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Severe Thunderstorms in the East Sunday; Excessive Heat Lingers in the Southern U.S. and Returning to California

Scattered damaging winds from severe thunderstorms will be possible across parts of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States Sunday. Excessive heat will continue over the southern U.S. Sunday before another round of heat arrives Monday through the central and southern U.S. spreading into the East by Independence Day. California will see excessive heat starting Tuesday. Read More >

Northern Indiana

Weather Forecast Office

July 26th, 2007 Supercell

Weather.gov > Northern Indiana > July 26th, 2007 Supercell

Severe storms wrack the area on July 26 2008

 

Isolated severe thunderstorms developed Thursday night over sections of the forecast area. The thunderstorms produced strong winds up to 70 mph, large hail, and heavy rainfall. The strongest storm developed over Branch county Michigan Thursday evening. Ample instability along with moderate wind shear (change in wind speed and direction with height) allowed the updraft of this thunderstorm to become intense. Strong rotation developed in this storm in response to the wind shear present, allowing the development of what is known as a supercell thunderstorm. This supercell thunderstorm dropped hail up to the size of golf balls along with wind gusts to 70 mph as it moved southeast into northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio. A funnel cloud was also observed with this storm just west of Edon Ohio at 843 pm EDT. Below are a few radar images taken from when the thunderstorm updraft was very intense. At this time the storm was producing golf ball size hail over Williams and Defiance counties.

5.1 degree reflectivity image
Very intense radar returns are evident in the above image. The large hail produced an intense return of 70 dbz at approximately 24,000 ft above the ground. Meteorologists correlate reflectivity to temperature levels aloft in determining hail potential.

 
7.9 degree reflectivity images
The above image displays radar reflectivity at about 35,000 ft above ground level. This image was taken about same time as the image above. Again, very “hard” returns of 60 dbz can be seen emanating from near the top of the thunderstorm right near the middle of the hail growth zone.

 

The following sequence of pictures shows the collapse of the hail core in western Defiance county. Also, evident on the left hand side of the first image is the echo free vault of the thunderstorm. An echo free vault is an attribute of a very intense thunderstorm as it indicates that the updraft is strong enough to suspend precipitation particles (such as hail) aloft for a long period of time.

 

A 3D rendering of this storm, at 840 pm EDT over Edon Ohio, below clearly shows the deep ice core within this intense supercell. Spiral indicates the intense mesocyclone occurring within the updraft and caught on video by storm chaser Steve Ferree. Note the brief funnel that develops below the base of this intense mesocyclone.

 

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