A few early season thunderstorms were around Thursday evening. Many of you reported and even sent us pictures of hail as well as very heavy rains, thank you! While in Roscoe, I was able to observe some patchy Mammatus clouds just ahead of the main rain core. Even though it is still March, these bumpy looking clouds often signal a very turbulent atmosphere and can be a precursor to severe weather. While there were no severe reports around the Stateline on Thursday, this is surely an exciting sign of spring!
Posted under weather
This post was written by Aaron Brackett on March 12, 2010
I saw a few of these on the backside. It was a nice sunset out here north of Durand.
Good place to put in a plug for the “Scary Looking Cloud” Club:
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/mkx/?n=scary-clouds
The Milwaukee office of NWS has a great file of “scary looking clouds” — the kinds of clouds often called in to 911 dispatchers as alleged “tornados” or “funnel clouds” that aren’t really tornadic.
When the Milwaukee office does its storm spotter training it spends a LOT of time talking about NON-tornado clouds that can cause false reports. False reports of alleged “funnel clouds” (that aren’t really) can distract and muddle the job of NWS Watch/Warn coordinators and take their attention away from genuinely severe storms that genuinely do require urgent public warnings to be issued.
Very interesting link!! Thanks!
-AB