MikJournal Monday 11/06/2017...Severe Weather Season Part 2

Welcome to my journal this Monday morning. This guy had a long night, so Monday morning came early in 2 ways. I was up after midnight already with winds still rather gusty but calming down from an hour earlier when wind speeds at my house exceeded 50 mph, knocking power out to nearby subdivisions. I didn't get to bed until nearly 2:00 a.m. due to working with a couple of my neighbors in clearing our road of my neighbor's large limb that measured at least 8" in diameter at the fork and at least 30 feet in length. Then, 6:00 a.m. is what time I normally would rise and shine. Uh, yeah, right. Too early. Went back to bed for another hour.

There were no severe thunderstorm warnings issued by the NWS Louisville. At first, I could not understand why. I had only been asleep for about 30 minutes when I heard the winds roaring outside my window. I stepped out on the back porch and was impressed by the winds. However, there was no rain and no lightning. Yet, we were experiencing winds in excess of 50 mph along with regular gusts of 40-50 mph for up to 20-30 minutes. Quite a long time for even a severe thunderstorm.

Radar showed a band of storms just to my southwest and another band just north and northwest of my area. The NWS would call these high gusts of winds 'gradient winds'. Too much science this early in the day to try and explain. Yawn. Anyway, I had thought that perhaps a decaying line of nearby storms contributed to a rush of winds reaching the surface. But, even that would not typically last 30 minutes.

Here is a brief look at highest winds recorded around the state..



This event has proven to be the most damage my area has seen this year. And technically, it was not a storm. Any rain that would fall was well after I finally fell asleep and only amounted to a meager 0.03". Add that to the 0.01" between 10 and 11 p.m. last night and I have a drenching total of 0.04". Forecast for my area was about 0.75" to 1.00". However, there was a thin west to east line several miles long but only a few miles thick that registered similar amounts or recorded no rainfall at all. What a weird night.

Most of our region escaped severe thunderstorms. There were a couple of wind reports in western Kentucky. In southern Indiana, NWS survey teams are going to check out Washington and Orange counties to determine any tornadic signatures and damage. The bulk of the severe weather stayed mostly along and north of Indianapolis to Cleveland to parts of Pennsylvania.

Temperatures yesterday were very warm. Dewpoints in the 60's added a little more stickiness to the air, except the winds helped to alleviate that quite a bit. Louisville reached a high of 78. I saw a Mesonet site showing 80 degrees down state.

It appears that the next several days should feature below normal readings to help offset the blistering start to the month...ok, maybe not blistering, but still well above average.

However, I do not see any snowflakes in the near future. Teleconnections show a trough west ridge east type setup or at the very least a zonal component for the next week or so, which should bar any significant cold air intrusions that would have any staying power. So, low temperatures in the 20's and 30's is not unusual for November, just a shock to the senses after the nice weather we've had over the last few days.

As for extreme weather, I leave you with the findings of what caused the failure of Kelley Barnes Dam at Toccoa Falls, Georgia on November 6, 1977...
Dam Failure

National Weather Extremes...

November 06...
2006 - Nehalem, OR...11.77" (state 24-hr precipitation record)

November 11-12...
1980 - Key West Int'l Airport, FL...23.28" (official state 24-hr precipitation record)

Have a good week. Hopefully, a little more tranquil.

MS