In the past few weeks we've seen an endless stream of opinions come out about reclining seats and boarding order and carry-on luggage and this and that, but nobody discusses one of the biggest issues behind flying: the wonder wore off. At what point did we stop appreciating that we're able to fly?
Going from drought to deluge, the southwestern United States is being inundated by flooding rainfall yet again today. One of the terms meteorologists are batting around to describe this record-setting pool of atmospheric moisture has people confused, but it's actually pretty easy to understand.
After a long period without any severe weather, the atmosphere appears primed for a potentially dangerous severe weather outbreak tomorrow across areas from Kansas to Minnesota. Some areas could see tornadoes, baseball-size hail, and winds in excess of 75 MPH.
One of the nicest things about summer is a nearby afternoon thunderstorm. The storm bubbles up on the horizon and a few minutes later you get a nice gust of cool, refreshing wind. This gust of wind is called an "outflow boundary," and it's one of the most interesting weather phenomena there is.
While people along and east of the Rockies seem to have thunderstorms almost every other day this time of year, folks along the West Coast never see our level of exciting weather. Putting aside the ongoing drought, why doesn't the West Coast ever seem to see thunderstorms?
One of the most commonly used weather terms during the spring and summer months is "supercell thunderstorm." Most weather enthusiasts (myself included) use the term with the assumption that people know what a supercell is, but many people don't. Supercells are the miniature engines of Earth's atmosphere. They're fascinating to watch both on radar and in person, but they're also responsible for the most destructive tornadoes in history.
The media can't survive without a scare term to make you tune in. This winter saw the not-at-all-new-but-scary-sounding polar vortex. Sandy wasn't really a "superstorm" but hey, let's just call it one anyway. And every summer for the last few years, we've seen the derecho. It sounds new and terrifying, but what is it?
