// October 24th, 2011 // No Comments » // General Information
Another reason I’ve slacked off on the website, we welcomed a new addition to the family on September 22, 2011 with Keatyn Storm being born. Ironically it was not my idea for the middle name of Storm, rather that was my wonderful wife’s idea. Either way, here is one of the pictures I took as a part of his 1 month photo shoot we did at home.
// October 12th, 2011 // No Comments » // Photography
I realize it has been a long while since my blog here had an update and I’ll explain more of that in the future, but for now here is a quick panoramic of a thunderstorm this afternoon just north/east of Gardner, KS:
// August 19th, 2011 // No Comments » // Severe Weather, Weather Recap
Several severe thunderstorms developed across eastern Nebraska, far southeast South Dakota and far western Iowa yesterday afternoon and evening. These thunderstorms made the trek southeastward through the evening and overnight, slowly expanding into a large bow echo as it moved south into eastern Kansas and western Missouri.
Many of the initial storms over Nebraska and Iowa featured the threat of very large hail with 3 separate reports of softball sized hail including one at Omaha Eppley Airfield which injured a pilot. At least one tornado occurred over Antelope county in northeast Nebraska, this storm was oriented to the west of the initial broken line of thunderstorms. It ingested a very unstable air mass with greater than 4000 J/kg of instability and utilized 45-55 knots of bulk shear and an increasing 0-1km shear of 15-25 knots to produce the only tornado of the day. As the storms began to congeal into what would become the bow echo the highest measured wind gust of the day occurred at Omaha Eppley Airfield as a 92 mph gust blew through at 7:30pm. The combination of very large hail and this extreme straight lines winds force the airport to shut down for a short period. Two composite radar images from 5:25pm (softball sized hail near Eppley) and 7:30pm (92 mph measured wind gust) are below respectively and you can see all of the reports from the Omaha NWS office here:
Severe Storms August 18, 2011 – Omaha NWS
The initial thunderstorm that produced softball sized hail in Omaha and Council Bluffs continued to trek southeast during the evening, arriving into northwest Missouri ~7pm. This storm moved into Nodaway County, including the cities of Clyde and Maryville where quarter to golf ball sized hail combined with straight line winds of 80-100 mph to cause extensive damage to areas around both of those cities and other surrounding ones as well. Below is a composite radar image from 7:30pm when the hail and significant damaging winds were occurring:
Reports of windows on both the north and west sides of at least 1 home and a church being destroyed were recieved, along with numerous trees and power poles down and at least 1 roof removed from a building along with other damaging buildings. You can see a few photos from Maryville along with a complete list of reports from the Kansas City NWS office here:
August 18, 2011 Damage – NWS Kansas City
The storms continued to travel south, even expanding both west and east of the Kansas City Metro as it bowed out into the city. Damage was reported in St. Joseph, MO as it ripped through, followed by multitudes of trees and power lines among other things being damaged throughout the Kansas City Metro. At one time at least 50,000 people were without electricity from KCP&L across the region, of which at least 8000 would remain without power for the remainder of the night. The two strongest wind reports from within the Kansas City metro occurred at approximately the same time, one from within the powerful storm near Roeland Park, KS and Prairie Village, KS areas and the other along the leading edge to the east of Spring Hill, KS. It was an estimated 80 mph wind gust near Roeland Park and Prairie Village that appeared to cause the most significant damage around the metro; while a measured 86 mph occurred from an automated station near 199th Street and Pflumm. Two snapshots of the radar from last night, at 10:35pm and 11:45pm respectively are below:
You can see all of the storm reports from the region along with archived radar imagery and warnings via the IEM Local Storm Report Application.
// August 9th, 2011 // No Comments » // General Information, Weather Recap
All of the records have been submitted for the month of July and it is no surprise that it preliminarily goes down as one of the warmest and driest ones on record for the Central Plains. I’m going to be taking a closer look at what Kansas and Missouri handled during the month of July and throw out a few statistics that were made available by NOAA.
Kansas experienced one of the warmest July’s on record, with the south-central section of the state actually recording the warmest July on record. Another 7 sections of the state were well above average with both high and low temperatures consistently coming in much warmer than the latest 1980-2010 climatological average. Only north-central Kansas came in at just above normal, rather than much above normal or record setting heat. Early month precipitation saved the state from having one of the driest months on record, with the latter half of July coming in with very little precipitation across most of the state. Northwest Kansas was able to actually remain above normal for precipitation in July, while most of southern, central and eastern portions of the state ending up near or below normal.
One interesting note, the south-central climate region which includes Kansas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas recorded its’ warmest month on record for any climate region with an average temperature of 86.1 degrees; this beat the previous record of 85.9 that was set in July 1980 by the same climate region.
What about Missouri? How did they stack up? Well all 8 climate sections of Missouri came in well above normal for the month of July, undoubtedly making it ones of the hottest July’s statewide. Precipitation also came in below normal for most of the state, with the northwest section the only portion remaining near normal for precipitation. See the maps for the entire United States below:
// August 8th, 2011 // No Comments » // General Information
I have no doubt let the Blog go a little bit as of late, with the latest update coming over 3 weeks ago! It has been a very busy time this summer, enjoying time with my family and preparing for our new addition that will be coming in late September as well as spending time with friends and other family throughout the past few months.
Just because I haven’t put an official update on the blog doesn’t mean you can’t keep track of what is going on and get general updates on the weather around me. Be sure to follow me on Twitter @SeverePlains which has been a successful endeavor over the past few months.
As far as future plans, another detail I’ve been keeping busy with in the new Severe Plains website and blog that will come your way this Fall. I will continue to push updates to Twitter and will soon begin to dive into the world of Google+ on a regular basis; for those of you only on Facebook I have thought of beginning a specific page for SeverePlains however I am still doing some thinking regarding those details.
Hope you’re enjoying the summer too!
// July 22nd, 2011 // No Comments » // General Forecast, Severe Weather, Weather Recap
The Kansas City Metro has had seven straight days with a temperature of 95 degrees or higher, with New Century Airport here by Gardner reporting temperatures of 97 degrees or higher (the past six days have been 99 degrees or higher). The heat has just continued over the Southern Plains, with areas of Oklahoma and Texas breaking records for consecutive days above 100 degrees (in some areas well over two weeks straight). This heat is now expanding eastward, pushing over the East Coast with temperatures into the 100s and records are already falling there as well. The latest record is the all-time record in Newark, NJ where they have reached 106 degrees already as of 2pm Eastern.
Relief is on the way for areas of the Northern Plains and some parts of the Central Plains as the upper level pattern changes slightly into a more zonal flow and a few upper level waves allow a cold front to move south into Kansas and Missouri late this weekend. Temperatures won’t decrease a lot, but the lower to mid 90s will certainly feel much cooler than the past week has. As warmer air returns by midweek the temperatures will rise back up into the mid to upper 90s for the Kansas City Metro, but those temperatures in reality are to be expected for late July.
Along with the heat has came dry conditions across quite a few areas of Kansas and Missouri, unfortunately even with the cold front widespread precipitation is not expected. Isolated to widely scattered thunderstorms are to be expected near and behind the cold front this weekend and perhaps into early next week for some areas.
In regards to severe weather, the Northern Plains season has been well underway for the past week as weak waves rode across the Dakotas, Minnesota and even southern Canada to provide beautifully slow-moving supercells and tornadoes. This regime will continue for at least the next two days with a moderate risk currently out for areas of far eastern Montana and the western Dakotas today; then another strong potential for severe weather (including tornadoes) tomorrow over central Minnesota into Wisconsin.
// July 16th, 2011 // No Comments » // General Forecast
Heat Advisories or Excessive Heat Warnings have been issued for nearly all of the central United States, stretching from the Dallas-Fort Worth area northward through Kansas City and St. Louis, through the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metro and clear to the Canadian border. Temperatures will soar into the 90s and 100s with dew points in the 70s leading to heat indices anywhere from 100-115 degrees. What can make these temperatures and heat indices worse? A prolonged period, at least 5-7 days in some areas of these temperatures and heat indices.
Wind speeds across most of these areas are not expected to be very strong, especially across the Central Plains, leading to little available relief during the afternoon. With mostly sunny skies and wind speeds less than 10 mph most surfaces will become very hot, one of those times where you’ll see the tar on the roads nearly become liquid! Stay cool… The first hint of relief may come by the weekend when at least a small trough will try to push into the Plains, however this feature currently isn’t expected to make much of an impact south of Nebraska/Iowa. This will be the feature to watch though, I’ll throw an update out mid-week or so for a progress report on when the heat may come to an end.
Kansas City NWS is comparing this heat wave to the ones in 1983 and 1987, in 1983 the heat wave lasted for two weeks while the 1987 heat wave lasted for one week.
Take a look at the maximum heat indices expected by the HPC over the upcoming week:
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| Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
// July 10th, 2011 // No Comments » // General Forecast
It is hot outside! That pretty much sums up the forecast for most areas along the Central Plains for today and tomorrow.. Temperatures ranging from 91 to 110 across areas of Kansas and Missouri this afternoon with an image below to show you where that hot spot is, centered near Wichita, KS. These hot conditions look to continue through the day tomorrow and even into Tuesday for most places with temperatures approaching 100 or higher in some locals, heat indices will push well above 100 and even up to 115 or more!
Heat advisories or Excessive Heat Warnings have been posted for nearly the entire states of Kansas and Missouri, with other neighboring states also getting in on the action too. I’ll throw in two more images below from the latest 20km NAM showing temperatures at 4pm central for both Monday and Tuesday. Along with these hot and humid conditions comes some bad air quality, with both Kansas City and St. Louis Metropolitan areas having air quality that is projected to be unhealthy for sensitive groups including elderly and children. Please watch your outdoor activities and keep cool!
// July 8th, 2011 // No Comments » // General Forecast, General Information, Severe Weather, Weather Recap
Seems like I have once again been rather lacking in my updates, sorry again. It seems as if the weather has been rather typical for this time of year, with a weak frontal boundary or disturbance moving across the area being able to produce widespread showers and thunderstorms at times. Occasional severe weather continues to be possible with large hail and damaging winds the main threats. Heavy rains, as typical with most summertime convection, continue to hamper areas along the Missouri River valley and even the Mississippi and other local rivers to an extent. Temperatures have actually been above normal for many areas of the Central Plains with high temperatures well into the 90s and even the 100s for areas of central and western Kansas. All of this looks to continue for the next week or so as temperatures soar once again this weekend and early next week, then another frontal boundary may approach the area by the middle of next week…
The Missouri River continues to lead weather headlines in most situations with the continual over-topping or failure of multiple non-federal levees occurring since my last update on the subject. The latest levee that has become irrelevant is one located in Carroll County, Missouri just southwest of Carrolton which over-topped around 10pm tonight. Additional non-federal levees throughout this area of west-central Missouri look to overtop in the coming week, so as waters slowly rise with any local rainfall they may each one by one give way to the continued flooding along the Missouri River. Most of these being non-federal it is up to the locals to try and support these levees with their resources, with stories of neighbors joining together to patch low areas and build up additional support where needed.
The city of Watson, MO was forced out for the second time earlier this week as waters once again began to rise nearby. Other small towns along the river up and down the river have been overcome by the waters, forced to leave their homes with the idea of returning to a landscape that will probably not look like the one that they had left. With flood waters staying this high for not just days or weeks, but months the entire landscape will likely change in some areas with deposited silt and debris piling up in some locations as the water subside later this fall. Larger cities along the river have thus far faired okay, with their flood management systems and levees holding back any significant flooding. The battle is still far from over, with over a month of high water likely left for these areas any localized rainfall can still pose significant risk to people along the river.
A couple of dry days look likely through the weekend here in Kansas City, with the potential for rain remaining to our north and west until perhaps mid-week next week. Another deluge of heat and humidity does look likely though early next week…
// June 29th, 2011 // No Comments » // General Information, Storm Chasing
Thought I would do a little technology summary based upon the recent release of PC Magazine’s results of their 21 city and rural area testing of mobile networks throughout the CONUS. The PC Mag test incorporated 6000 miles of driving through 21 different metro cities testing both the 3G and 4G networks of AT&T, Cricket, MetroPCS, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon with 16 different phones. Their results included a look at the average and maximum speeds for upload/download, the success percentage of achieving 3G speed (144Kbps) and success percentage of streaming voice/music and the all important video streaming (for chasers at least). All of these results were combined for a Mobile Speed Index (MSI) that took into account each of these factors, the Mobile Speed Index is weighted to 40% download speeds, 20% upload speeds, 20% 3G success percentage, 10% audio/video streaming (at 100Kbps & 400Kbps respectively) and 10% video streaming (at 400Kbps). In summary it was found that Verizon’s speeds blew away other competition with the metro markets, seeing as 20 of 21 of them have Verizon’s 4GLTE that doesn’t arrive as much of a surprise. But, for chasers you won’t find yourself, or hopefully not find yourself, chasing in/near a major metro area; so it is time to delve into their results of a few select metro areas in tornado alley as well as the all important rural areas over the open Plains.
The first metro stop: Kansas City, MO
Kansas City is the only metro network tested that doesn’t feature Verizon’s 4G LTE network and for that reasons ends up being the only metro area that Verizon doesn’t take home the prize in. AT&T takes home the prize with the fastest MSI score of 85, with both Sprint 4G and T-Mobile close behind; Verizon’s 3G takes 4th place overall, but a closer examination reveals a few details that chasers may want to take note of.
The success rate of a 3G speed was very good (above 85%) for all carriers except the Sprint 3G network which showed up with a dismal 37 percent! Even more interesting is comparing the further right column on the chart above, the video stream success, where the top MSI scorer AT&T was actual worst with a success rate of less than 15%. Verizon’s 3G actual led the pack with a 82% success rate with Sprint 4G just behind with a 76% success rate. Thus, despite the slower speed it would appear that the reliability of video streaming comes much better with Verizon than other networks.
Next up: Oklahoma City, OK
The proclaimed mecca of storm chasing and severe weather is just 1 of the 20 other cities that Verizon’s 4G network blew away the competition in regards of pure speed, a closer look at the details does reveal a bit of a flaw. The success rate for 3G speeds was very good for Verizon (both 3G & 4G), T-Mobile and AT&T where they all featured a 96% or better rate. Download speeds with the 4G LTE network appear just crazy at times, prompting an 8.7Mbps average an a whopping 15.68Mbps maximum; upload speeds were fast, but not as separated from the other networks.
The all important video stream success rate shows a potential flaw for the Verizon 4G network where it raked in a surprisingly low score of 82.6%, however the 3G network with Verizon carried a 96% success rate that actually led the pack. Would be interesting to find out what exactly is causing this lower success in the faster 4G network. Both AT&T and Cricket also featured good success rates while Sprint took a dive with only 61.5% success rate.
The last metro: Dallas, TX
Another metro which showed off the Verizon 4G network brought in another whopping score for the MSI and even more amazing download speeds with a 15.75Mbps average and a 37.66Mbps maximum!! Once again upload speeds were much closer for all of the networks, typically in the 1-2Mbps range. The Dallas metro is full of towers and was the fastest wireless city tested with Verizon 4G, Sprint 4G, MetroPCS and AT&T all racking up 100% success rates on achieving 3G speeds.
To the all important video streaming success rates Verizon backed up its’ speeds with a solid 93.8% and 85.7% rate for 4G and 3G respectively. The MetroPCS network actually was tops in Dallas ahead of Verizon, then AT&T and Sprint brought up the rear once again. Through the 3 metro cities it appears to be safe that Verizon took the cake with its’ speeds and the overall success rates for video streaming with an average of 88% success on both the 3G and 4G networks, MetroPCS came in at 83%, followed by AT&T, Sprint & T-Mobile all around 56-58%.
The All-Important: Rural Central
The PC Mag folks kept testing along their way between Metro cities from Chicago to St. Louis to Kansas City, passing through Wichita and Oklahoma City to Dallas and then finally west along I-20 through the rest of Texas. Obviously 4G hasn’t made it out into the country, so the 3G networks of AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon were put to the test to see who had the better coverage, speed and streaming success. According to their MSI score it was AT&T who came out on top, followed by T-Mobile, Verizon and then Sprint bringing up the rear. This was likely due to the higher speeds for both of the AT&T and T-Mobile networks where they managed to bring in a greater than 2Mbps average download. However, when checking that 3G success rate to show how often you could lose that data signal you see that T-Mobile only managed a 36.87% rate where as AT&T and Sprint featured a near 70% rate and Verizon led the pack with a 83.83% rate. This success rate seemed to translate towards video success as well, where Verizon took first once again at just under 82%, AT&T and Sprint both had ~60% rates and T-Mobile finished with a slacking 34%.
In the end it does appear that all of the talk of Verizon and their stable network pays off with a solid connection and stable streaming capabilities throughout the Plains. While localized areas may have trouble, that will come with any network, and this latest test by PC Magazine shows just how sweet it may be as 4G continues to expand over the coming seasons. You can take a look at the entire results with more details on other metro cities and other rural areas of the west, southeast and northeast at the full article.
Let me know what you think, is Verizon truly the top dog when it comes to data reliability and streaming capability?
