Tornado Video Spectacular...

When I was growing up during the 50s & 60s, we heard about tornadoes but rarely saw any video of an actual twister since video photography was in its infancy.  I was very near the Xenia, Ohio (Dayton 25 miles away) F5 tornado back in April 1974 and there was one fella that captured it on his “Super 8”.    Fast forward to now and everyone has a cell phone than can produce great quality video so it’s no wonder why we see so many violent storms up close and personal.  Today was such a day, and if you missed them, I’m sure you can go to You-Tube and find them.   Truly stunning to watch the power of Mother Nature tear into and demolish structures.  If that doesn’t scare you, then not much will.   Fortunately for us, we rarely have the right conditions to see the big tornadoes.

 

David showed a graphic tonight that had the average date of us seeing a 100 degree day as July 24^th.  That implies we reach or top 100 every summer, but that is not the case.  In fact, during my 38 summers broadcasting here in NOLA, I bet we reach 100 maybe 6 or 7 times.   Since we have so much water all around, it is difficult to soar that high without trigger Lake/Sea breezes.    As the upper high shifts to the east for Friday & Saturday, I can see 95-98 IF we don’t have a T-Storm cluster develop during the late afternoon.   This will not be a prolonged heat wave as models are developing a huge east coast trough that will squash the upper high back to the west before cutting off and moving to the WSW right over us next week.   That will increase our clouds & showers, which we’ll sorely need after being so hot & dry.

 

NHC is not mentioning the potential for a sneaky tropical system to quickly form along the Carolina coast by Friday and head right into Long Island and New England for Saturday.  Several models are hinting that so don’t be surprised to see that happen.   For us, the Gulf will remain a hostile environment for the rest of this month…unless next week’s upper low would move down into the Gulf and work its way down to the surface.  Chances are slim to none.  Stay tuned!