Friday, April 25, 2008

Keeping an Eye to the Sky


The first wave of storms which was the most dangerous has moved well north and west of Lafayette. This is the good news. Notice the tornado reports in Wisconsin just north of Madison and near Stevens Point. It is a good thing I called my relatives in the Badger state. My sister-in-law was on her way to the Brewers game. Shelli was certainly watching the sky a little closer after I got off the phone with her. Miller Park has a retractable roof so the Brewers game should go on, but it will be interesting to see how all of the glass at the stadium holds up in a hail storm that I am forecasting. Stay away from that glass Shelli!

Closer to home, I still think by time the storms arrive in our viewing area this squall line producing the severe weather you see above will weaken considerably. All the upper-level dynamics continue to quickly lift well to our north and west and now that we are losing a lot of the daytime heating, I will stand by the main threats being 45 mph wind gusts, small hail, and of course lightning. It should move our way between 9 p.m. and 12 a.m. so make sure to be prepared. We still cannot rule out a strong storm or two. I do not think we will have a severe thunderstorm watch box based on this latest Storm Prediction Center discussion map.

Isolated severe thunderstorms are expected in the orange area so the tornado watch may be extended in localized areas right on the Indiana-Illinois border. Here in Indiana we have a slight chance of a weather watch, but of course we will not let our guard down. I have a call into the Storm Prediction Center. Brian Smith, my old intern will update us here in a bit! Stay tuned for more updates!



6 comments:

Anonymous said...

And you were wrong again. Watch box already up before 8:30 tonight. Keep deleting posts.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Mike for keeping us updated, we appreciate your work. Please update the computer posts frequently tonight. The maps look nasty on www.weatherbug.com, my favorite site besides WLFI. I hope that front weakens as you say it will.

Anonymous said...

Great updates, ignore those who have no life but to say being off by a half hour is wrong, storms tonight, no real difference in 9pm and 8:30, keep up the great work and all you do for your community! Great weather special the other night too!

Anonymous said...

What a light show! As much as I would like to I am going to heed Mikes warnings and not look for purple lightning! The people North West and look like they really got hit hard! Nice litte storm we are getting right now!
A bit frightning, with the wind gusts.

Thanks for the updates Mike,

Teri in Lafayette

Anonymous said...

If all would read Mikes blogs close, he stated in this one,

"Here in Indiana we have a slight chance of a weather watch, but of course we will not let our guard down. And he was right!

Anonymous said...

Mike if I were you I would not delete the first post, just goes to show how quick people are to judge. And how many support and listen to you. You are just a human being and a great one at that! Thanks for trying to keep us safe from mother nature!