SCO Weather Journal

Our area is now under a Tornado Watch:

The NWS Storm Prediction Center has issued a
Tornado Watch for portions of

much of western and northern North Carolina
parts of northern South Carolina
a large part of southern Virginia
coastal waters

Effective this Wednesday afternoon and evening from 215 PM until
900 PM EDT.

Tornadoes...hail to 1.5 inches in diameter...thunderstorm wind
gusts to 70 mph...and dangerous lightning are possible in these
areas.

The Tornado Watch area is approximately along and 65 statute
miles north and south of a line from 20 miles west of Greenville
South Carolina to 15 miles north northeast of Norfolk Virginia.
For a complete depiction of the watch see the associated watch
outline update (wous64 kwns wou6).

Remember...a Tornado Watch means conditions are favorable for
tornadoes and severe thunderstorms in and close to the watch
area. Persons in these areas should be on the lookout for
threatening weather conditions and listen for later statements
and possible warnings.

Other watch information...continue...ww 254...ww 255...

Discussion...as trough and stronger winds fields approach from the
west...conditions across the watch will become increasingly
favorable for severe thunderstorms including supercells. With warm
sector becoming uncapped and MLCAPES aoa 1000 j/kg thunderstorms
will increase in number and intensity thru remainder of afternoon.
Favored area for possible tornadic supercells will be vicinity low
level boundary along northern portion of watch where shear profiles
will be enhanced.

Aviation...tornadoes and a few severe thunderstorms with hail
surface and aloft to 1.5 inches. Extreme turbulence and surface
wind gusts to 60 knots. A few cumulonimbi with maximum tops to
500. Mean storm motion vector 24030.


....Hales

A group of thunderstorm cells that had been recently tornado warned passed right over our house around 12PM EDT. They had weakened, so all we had was a fairly brief heavy downpour of rain and very little wind. We recieved almost a 0.70 inches of rain as these cells passed.



Looks like we might have another round of severe weather in the Carolinas today!!

There were 9 reported tornado touchdowns in the eastern portion of NC today. From the news reports that I have seen, damage included many trees down, power outages, damaged homes and only few minor injures. Many people have submitted still photos and videos of the storms and the damage that they have caused. One of the best websites to view these is on the WRAL TV channel 5 website.

Satellite photo showing the smoke plume from the fires burning near Myrtle Beach, SC

This animated series of satellite photos show the area of snowfall across the Carolinas. The white areas that do not move are snow, whereas the clouds( near the coast ) do move.

We recieved about an 1.5 inches of snow during the early morning overnite hours.

This evening we had a couple burst of snowfall. Total as of 11:00 PM EST was approximately 0.25 inches.

We measured the snow total at 12 AM on our back porch. Approximately 1.75 inches has fallen since earlier in the evening.



Snow has tapered off for now. We still might get some more before it's all over.

Snow started falling at approximately 7:45 PM tonight. NWS forecast calling for 1-3 inches for our area for this evening and into tomorrow morning.

Attilla Danko was so nice to create a Clear Sky Clock for the Silver Creek Observatory. It allows me and other amateur astronomers to see a 2 day weather forecast for astronomical viewing potential in the area around the SCO. It shows graphically the amount of clouds, wind, trmperture, etc. So at a glance you can have a pretty good idea if you will be seeing stars or not!

Click HERE to visit the SCO Clear SKy Clock