An impressive storm system is making its way across the south today. Unlike the last few storms, this one is entirely rain, with some on and off again convective squall lines developing. In other words, this is a Springtime storm rather than a Winter storm. Here’s what it looks like at 6:30am Sunday morning using the mid level water vapor band of the GOES East satellite:
Now look at the national radar and precipitation types … where the contrasting air masses are colliding, that’s where the action is both in the form of rain and thunderstorms, and again this one is all rain except in the higher elevations of the Appalachian Mountains:
Here is the severe storm outlook from NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center (formerly the Severe Storms Forecast Center), along with the explanation of their categories. As I warned in a previous post, beware of media outlets and weatherdoomers taking these maps and screwing with the categories to make them more dramatic than they are.
The system will be moving rapidly east today, with rain spreading across the southeast. As for the beloved Frogmore Metroplex (Coastal Georgia and the Low Country of South Carolina; link goes to a geography lesson), it looks like rain will be moving in this morning, but the latest HRRR run shows the main squall line moving through around 5pm. By that time convection should have redeveloped with the extra afternoon energy of the sun, but it doesn’t look to be anything severe. Some wind gusts may be high in the squall line, there will likely be some lightning and barking (caused by the thunder); this is a good opportunity to make sure your weather radios are dusted off and ready for the spring severe storm season.
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My Tulip Trees are just blooming, so I can predict rain and wind enough to devastate the blossoms within the next two days. The time-frame might not be as accurate as Enki, but I promise it’s about to happen.
Thank you for your more accurate information, Enki!
That does seem to be how it works, Julie! I think our azaleas got nuked this year, they had budded out and were thinking about blooming when the freeze hit. This seems to be an increasing problem (and a consequence of that-which-is-not-to-be-discussed global phenomena), variability where the means shift and plants/animals try to adapt, but get zapped by the extremes.