Friday, May 2, 2008

Tonight's Storms Look Less Intense! Still Watching Closely

Good news on the storms. It still looks like a second line of thunderstorms will develop between 8 p.m. and 12 a. m. but they should not be as intense. Wind gusts of 45 mph and small hail will be the main threats. Big storms over Arkansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee are robbing our cold front of needed moisture to fire up the bigger storms here at home. So remember the big three in severe weather forecasting: LIFT, MOISTURE, AND INSTABILITY...Our moisture is now cut-off and the instability will be held in check by mostly cloudy skies. We will have some lift with our cold front tonight so we will remember our lightning safety rules and track those storms with you!

If anything changes which can always happen in Indiana I will check back and of course have the latest on the news tonight!

This latest update is of course in agreement with the National Weather Service offices we work closely with during big weather events. We like to talk to each other along with many of the area emergency management agencies before issuing public statements, discussions, and even blog updates. Remember severe weather is all about teamwork. We will continue to keep our eyes to the sky and work together!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well the Indianapolis weather office's latest discussion said the same thing about an hour ago.

Anonymous said...

Hey everyone I would still keep an eye out on things...CAPE is starting to really rise up towards Chicago and is spreading this way. The super cell and tornado indices are rising almost over a 1 tornado indice here in Lafayette and already over a 1 in the northern viewing area with super cell index approaching 2 also. These values will likely continue to rise as sunlight starts to break out in this area shortly. Still several hours of heating potential remain for today.

Not out of the woods yet.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the update Mike. Keep us informed. I hope we have a quiet evening too. Looks quiet on maps to me right now too, but you are the one with the degree and the technology in front of you! Thanks for doing a great job.

Anonymous said...

Mike's doing a good job and working hard for everyone around here.

What I see right now:

The Chicago area and surrounding area up by Lake Michigan is really looking more and more like it will go severe and even tornadic later today. That energy is slowly getting down this way. There are good lapse rates and the LI is approaching -2 right now, it's -3 up that way and climbing. There is 1000 SBCAPE up there already spreading into northern Indiana and we're almost at 500 in Lafayette. Hey, these numbers aren't that impressive yet but there are still 3-4 hours of daytime heating and they will only climb.

Southern Lake Michigan area I would really watch out this evening though it's been sunny up by Chicago for a few hours now and the threat there is really building.

Anonymous said...

Finally, if you look out to the west now at 4:45 you can see sunshine and cloud tops building, even though it's still technically clouding right now in Lafayette itself.

Also need to pray for those people in the Kansas City area last night and especially Arkansas today. Looks like Tennessee is poised to get hit next down that way.

Anonymous said...

Mike will keep us informed, for that is his profession! I trust in him, however I trust in him however he cannot trust mother nature