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Updraft: May 25, 2009 Archive

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Sun Season

Posted at 7:21 AM on May 25, 2009 by Craig Edwards

Memorial weekend is the traditional unofficial start of summer season. The National Weather Service considers, for climate keeping purposes, the summer season to be the months of June through August.

I recall my first Memorial Day in the Twin Cities in 1992 having moved up from Indianapolis in December of 1991. The high temperature on May 25th, as the new neighbors and I were trying to golf, was only 49 degrees, the following morning there was a record low of 34 degrees.

Historical data for Twin Cities Memorial Day weather

This may come a little too late if you immersed yourself in sushine Satuday and Sunday. But the EPA has a very nice website to monitor the UV index forecast. You can put in your zip code and get the UV Index for your city or put in a city's name that you might be visiting.

Note on the website that you can infer were the clouds and rain may dominate, hint - UVI of less than five.

Clouds will hold down tempeatures over the state on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Unfortunately I am not too hopeful of generous rains in the Cities, but soaking rains are likely in the next twenty-four hours in the Red River Valley.

CE

Meteorology of the Hugo tornado

Posted at 4:27 PM on May 25, 2009 by Craig Edwards


This is the first anniversary of the Hugo tornado. The staff at the Chanhassen NWS office put together a nice summary of the details of this storm and the meteorological conditions.

I have seen two presentations from research work conducted on this storm. Indeed, the Doppler radar indicated strong mid level rotation in the thunderstorm as it moved over northern Wright County. Spotters had observed a rotating wall cloud and a tornado warning was issued based on the combination of the two observations.

Although no additional reports of a wall cloud or a funnel cloud were received by the NWS, they reissued the tornado warning for the Hugo area. The reissuance of a tornado warning resulted in the second activation of the outdoor warning siren. Some speculate that this second sounding of the siren may have been mistakenly inferred as an ALL CLEAR.

To my knowledge, as the former chief of the NWS office, there is no policy where the sirens are sounded for an ALL CLEAR.

Spotters believe that the circulation of the twister was hidden by heavy rain. Thus there were no photographs of the tornado as it struck Hugo. There was a considerable lead time in the Tornado Warning from the NWS based exclusively on the strong rotation shown on the Doppler radar.

Chanhassen NWS review of the Hugo tornado of 2008. Click on radar image for greater definition.

CE

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