Severe Weather of May 31st, 2006

News Headlines

Click Here for the Latest Hazardous Weather Outlook and Weather Briefing

Wednesday May 31^st 2006

The end of May brought the third and final day in a mini-heat wave across much of the mid-Atlantic. Afternoon and evening showers and thunderstorms dotted the radar screen. In some locations, high temperatures for the third consecutive day topped 90 degrees (table 1). Along with the very warm temperatures, low level moisture was high with surface dewpoints well into the 60s. An upper level high pressure parked over the eastern United States was the culprit for above normal temperatures during the latter part of May.

Table 1

Location	5/29	5/30	5/31
Charleston	91	93	92
Huntington	91	92	92
Parkersburg	89	91	90
Clarksburg	89	92	91

In response to daytime heating, isolated showers and thunderstorms developed by late morning in the southern mountains of West Virginia then outflows from those thunderstorms spawned additional storms in the coal fields. Nine severe thunderstorm warnings were issued by the Weather Service Office in Charleston primarily for hail. The largest hail reported was 1.75 inches in the town of Julian in Boone County.

The radar image below was taken at 1830Z illustrating the scattered nature of storms.

0.5 Degree Radar Reflectivity

Figure 1 1830Z 0.5 degree reflectivity.

The next image shows a cross section of a severe thunderstorm that produced 1.5 inch hail in Logan County. The red indicates where hail is located in the storm. The hail descended minutes after this image was taken.

Reflectivity Cross Section

Figure 2 Reflectivity cross section of a severe thunderstorm in Logan County at 1830Z.

The following satellite image shows how isolated the storms were. Any location that was affected by a storm Wednesday afternoon received a healthy does of rain in addition to frequent lightning. With temperatures in the lower 90s and surface dewpoints in the 60s, the atmosphere was primed for thunderstorm development. The activity over eastern Ohio was in response to a weak boundary.

Visible Satellite Image