Number Of Storm Reports Most Since 2000 In Wake Of Latest Storm System
Looking at the Storm Prediction Center’s web site this Wednesday morning, there was welcome relief with no severe storms forecast although there is a mild storm system moving through Northeastern Illinois, Northern Indiana, Northern Ohio, and Northwestern Pennsylvania. However, it is considered a brief respite as another storm system is taking shape in the Western portion of the United States, and is expected to have some sort of severe weather impact later this week.
Let’s not forget this latest storm system though, which produced the most severe weather reports in a single day since 2000 on Monday with over 1,300. From Texas to extreme Southeastern Pennsylvania, there was a broad swath of severe weather with a total of 1,377 reports consisting of 1,245 high wind reports, 89 hail reports, and 43 tornado reports according to data collected by the SPC. Thankfully, there weren’t as many tornadoes, but there was still a lot of damage from the straight line winds. Commenting on why there was more straight line wind damage than tornado damage from this storm system, Severe Weather Analyst for the Weather Channel, Dr. Greg Forbes, stated that there was a warm air cap in the atmosphere that prevented the towering supercell thunderstorms from developing. So when, the cold front approached, a great deal of energy was released as just straight line winds.
The storm system, which had already produced 324 such storm reports by early Monday morning, had more reports of wind damage in one day than what had been experienced on average for the entire month of April from 2000 to 2009. The reports also comprised of about 40 percent of the previous 10 year average total for the month of April. As the storm system pushed eastward toward the coast including New Jersey, the severe weather threat tailed off with only 52 reports of severe weather including one just off the tip of South Jersey.
On Sunday, there were 330 storm reports including 255 documented cases of hail. Twenty-one of those hail sightings had large hail. In the Northeast, there was a brief downpour of rain along with gusty winds, but the big impact in this region by the storm was what was left behind, cold air as temperatures plummeted down to chilly levels on Tuesday night.