I have lived most of my life without ever having a Tornado Warning issued where I reside.
Within 6 weeks, I have now had 2 tornado warnings issued for my area. When the advisory from the NWS lists the name of your town, that is a bit disconcerting. In today's warning event, the clouds did appear ominous upon the approach of the storm. However, I did not believe at the time that tornadoes were of major concern as opposed to the heavy rain that was imminent. I also observed a "hail signature" on the Doppler Radar with the approaching rain shield. As sure as Charlie getting tossed for arguing balls and strikes, quarter sized hail arrived here in Etters for a brief period, but pea and dime sized hail fell for ~10 minutes! This was the greatest amount of hail I observed at my abode (at least when I was able to directly observe). My sunflowers did not do well with the gusty winds and more importantly the hail. Within a half hour, we received just over an inch of rain. The total amount of rain in an hour's time was 1.34"! Thankfully, lightning was a non-issue with this severe storm. This is a very brief (amateur) video of the hail falling from the sky....sorry, didn't film very well....obviously very, very amateur!
The rains the last few days in the Harrisburg area were tropical in nature thanks to very high dewpoints. The map below shows the dewpoints for Sunday afternoon. Note how the sticky air gets quickly replaced as the 2nd map shows the dewpoints for early Wednesday morning. This will be very refreshing air compared to what we have just experienced.
In fact, the dewpoints in the Laurel Highlands might be below freezing! Quite dry air for this time of year.
This air is being ushered in on northwesterly winds both aloft and at the surface as the map below shows the predicted winds for Monday afternoon.
Along with drier air, much cooler air will quickly advect southeastward from the Great lakes region. The 2 maps below depict the lows tonight and the highs Monday.
The low to mid 70s sound awfully nice for max temps....don't ya think?
As for further down the road, it appears that a trough will dig into the western US which will allow for higher heights and warmer temps to come back into the northeast. There is quite a bit of heat down in the SW US as evidenced by the extensive drought TX, NM, and AZ. That heat could make a run at the east, but it should not move out of the southeast US. That being said, we will still run temps above normal, probably through the end of June. So enjoy the brief respite in warm temps this week.
The Euro is on the left; the GFS on the right. Note the trough in the Rockies on both models.
In closing, the Triple Crown races are now over this spring as a long shot won the Belmont Stakes. I played the speed horse Shackleford thinking that he might be able to open a large lead with a "speed-free' race. However, the field remained relatively close to the pace setter and Ruler on Ice closed down the stretch and crossed the wire paying his backers $51.50 for every $2 win wager. If you were lucky enough to have the 3-2 exacta, you were stylin' with a $928 reward! Wow!
Enjoy your in-service days.....ugh!
Smitty
AA: Nasty storm today just like you had Saturday evening. Then a nice refreshing break in the heat and humidity for a few days. Heat returns by next week. I should've boxed my 2-3-4 in the Belmont Stakes!
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