June 18
A bit more excitement around here today.
By noon things had begun to bubble up out in the foothills and by 2 there was a line of thunderstorms banging away just southwest of here. Not a lot of zing to anything I saw today, and we got nothing more than 10mm of soft rain but there was likely some hail around too, weathermod’s hail planes were out seeding most of the afternoon. I expected more out of the storms today with the nice southeast breeze, but it was a cool day, not reaching 20C before the first line rolled over and quickly dropped the temps down to the low teens, ending the show for the day.
There was some nice eye candy out there if you are a cloud watcher. Around 4:30, amazing mammatus with the biggest mams I have seen around these parts suddenly appeared under the anvil of a little cell to the south and within 10 minutes were gone.
Sounds like sunny for the next few days, the crops around here certainly do need it.
Looks like I may be the only one to have seen anything wild today. Sure a little rain but more 80kmh winds, and today the lighting was very close, and very loud.
June 19th, 2008 at 12:26 amhttp://youtube.com/watch?v=qRVyWJmOpjU
Took a look at the GFS and NAM models today and it looks like (if things don’t change) that Sunday is going to be an active day here in Alberta. Most of the action looks to be in Edmonton and areas N of the city. The CAP is showing as high as 2500 J/kg which I think is one of the highest this year in Alberta.
I won’t be making the trip N to the Edmonton area on Sunday but will be heading either NW or SE of the city of Calgary (I’ll have to watch the models and radar that day before I make that call) where the CAP is reading around 1000 J/kg which is significantly lower but still is high enough for some good storms.
If the dewpoints get high then maybe we’ll have a busy day.
June 20th, 2008 at 9:26 pmEarlier with the NAM/WRF it showed 3200 j/kg near Drayton Valley for tomorrow, along with wind shear at aobut 35-40 knts and dew points in the 60’s, which meant a tornadic threat was there, but now with the update it appears to be crap..I hope tomorrow morning’s update is something interesting because I was really looking forward to tomorrow.
@PC, CAP or CINH is the Convective Inhibition, which is bad to have a lot of because if there is a lot, then the harder it is for storms to form. What you meant was CAPE, which is Convective Available Potential Energy, which means the more there is, the better.
Sorry about this whole lesson thing, I just didn’t want you to mess up in another place and people pondering what you meant if they don’t know. No hard feelings?
June 20th, 2008 at 10:03 pmOh no, no hard feelings. I don’t know why I forgot the E in CAPE haha, I guess those 14 hour days are catching up to me! I love learning about storms and any advice helps. I’m still a pup when it comes to chasing!
Let hope everything comes together and we get some big one firing up!
June 21st, 2008 at 5:14 amI hope you’re right Prairie Chaser for Sunday. They’ve really scaled back the instability but who knows, heres hoping. Although Iunderstand general meteorology, trying to nail down these storms ahead of time is a tricky one that others are better at. We are due for a big one to come down the Bow Valley
June 21st, 2008 at 12:12 pmWonder why so dry at the low levels?
June 21st, 2008 at 12:14 pmEverything is extra green, lots of puddles laying around.
It’s Alberta, ya never know what’s next.
I know this is far out, but you guys have to check out next sunday. 2900 j/kg(CAPE) 44 knt deep layer shear, -6 lift dew points at 60F(15 degrees celsius) temperatures around the same as today. I think theres a big tornado threat for next sunday.
June 21st, 2008 at 7:51 pmLooks to be a quiet day today and I say boo to that. My only day off and I won’t get to chase.
June 22nd, 2008 at 8:19 amQuiet? No no no. Thing’s haven’t even started yet. Take a look at the PASPC discussion, they pretty much indicate the same set-up that Pine lake had. I would say at around 2 pm thing’s will heat up.
June 22nd, 2008 at 9:57 amSerious? I’ll go check now! Thanks for the heads up!
June 22nd, 2008 at 11:36 amSame setup as Pine Lake?? Not sure how you get that.
June 22nd, 2008 at 1:02 pmIt’s not even 10C at 1pm.
EC still saying 21 for a high.
It better clear off soon if thats gonna happen.
Yeah I can’t see anything happening right now. There is abit of convection in the skies around Calgary. The sun is out tso maybe there is a still a chance. We’ll see what the afternoon brings I guess.
June 22nd, 2008 at 1:29 pmWell, maybe nothing happened that was crazy for us, but Viking, Alberta got a Tornado touch down yesterday. Viking is SE of Edmonton if you didn’t know. I knew with what the PASPC discussion said(40 knt deep layer shear) there would be a touchdown somewhere. Well let’s hope next week can make-up for it. GFS is hinting our Storm season to kick off really good by the begining of next week. 2000-3000 j/kg, about 45 knt shear and dew points at around 15 degrees celsius.
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:17 pmWhere did you hear of a tornado in Viking?
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:46 pmThey didn’t make it past 15C yesterday.
Definetly not supercellular, it was most likely a weak cold core touchdown, or a landspout.
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:08 pmYeah I heard it was a landspout. Uprooted some trees and tore a shead down. Still some excitement. I heard it was in a different town then Viking though. I hear it was just NE of Red Deer. Either way it was something. Today I saw two big Dust Devils in the SW of Calgary. The one I swear when up nearly 100 ft! That was my excitement for the day.
Oh yeah. and lets start this season off already!!!!!
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:34 pmWhere are you guys hearing this?
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:45 pmI haven’t heard a thing about it.
It’s been all over TWN Pat. Someone took a picture of it and stuff..Also I meant to say NEAR Viking. Nonetheless it was still something. GFS shows this weekend and next week to be active here in Alberta. Dew points are on the rise from 50(what they are now) to 65F by wednesday. Wednesday also appears to be a nice supercell day as the temperature reaches 90-95F across Alberta, and CAPE values are at 3200+. This will obviously change because it always does, and it is far out..but who knows, we’ll have to see. The heatwave is still in the forecast.
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:52 pm