes are more difficult to track when obscured. At one point, residents in the area reported twin tornadoes, in addition to damaging hail, hurricane-force wind gusts and flooding rains. At Texas Tech University, students were urged to seek shelter and stay away from windows as the storm approached campus. The combination of hail and heavy rainfall triggered dangerous flash flooding, with some roads turning into streams and rivers. Videos from traffic cameras showed vehicles wading through deep water – situations that forecasters always warn can be deadly and drivers should try to avoid. Search and rescue crews worked late into Thursday night to assist stranded drivers and search for potential storm victims, but emergency managers only reported one injury as of Thursday evening. Several structures appeared to have significant damage from either a tornado or straight-line winds that were estimated to have been in excess of 80 mph and thousands were without power. How To Watch Fox Weather Following the damage in Lubbock, the cell appeared to stop producing tornadoes, but it remained a dangerous storm, with the potential of softball-sized hail and gusty winds into the heart of the Lone Star State. The cell was still heading eastward as of late Thursday evening; however, it appeared the worst of the weather would spare the city of Abilene and stay north of Interstate article source: Watch: Supercell cuts path through 2 states producing tornadoes live on FOX Weather
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
How does hail grow to the size of golf balls and even grapefruit? The science behind this destructive weather phenomenon
Hail the size of grapefruit shattered car windows in Johnson City, Texas. In June, 2024, a storm chaser found a hailstone almost as big as a pineapple. Even larger hailstones have been documented in South Dakota, Kansas and Nebraska. Hail has damaged airplanes and even crashed through the roofs of houses. How do hailstones get so large, and are hailstorms getting worse? As an atmospheric scientist, I study and teach about extreme weather and its risks. Here's how hail forms, how hailstorms may be changing, and some tips for staying safe. Hail begins as tiny crystals of ice that are swept into a thunderstorm's updraft. As these ice embryos collide with supercooled water – liquid water that has a temperature below freezing – the water freezes around each embryo, causing the embryo to grow. Supercooled water freezes at different rates, depending on the temperature of the hailstone surface, leaving layers of clear or cloudy ice as the hailstone moves around inside a thunderstorm. If you cut open a large hailstone, you can see those layers, similar to tree rings. The path a hailstone takes through a thunderstorm cloud, and the time it spends collecting supercooled water, dictates how large it can grow. Rotating, long-lived, severe thunderstorms called supercells tend to produce the largest hail. In supercells, hailstones can be suspended for 10-15 minutes or more in strong thunderstorm updrafts, where there is ample supercooled water, before falling out of the storm due to their weight or moving out of the updraft. Hail is most common during spring and summer when a few key ingredients are present: warm, humid air near the surface; an unstable air mass in the middle troposphere; winds strongly changing with height; and thunderstorms triggered by a weather system. Hailstorms can be destructive, particularly for farms, where barrages of even small hail can beat down crops and damage fruit. As hailstones get larger, their energy and force when they strike objects increases dramatically. Baseball-sized hail falling from the sky has as much kinetic energy as a typical major league fastball. As a result, property damage – such as to roofs, siding, windows and cars – increases as hail gets larger than the size of a quarter. Insured losses from severe weather, which are dominated by hail damage, have increased substantially over the past few decades. These increases have been driven mostly by growing populations in hail-prone areas, resulting in more property that can be damaged and the increasing costs to repair or replace property damaged by hail. A lot of people ask whether the rise in hail damage is tied to climate change. My colleagues and I analyzed four decades of hail environments and found that the atmospheric ingredients to produce very large hail – larger than golf balls – have become more common in parts of the central and eastern U.S. since 1979. Other studies that considered formation factors of hail-producing storms or looked at radar estimates of hail have found limited increases in large hail, predominately over the northern Plains. There are a couple of primary hypotheses as to why climate change may be making some key ingredients for large hail more common. First, there has been an increase in warm, humid air as the Earth warms. This supplies more energy to thunderstorms and makes supercooled water more plentiful in thunderstorms for hail to grow. Second, there have been more unstable air masses, originating over the higher terrain of western North America, that then move eastward. As snowpack disappears earlier in the year, these unstable air masses are more apt to form as the Sun heats up the land faster, similar to turning up a kitchen stove, which then heats up the atmosphere above. Climate change may also lead to less small hail and more large hail. As the atmosphere warms, the freezing level moves up higher in the atmosphere. Small hail would be able to melt completely before reaching the ground. Larger hail, on the other hand, falls faster and requires more time to melt, so it would be less affected by higher freezing levels. Additionally, the combination of more favorable ingredients for large hail and changes in the character of hailstorms themselves might lead to an increase in very large hail in the future. Being caught in a severe thunderstorm with large hail falling all around you can be frightening. Here are some safety tips if you ever wind up in such a situation: If you're driving, pull over safely. Stay in the vehicle. If you spot a garage or gas station awning that you can seek shelter under, drive to it. If you're outside, seek a sturdy shelter such as a building. If you're caught out in the open, protect your head. If you're inside, stay away from windows and remain inside until the hail stops. Dealing with the aftermath of hail damage can also be stressful, so taking some steps now can avoid headaches later. Know what your homeowners and car insurance policies cover. Be aware of roof replacement scams from people after a hailstorm. Also, think preventively by choosing building materials that can better withstand hail damage in the first place. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Brian Tang, University at Albany, State University of New York Read more: Extreme heat waves aren't 'just summer': How climate change is heating up the weather, and what we can do about it What causes lightning and how to stay safe when you're caught in a storm – a meteorologist explains Why insurance companies are pulling out of California and Florida, and how to fix some of the underlying problems Brian Tang has received funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Risk Prediction Initiative.
Washington Post
06-05-2025
- Climate
- Washington Post
Watch a stunning storm drop a tornado over New Mexico
MIDLAND, Texas. — As a storm chaser, I spend most chases thwarting traffic, dodging giant hail and navigating clogged, winding roads. But my recent tornado intercept near Roswell, New Mexico, was among the most peaceful experiences of my life. It was meteorologist's dream — a textbook structured supercell, or rotating thunderstorm, churning over entirely empty prairie lands on the New Mexican High Plains. I didn't see a single soul for over an hour, but I did see multiple tornadoes. Somehow I managed the entire chase without even turning on my windshield wipers. The storm, which took place on a recent Saturday, produced little damage. Instead, it was a pageant of beauty and raw power delivered by the atmosphere. The target I had awoken in Lubbock, Texas, on a storm chase. The night before — Friday night, April 25 — the rural community of Smyer, just west of Lubbock, had seen a stationary thunderstorm park for nearly five hours. It dropped nearly half a foot of rain and accumulating hail. Fields turned into rivers as flash flooding rendered roadways impassible. The storm finally dissipated around midnight. When the morning of Saturday, April 26, rolled around, I didn't have high hopes for much to happen. I had never had a successful chase in eastern New Mexico. Still, I targeted the town of Hobbs — in far southeastern New Mexico — and waited. It was barely a two-hour drive from Lubbock. By early afternoon, temperatures had risen to around 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Moisture was more prevalent to the south. I was targeting an outflow boundary, which is the leading edge of cool air exhaust, from the prior day's storms. The leftover boundary, and associated wind shift, had parked south of Hobbs and northeast of Carlsbad. I was sure I was in the right spot. The wait Weather models simulated a massive supercell popping almost directly over Hobbs by around 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Central time. After all, converging winds along the boundary should force air upward, and the atmosphere was highly unstable and juiced up. But 3 p.m. became 4 p.m. and eventually 5 p.m. (4 p.m. Mountain time in Hobbs). The clock was ticking. A few scattered storms had blossomed over the Rocky Mountains to my northwest, and another in the Texas Big Bend to my south. For whatever reason, any clouds nearby were fizzling. I decided to drive north — perhaps the invisible boundary had become shunted back toward the Rockies. Besides — if the chase was a bust, I'd have to get north to Kansas for the next day's setup anyway. Begrudgingly, I decided to drive north toward Elida, New Mexico. I had nearly 90 minutes of nothingness in front of me. The storm As I continued my journey north, I noticed on radar that a storm west of Roswell, New Mexico, was heading due east — rather than northeast. Perhaps it was latching onto the invisible leftover boundary. And if it was, it would have extra spin along it to gobble up. I sighed and crankily barked at Siri — 'take me to Roswell.' By 4:21 p.m. Mountain time I was just east of the area. The storm was still to my north, so I decided to take an abandoned road due northward. It was the only road for nearly 20 miles in any direction. There were no structures or homes nearby. Just … vast grasslands. For a while, the storm had lost its severe thunderstorm warning. Meteorologists deemed it to be of minimal danger. It seemed to be losing some of its bright colors on radar. But I also noticed indications that it was 50,000 feet tall. Why would a storm be weakening while also growing that tall? I realized what was going on — it was becoming an LP supercell, meaning low precipitation. That meant it was producing little rain (but definitely some large hail, probably up to 2.5 inches across). Any precipitation was being blown to the northeast of the main storm. That exposed the storm's updraft for unobstructed viewing. And when I saw it, my jaw dropped. The intercept It was a single cloud some 10 miles tall. And it was spinning. Warm, moist air was flowing into the storm from the left (south); it was as if the storm were being fed by a conveyor belt. The storm's anvil cloud was fanning out overhead. The pillar of rotation, the spiral updraft, was orbiting closer and closer. Imagine something five times the volume of Mount Everest simply floating — and visibly spinning. That's what I was looking at. There wasn't a single human being around for at least 10 miles in any direction. I knew I was alone, but the storm felt sentient. It was breathing; inflow winds out of the southeast began to rush into the storm more quickly. Meteorologist Matthew Cappucci witnesses a tornado form outside of Roswell, New Mexico, on April 26. (Video: Matthew Cappucci/Matthew Cappucci / MyRadar) Suddenly, its base flattened and became crisp. A cone funnel dropped — then another dusty twister touched down. I rushed out of my rental car in glee. Snap! The shutter of my camera clicked … just four shots. And it was a shot I had always dreamed of. A single shot. A single, massive storm. A single tornado. And a wild perspective.
