Yesterday's Weather Stories

Today I received an email from Jennifer Rickwood of Preston, Md in Caroline County. So far there have been no official reports of tornadoes, but here is her story:

"On June 4, a terrible storm hit the Preston area in Caroline County. However, it was more than just any ordinary storm as some people think. My husband, Michael Rickwood, (of the Dorchester County Sheriff Department) took this picture of a tornado coming from the Choptank River into the southern part of the county. I was coming home and saw cars pulled off on the side of the road, Havercamp Rd, and quickly looked at the approaching storm. I hurried home only 1/4 more mile away and had difficulty getting out of the car. The wind forced my son and I back into the car. We finally got out and found that the power was out inside the house. I walked to the back window of our house and saw the tornado coming closer to our house. Water sprayed through our back windows and I thought for sure the windows were going to shatter. My husband put me and my children into the bathroom. He looked out the front of the house and saw a school bus, driven by ****** with approximately ten children still on board. My father in his truck was at the end of the driveway, ******, and his back was towards the tornado. He felt his truck lift and the bus driver said that the bus was rocking. The children and bus driver hovered down on the floor of the bus and when she knew she had to help the children she drove up to the house beside me, *******, and unloaded the children into the home for coverage and encouragement. The storm went into the town of Preston destroying trees and some buildings and caused power lines to go down.
I can tell you it was the most frightening storm I had ever witnessed and felt. My children will never forget."

Curious about the picture? It's really hard to tell, we can't mark tornado out of the question, but with the line of trees, there is no way to tell if it was touching ground or not. Also, without video, you can't tell if the storm was rotating or not. Perhaps a funnel cloud?

Rickwood was not the only one with a story. Here is another story sent in from CJ Wood of Ridgely, Md.

"Hey there guys, I would say good day but it's been the opposite of that! Very strong storms has been brewing and hitting my area constantly since 3pm today. It's almost 10pm and I'm getting hit by a nasty string! All day it's been nothing but heavy downpours with very limited visibility and flooding, very string wind gusts that has uprooted trees and fallen into buildings, constant close and dangerous lightning, and loud boomers. I live in Ridgely, MD(on the line of Denton). I was caught in the first very bad storm that issued tornado warnings on the western and eastern shore of Maryland. I tried beating the storm going home but it caught me in downtown Annapolis on the Eastport bridge. Visibilty was shorted to several feet at times with very strong winds. I spotted a wall cloud. I turned around and went into my bosses house a couple blocks away for shelter until it past."

STORM REPORTS AS OF 10 PM 6/4

4 N PRINCESS ANNE SOMERSET MD 3826 7570 NICKEL TO QUARTER SIZED HAIL IN SOMERSET COUNTY BETWEEN PRINCESS ANNE AND SALISBURY. (AKQ)

CENTREVILLE QUEEN ANNE'S MD 3904 7607 TREES DOWN (LWX)

4 S TILGHMAN ISLAND TALBOT MD - 58 MPH WIND GUST MEASURED AT SOUTHERN TIP OF TILGHMAN ISLAND. (PHI)

3 E ST. MICHAELS TALBOT MD - TREES AND WIRES DOWN REPORTED DOWN IN WHITTMAN. (PHI)

CHURCH CREEK DORCHESTER MD TELEPHONE POLES AND TREES KNOCKED DOWN ACROSS DORCHESTER COUNTY. PEA SIZED HAIL IN CHURCH CREEK. (AKQ)

CHESWOLD KENT DE - TREE REPORTED DOWN ON A HOUSE IS CHESWOLD. (PHI)

BETHANY BEACH SUSSEX DE - PUBLIC REPORTED CHIMNEY DAMAGE IN BETHANY BEACH. (PHI)

LEWES SUSSEX DE - 62 MPH WIND GUST REPORTED AT LEWES C-MAN STATION. (PHI)

60 MPH WIND GUST- PARSONSBURG WICOMICO MD (AKQ)

BRANCHES DOWN STRUCTURE DAMAGE - FRANKFORD, DE AT WEATHER WATCHERS HUNTER OUTTEN'S HOUSE

TREES DOWN IN CAMBRIDGE REPORTED BY WEATHER WATCHER KENNY WEATLEY

58 MPH WIND GUST WEST OF REHOBOTH BEACH SUBMITTED BY VIEWER EMAIL

PRINCESS ANNE QUARTER SIZE HAIL FOR SECOND TIME TODAY

Wet start to Wednesday, could it have a severe end?

The rain started last night, lasting into this morning. A few thunderstorms also moved across southern portions of Delmarva in the early morning hours. The rain totals below show the rain from the start last night's rain through the afternoon today. Melfa saw the most rain with 1.25". Some areas did stay a little more dry, check out Easton, only 0.18" of rain!

The first batch of rain is well off the coast, but showers and storms are still likely late in the afternoon and overnight. In fact, due to the stationary front, plenty of moisture, expected heating throughout the day and a few other factors, we are looking at an unstable atmosphere. Right now Delmarva is in the moderate risk for severe weather as depicted by the image below.
Tornado and flash flood watches, along with severe thunderstorm warnings have been issued throughout the morning for areas to the west of the Chesapeake Bay. So far (as of about 1 p.m.) Delmarva is not under any watches, warnings or advisories.

As these storms move into our area, strong to severe thunderstorms are possible. These storms may be capable of producing damaging winds, large hail and isolated tornadoes. Check back on our website through the afternoon for more updates.

Summer Weather On the Way

The first extended period of hot and humid weather looks to occur at the end of the week into at least early next week. But first we have some showers and storm potential. At the surface, there is a fontal boundary stalled out well to the North and West of Delmarva. Troughs of low pressure will ride along the front for about the next 24 hours or so providing the chance for showers. The air mass over Delmarva is moist and unstable so the potential for a few thunderstorms is not out of the question. Some storms could contain heavy rain and strong wind gusts. Conditions then improve during the day on Thursday.

Then high pressure at the surface and in the upper atmosphere will develop over the Southeast. This will allow the atmosphere to warm up enough to support high temperatures in the upper 80s to even lower 90s in the hotter spots. These temperatures will begin on Friday and continue into early next week and may continue after that as well. We should be dry most of the time but with this setup, daytime showers and storms may pop up with the strong daytime heating. If any strong Sea Breezes develop during this time period, areas a few miles inland from the ocean could see a shower or storm. Average high temperatures for this time period are around 80 degrees.

The latest tropical forecast from Dr. Gray

Since I was little I have been fascinated by hurricanes. Growing up, I always remember hearing about Dr. William Gray's tropical storm forecasts. What a cool job- being the meteorologist who tells the country how many tropical storms and hurricanes we can expect and having people look to him for the answers. If you're not familiar with Gray, he has been researching tropical meteorology for over 40 years and his forecast for the upcoming tropical storm season have been issued since 1984. Since 2000, Dr. Phil Klotzbach as worked along the side of Gray (they are both professors at Colorado State University.) Today their updated forecast for the 2008 Atlantic Hurricane Season was issued. First, let's recap the previous forecast for this season.

Their first forecast was put out on Decemeber 3rd. They were predicting 13 named storms, 7 hurricanes and 3 intense (category 3 or higher) hurricanes.

On April 9th, they issued their second forecast. At this point they upped the number of named storms to 15, hurricanes to 8 and intense hurricanes to 4.

Today, in their third forecast, they kept everything the same as their previous forecast. Note, the 15 named storms do include Tropical Storm Arthur.

Not only do Gray and Klotzbach issued their tropical storm forecast, but NOAA also issues one of their own. Recapping from previous blogs, NOAA is predicting 12-16 named storms, 6-9 hurricanes and 2-5 major hurricanes. As you can see, both of these forecast are pretty similar.

Sources: Wikipedia , NOAA and The Tropical Meteorology Project (Colorado State University)

Tropical Depression Arthur and the History of Bertha

As mentioned below, Tropical Storm Arthur was the first storm of the 2008 Atlantic Hurricane Season. After Arthur moved over the Yucatan Penisula, he weakened to a tropical depression. While Arthur weakened, he still brings the threat of dangerous flooding and mudslides to the Yucatan Peninsula. The Associated Press quoted the National Hurricane Center, saying 5 to 10 inches of rain were possible, with isolated amounts up to 15 inches. In the latest discussion from the National Hurricane Center, the remnants of Arthur are bringing scattered showers across Southern Mexico, with winds NE to E at 15-20 knots.



So mark "A" of your list and move on to "B." That's right! Bertha is the next name in the lineup for the 2008 Atlantic Hurricane Season.

Let's talk about Bertha, because this is not the first time Bertha has appeared on our list of storm names. Back in 1996, Hurricane Bertha made landfall near Wilmington, N.C. as a category two hurricane. Before making landfall in the United States, Bertha also passed over the Virgin Islands.

More recently, Bertha, better know as Tropical Storm Bertha, made landfall in Louisiana during the 2002 Atlantic Hurricane Season.

What will Bertha bring to us this season? We will just have to wait and see, but there are a few tropical waves lurking in the water.

Sources: Wikipedia, National Hurricane Center and the Associated Press

More Storm Reports from Yesterday

An update to yesterday's blog...

There were a couple more storm reports from yesterday's storm in Delmarva. Here they are:

In Talbot County (Easton) there were wind reports of downed trees and wires.
Kent County Delaware (Andrewsville) had wind reports of downed trees and marble sized hail.

If any more reports come out, they will be posted.