Frontal squall lines form just ahead of surface cold fronts and dry lines, and also ahead of upper-level fronts. If the necessary conditions exist, they may stretch to hundreds of miles in length. They may bring tornadoes and hail but they’re more commonly associated with strong straight-line winds. If the flow along a squall line
Read MoreHook echoes are meteorological phenomena named after their shapes. They’re created when vertical wind shear causes warm, moist air, sucked in by the unstable movements of a supercell thunderstorm, to mix with a different incoming channel of drier, cooler air. The shape they assume resembles a hook because the two streams of air aren’t mixing
Read MoreClouds at temperatures between 0 and -40C contain a mixture of ice crystals and super-cooled water. At colder temperatures, ice crystals prevail. Super-cooled water is responsible for the threat of aircraft structural icing, but at lower temperatures, this threat decreases. Because of the lack of super-cooled water, icing, other that of light intensity, is unlikely
Read MoreA microburst is a strong downward oriented wind usually associated with thunderstorms. These winds usually form within a cumulonimbus cloud that is mature and are often associated with heavy rain and perhaps along with hail. These winds can cause major issues such as crashes with airplanes during take-off and or landing. In an attempt to
Read MoreThe General Circulation Models (GCM) are weather forecast models that predict general weather patterns for many years out. Some of these models forecast out to 30 to 50 years. The main purpose is to run different variables to see what extent man impacts are on climate (Global Warming or Climate Change). One of the main
Read MoreThe winter of 2013-2014 is not quite over as the forecast models continue to show cold air masses that will continue to move down from the north and impact Midwest and East Coast of the US during the week of 2-24-2014. Just how cold was January 2014? According to this source, there were 4406 cold
Read MoreLenticular cloud formation (like photo above) are photo gems that we love to view. However, if you are in an airplane you probably want to avoid. These clouds can be found quite often in the mountain areas of Western US. They usually form when we have strong westerly winds aloft. The danger is in Rotor
Read MoreAtmospheric rivers (AR) are long and narrow bands of highly-concentrated moisture in association with winter storms and occur throughout the middle latitudes near major oceans. Thus the US West Coast is subject to this. The amount of moisture can be extreme especially when the air is forced up the mountains along the West Coast. How
Read MoreJanuary 6 and 7 of 2014 brought many record cold temperatures (F) and here is a very brief list: Chicago -16, Toledo -14, Cleveland -11, New York City +4, and Pittsburgh -9. Now (1-28 and 1-29) another arctic air mass is sweeping into the Southeast US and snow and ice storms will sweep across much
Read MoreMuch of our weather work is gathering historic weather data for clients and providing detailed analysis. It is certainly interesting looking at historic data and recreating what happened. However we do plenty of operational weather forecasting in United States and also on a worldwide basis. The main focus now is the cold weather experienced so
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