Averaging Out the Highs and Lows: A Mighty Wind

Thunderstorms are common in the summer but a wall-to-wall severe weather event where everyone gets in on the action usually only happens once a summer. Today was that day in Pennsylvania.

I was lucky enough to arrive at work today (3 PM) to see that severe thunderstorms were plowing east toward Pennsylvania from the Cleveland area. Once we saw a report of tennis ball size hail near Akron, OH, we knew it would be a busy shift.

Imagine a ball of ice this size bouncing off of your car.

A potent cold front moving from the Great Lakes caused all of the severe weather. Temperatures made it to 90 degrees almost everywhere in the state today along with dewpoints in the upper 60's to low 70's. The cold front acted like a snow shovel pushing the warm humid air up into the atmosphere and a solid line of thunderstorms developed.

Sites like this were common around the state as many areas saw their first 90-degree day.

A NASA satellite image around 2:30 PM showing the cold front between Lake Erie and Lake Michigan. Picture a big snow shovel pushing that warm humid air up to the top of the atmosphere. Pennsylvania is just to right of the mass of clouds. It's just a matter of time...

Here's what the thunderstorms looked like from up above. Notice the flat part near the top of the storm. That is the top of the atmosphere (tropopause) which acts like a lid. Only the cream of the crop storms make it higher than this.

We issued warnings for every county as the storms approached and received many reports of wind damage - large trees blown over and damage to houses and buildings. Flooding was limited as the storms moved very quickly so the heavy rain didn't stay over one area for too long. We were a little surprised that there wasn't more hail. Especially after the report near Akron earlier in the day.