Pittsburgh Storm and BIG 2-Day Outbreak - Update
UPDATE: The SPC has issued a new Moderate Risk area downwind from the MCS [JessePedia] currently moving into Kentucky at noontime Thursday, including east TN, SE KY, SW NC, and NW SC. Click below for some "wallpaper" shots of that storm as of late-morning from AccuWeather.com MapSpace™:
It's no surprise, looking at the Spotter Reports this thing has trailed behind it since yesterday afternoon when it congealed in Iowa:
RadarPlus PredictiveRadar puts the system coming into the North Carolina mountains between 4 and 5 PM.
ORIGINAL ENTRY: We're looking at a large, 2-day severe weather outbreak from Thursday morning through Saturday morning in the Midwest and Ohio Valley. The reason this is news to me (and I think you'll see news of it across the major cable networks by the weekend) is two-fold. One, this is a really large area under the threat of wind damage and includes a lot of major cities... too many to mention, from Lincoln, NE to Chicago, IL, down to Springfield, MO and across to Pittsburgh, PA and down to Columbia, SC. Here's a map combining the overnight risk predictions for "Day 1" and "Day 2" by The SPC [JessePedia]:
Two, these storms may hit areas that have not recently seen severe weather - check out the empty space in severe weather reports on the map below from Chicago eastward across northern Ohio to Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania, then compare it to the risk map above.
Specifically what's going to happen Friday into Saturday in the Ohio Valley into western Pennsylvania according to the SPC is as follows:
As an aside, Pittsburgh got a taste of what's coming -- they got a whopper of a storm yesterday evening. Roads were flooded in Alleghany and Beaver counties after the storm dropped an estimated 3-5 inches of rain. The Post-Gazette has some pictures of the flooding; Channel 4 has more pics and video including an interesting cloud lowering that is probably only scud clouds or a wall cloud, not a funnel cloud, though a Tornado Warning did go out.
Suspicious clouds and vicious updrafts were also documented in video by a fan of AccuWeather.com on Facebook. Hail to 1 inch in diameter was reported in Westmoreland county. Here's a radar shot as it moved through town.
Local storm chaser Ron "R-Factor" Shawley was positioned in Johnstown but most of the lightning went south of him. Here's a lightning map showing the strikes from 7:30 to 9:30 PM:
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