National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Intensifying Storm Moving Across the Plains; Heavy Rain in Florida; River Flooding in the Southwest

An intensifying storm system will move into the Plains today, bringing strong winds, locally heavy rain, and scattered severe thunderstorms with a risk of damaging wind gusts and a few tornadoes. Heavy rainfall and isolated flash flooding will continue across eastern and southern Florida. Moderate to major river flooding will continue today across the Southwest and Four Corners Region. Read More >

Automatically generated image showing areas of energy helicity index.

 

Thumbnail of an automatically generated image showing areas of energy helicity index. Thumbnail of an automatically generated image showing areas of energy helicity index. Thumbnail of an automatically generated image showing areas of energy helicity index.
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EHI 

The Energy Helicity Index (EHI) is a number which represents the combination of instability and storm relative helicity.  Our calculation uses mixed layer CAPE (surface to 3000ft average parcel) and 0-3 km storm relative helicity.  Values greater than 2 or 3 have been correlated to cyclonic supercells with increased tornadic potential.  Negative values are indicative of an environment favorable for anti-cyclonic (left moving) supercells, but tornadoes associated with anti-cyclonic supercells are extremely rare.

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