Tuesday, June 20, 2006

For The Weather Geeks!

Take a look at the graph (meteogram) below to see what a heat burst is all about! Can you imagine the temperature going from 75 to 91 in a matter of minutes... at 6:00 AM!!! It happened this morning in Nebraska. Below the graph is the Special Weather Statement that was issued by the National Weather Service....
SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HASTINGS NE
516 AM CDT TUE JUN 20 2006

NEZ061-062-074-075-201100-
ADAMS-BUFFALO-HALL-KEARNEY-
516 AM CDT TUE JUN 20 2006

...THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN HASTINGS HAS ISSUED A SIGNIFICANT WEATHER ALERT FOR ADAMS...BUFFALO...HALL AND KEARNEY COUNTIES...

STRONG WINDS ARE POSSIBLE FROM HEAT BURST OVER ADAMS...BUFFALO...HALL AND KEARNEY COUNTIES

AT 440 AM...STRONG WINDS AND A RAPID BUT BRIEF WARMING SPIKE IN TEMPERATURES OCCURRED IN KEARNEY IN BUFFALO COUNTY. A SIMILAR SPIKE IN TEMPERATURE ALONG WITH STRONG WINDS OCCURED IN GIBBON AT 512 AM. THIS RARE WEATHER PHENOMENON CALLED A HEAT BURST WILL CONTINUE TO BE POSSIBLE OVER BUFFALO...HALL...KEARNEY...AND ADAMS COUNTY THROUGH 600 AM.

HEAT BURSTS ARE CAUSED BY DECAYING THUNDERSTORMS AND ONLY DEVELOP IN AN EXTREMELY UNIQUE ENVIRONMENT. THE RARE SETUP FOR A HEAT BURST IS DRY AIR DIRECTLY BENEATH A WEAKENING ELEVATED THUNDERSTORM. WHEN A THUNDERSTORM IS WEAKENING AIR WITHIN THE THUNDERSTORM BEGINS TO SINK. IF THIS SINKING AIR IS VERY DRY AND HIGH ENOUGH IT WILL BEGIN TO ACCELERATE TOWARD THE GROUND SINCE IT IS MORE DENSE. ANY REMAINING PRECIPITATION WILL FALL THROUGH THIS DRY AIR AND QUICKLY EVAPORATE. AS THE AIR CONTINUES DOWNWARD...IT WARMS RAPIDLY DUE TO COMPRESSION.

WINDS AROUND 50 TO 55 MPH ARE EXPECTED.

That's crazy weather folks!
Ryan
rvaughan@kait8.com

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, just from a woman's point of view, I'd suppose that more than a few women living there in Nebraska of a "certain age" (my age)just thought that they were having heat flashes...but hopefully they learned the true situation from their meteorologists!
This reminds me of those weather stories about frogs falling from the sky, etc...
An example of Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction sometimes in weather!
Love, Mom

Diane@Diane's Place said...

Okay.....I've heard of downbursts, but heat bursts are a new one on me. Wonder if the downsloping winds of mountains have to be involved, or if it can happen anywhere with those weather parameters they described? Hmmmm........ Freaky is right!!

Diane

Anonymous said...

Geeks!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the shout-out! I'm so misunderstood.