Weather geeks! I know you're out there!

[Zephyrbird]

I just posted yesterday on a weather geek thread, and then yesterday afternoon went to visit my brother.

At 8:00 p.m. we looked at the weather map because they had been predicting severe storms all day here in SW and mid-SE Michigan. Nothing on the radar AT ALL, so my brother (who lives east of Coldwater) said, ah, go on home.

I left his house, drove 20 minutes to Coldwater (going west), turned north on I69 and saw a few flashes and thought great! it'll rain on the garden. 20 miles later, a storm came up like a stormchaser's best dream.

It began with what I call crawling lightning, when a bolt starts in a cloud, crawls across the cloud base, and then breaks into multiple branches. No rain yet. For 20 minutes I was treated to a fabulous display of pretty numerous strokes, then all of a sudden all hell breaks loose (still no rain!) and lightning is strobing EVERYWHERE. It was like being in a disco in the 70s!

I listen on the radio, no warnings no watches, no nothing announced! The lightning became so intense I could see the leaves on the trees along the highway, and the continous outline of low hanging clouds. (yes, I was looking by this time for rotation) STILL NO RAIN.

I go another 10 minutes, and the lightning starts striking the ground in front of me and to either side, and the rain starts POURING. A real frog strangler. By this time my hands were getting pretty sweaty.

I think that's the most intense display of lightning I've ever seen. I've seen some real thrillers, but that one took the cake, and it blew up in a matter of 20 minutes, the fastest I've ever seen. There were two tornadoes, but they were 30-40 miles east of where I was.

I got home and the weather channel is talking about the storms, saying they "exploded" across lower SW and mid-Michigan.

Well, no sh*t sherlock! Eat your hearts out, fellow weather lovers!

[Zomby Woof]

1. *chomp chomp*

I don't have much of a heart to eat, but okay! :-)

[Lady Freedom]

2. Alright, I amit it!

I am a storm hunter honney! Nothing make my blood quicken like a good storm! And the lighting you call "crawling lightning" is also called cloud to cloud lighting.

Have you ever seen a tornado?

[rabid_nerd]

3. I have...

I've been flattened in a field by a wall cloud too, lol

[Lady Freedom]

4. I have been...

in 3! Got to love SW MO for the storms if nothing else!

[bamademo]

5. I used to work for TV meteorologists

I did weather graphics and got to play with the Doppler Radar. I love
severe weather.

[Raven]

6. Am I ever!

We are under a severe storm watch here in southern nh.I love them but they scare the crap out of my dogs! The big Newfoundland tries to get under the furniture which, of course, she can't fit under. So she ends up moving the furniture around.

[NeonLX]

7. Another Weather Geek

I used to have one of those little home meteorology kits when I was a kid. Built my own anemometer, barometer, etc.

Wish we could get some storms around here (southern Wisconsin). It's been dry as a bone for well over a month now. We're heading towards a drought as rainfall & snowfall have both been well below normal for several years now...

[Fovea]

8. By exploded

they mean there was a lid of hotter dry air that kept the warm moist air trapped down in the lower atmosphere. Then, the energy built up to such a level that it literally explodes up through the dry layer into the cold, where it condenses, and rises like a ballon... where it makes the traditional overshooting top and anvilhead... The chilled downdrafts cause what are called mammatous clouds (because meteorologists don't get out enough), and when you see them and an overshooting top, expect a wall cloud to follow, with the wall cloud, expect at least hail, maybe a tornado.

Then all hell breaks loose.
Come to Kansas City, you will see this a lot.
If you want it as a weekly experience, go to Tulsa in mid spring.

Typical sky colors are green, it seems, as the moisture hits the upper atmosphere, and purple as it starts to cool and comes thundering downward.