New Cloud Type; June 14-16 Rainfall

Have you seen the news? It seems that some wild clouds are capturing the attention of some people. This new cloud type, the Asperatus, may be the newest classification of clouds added into the World Meteorological Organization's International Cloud Atlas since 1951. What's weird to me is that I think I've seen these before. I can remember my first year of college, looking out my dorm window viewing some wicked clouds that seemed to wave at the base...looked like some of the pictures on the news.


Read more here


The National Weather Service in St. Louis posted a breif summary of some rain totals in the area from June 14 - 16. The map shows data from both CoCoRaHS observers and ASOS/AWOS stations.

Map from NWS STL

Check out some of the totals. At this station, we had 2.48", but 13 miles north of us in Auxvasse, there was a reported 6.00"!!

Heavy Rain Expected!

The 1-3 Day Quantitative Precipitation Forecast says it all for the next three days. Several rounds of thunderstorms are expected through Tuesday bringing with it the threat of heavy rain and some strong to severe storms.

Currently, at the mid-month point, we are sitting at 2.44". With a monthly average of 3.87", we may end up with a surplus this month. I don't mind much because it helps with the water bill, but this area has been hit with some moderate flooding this year, and some flood plains could use a rest I'm sure.

I'll update with any storm/heavy rain reports as they happen.

Hail Pad Image

Here are three images of the hail pad from yesterday's storm. I didn't notice it before, but when I went out yesterday to retreive it, I noticed that some of my tomato plants suffered some damage from the storm. One plant was split in half (presumably by a hail stone)!

June 8 Morning Storm

I was surprised to see some yellow on the radar when I got up this morning at 4:30. A large cell was marching ENE across the middle of the state at a quick pace. Some minor hail was expected and brief heavy rain.

The storm sped up as it approached our area, and finally hit at 5:30 a.m. We had moderate rain and light wind at the beginning, but then the wind picked up to a recorded gust of 24 mph, and we had hail between 1/4" and 1/2" slamming into the house for about a minute. (Luckily the girls didn't wake up!). I put on my spotter hat and called it in, as well as our rainfall amount. In a period of 30 minutes, we received 1.15" of rain.

I will take a picture of the hail pad and post it soon.

Active weather week ahead!

Shelf Cloud ; Station Comparison Data

Thunderstorms erupted ahead of a cold front this evening bringing some intense rain to parts of Mid-Missouri. We had partly sunny skies all day, with clouds building more and more as the day progressed. By 5:30 p.m., I could start to hear thunder in the area. We experienced a storm approaching from the SW at 6:00 p.m. As it was approaching, I was able to snap a shot of the accompanying shelf cloud as seen here.

This storm brought a little lightning, and brief heavy rain. We ended up receiving 0.29" in 20 minutes. Columbia reported heavy rain to the tune of one inch in just 30 minutes. They are 20 miles from us.

The storm that passed quickly cooled us off. Tomorrow's high temps shouldn't reach 70. Gotta love Missouri.

More storms and showers expected tonight. There is the threat for these storms to set up in the same area all night bringing with it some flooding. Some areas may have 2-3" when the low pressure system makes its farewell late tomorrow.


MO-CW-1 (Fulton) : MO-PH-5 (Rolla) -- A Comparison

My Dad joined CoCoRaHS in March, 2008. Since then I've had the pleasure of comparing precipitation data between us. Tonight, I filed through both of our reports since January 1 of this year, using categories submitted in my yearly Water Year Report.

Station Locations:



















Stations are roughly 65 miles apart













On first glance, it's easy to note that MO-PH-5 has caught around 3.5" more than we have. You can also conclude that they experienced measurable precipitation 1 out of every 3 days. While the snow data does not summarize total snowfall for the season, you can see that MO-PH-5 received considerably more snow than we did...even though we had more "snow" events. I credit that to more available moisture where they are.

May Weather Summary

May is coming to an end pretty quietly for Missouri. The first half of the month saw some active weather in our area and across the state. At this station, we recorded six days with thunder, all occurring during the first 15 days of the month. We were not impacted by any severe weather, although the threat was upon us a couple times. We did report two storms that contained hail, most of which was less than 0.25". This link will take you to a database of CoCoRaHS hail reports.

The second half of May has been nothing short of beautiful. Aside from a few days with rain near the end of the month, we have had lots of sun, relatively low humidity, and light winds. In fact, during the entire month, we only reported four days with wind gusts at or above 20 mph. (Compared to April's total of nine days).

Daily Observations can be found here

Temperatures

High: 94° on May 22

Low: 37° on May 17

Mean High (Average): 80.9° (74.6°)

Mean Low (Average): 53.8° (52.8°)

Precipitation

We were running on a deficit throughout most of the month because of the quiet weather pattern that set up during the middle of the month. But a tropical system that brought incredible flooding and damage to Florida advanced Northwest bringing us some needed moisture. We ended up getting 2.49" during our last week of the month, bringing us above the average mark by 0.44".

Average May Precipitation: 4.97"

May is winding down, and the tropical system that brought flooding rain to Florida gave our ground a nice soaking. After yesterday's 1.20" catch, our May total is finally in the black. A couple of days ago, we received 0.88" within a few hours early one morning, and by the time I checked the gauge (around 6 am), the garden had drank up the moisture. There wasn't the usual ponding in it...a testament to how much we needed the rain!

It has been a great week. I am taking a week off before starting my summer job, so I've been spending it by spending some great time with my family, giving my wife a more than deserved break from the girls, and took a day-long fishing trip to Montauk State Park to do some trout fishing yesterday.

What a beautiful drive it was yesterday. Heading down 63, the fog was filling the valleys making for a wonderful morning drive. After the two hour drive, most of the fog had lifted and we enjoyed partly sunny skies most of the day.

By mid-day, some storms began to rise, and my attention shifted from the crystal clear water to these white towers building above me. The convection was awesome...to think how far away the clouds tops are from my vantage point and to see such fast movement attests to the power of these storms. We only got a few showers from the cells around us, but heard lots of thunder. We headed to the truck when they got too close for comfort!

Something took me by surprise before we got to the park. We started noticing a few trees knocked down in yards and fields, and more and more...and even more as we got closer to the park. Evidently these trees were knocked over by straightline winds from the May 8 storms that rocked southern Missouri. There were 210 high wind reports, 47 tornadoes, and 107 hail reports that day. Here is the link to the SPC Report Page

I'll have a May wrap-up next week. Looks like the weather might get more active for the beginning of June.