Updates, Summary of Recent Central PA Storms

It struck me (no pun intended) today looking at some of my blog entries from last week that I had still not posted quite a bit of information on some recent storms that we've had during this very active June. See the bottom of this entry for proof that this June has been unusually severe, and a possible explanation.

The outflow boundary on June 12th was awesome, as previously described. My wife and I were outside painting so I was keeping a close eye on the radar. I saw the boundary approaching north-to-south but the storms were still east of us, moving southwest, so I figured we were good (my home is marked with an "X" below in the screenshots from ADCRP).

The wind from that little snake on the radar was incredible. One short part of the videos I took is shown below, you can see all the videos here.

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Ten minutes later, I hadn't checked the radar again and meanwhile the outflow boundary had sparked a storm right over the airport and the storm was moving towards me. This is about the point in the videos when my wife and I hear thunder and I'm like "that's weird" because outflow boundaries don't produce thunder.

And soon it overtakes my house with more wind and 65+ dBZ of rain (see video

)

As to what Ron experienced, as you saw previously from his video and photos, he was on the lake at Yellow Creek State Park [Google Map] for most of the storm. I called him but he wasn't able to make it to his landing (see him attempting to flee on his video

) so he had to take cover on the boat near shore.
Safety Note: NOAA says that boats without cabins are unsafe places to be during a thunderstorm and recommends that, if you are caught on the water, you should anchor the vessel and get as low as possible).

Here's what the storm looked like as it moved over him (with his location marked with an "X"). Note that the backend of the storm was very severe with dBZ readings over 65 and a tornadic signature at the time of this shot! No wonder Ron saw hail (see his video

).

After the storm passed, the lightning strike map for the entire storm looked like this:

As you can see, Ron was in one of two very dense strike areas... in other words, he was "stuck" in the right place at the right time.

Next up, I said in a previous blog that I'd tell you what Henry and I saw on Tuesday night (June 19th). The truth is, we saw nearly nothing. I was out shopping at the time and oblivious to the approaching storm, so the only photos that I got were the two below with my cell phone (so lame!).

A Severe Thunderstorm Warning was in effect, and winds gusted to 38 mph at my house which was about what they were with the Outflow video above, which means I should have been standing out with my cameras. I just wasn't as alert as I should have been. Henry attempted to take some video too but got nothing interesting.

Ron got luckier, in the path of another storm and you can see his photos and videos here.

You can see radar loops from both locations .

And finally, last night Ron got several decent storms down in Johnstown, while up here in State College I got the shaft (or, for another phrase to describe it, tune into the J-Show this weekend). Click here to see his photos and video

, and from the storm that hit south of him and the one that hit him dead on (he was just south of the JST airport which is marked on the maps).

We have been having an unusually potent severe weather season this June, here in Central Pennsylvania. I'm researching into why that is. Here's a summary of my reporting on our local storms this June (starting on May 31st which was the first significant severe weather day in several weeks).

So here's a look at what we've had so far this month...

Comparing to previous Junes for "severe days" (days with at least one spotter report from The SPC [JessePedia] in the state), we're way ahead this year...

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings were issued 5 times this month for Centre County (home to my house and AccuWeather HQ) on June 1st, June 8th, June 13th, June 19thtwice. There were only 2 STW's issued for us in 2006, none in 2004, but 6 in 2005 (besting this year so far, but the month ain't over).

Why so many storms this year? Well, I'll check with some forecasters who are a little more in tune with the synoptic (nationwide) weather than I am, but I can say for sure we've had more hot weather (which feeds storms) -- we are +2.5 degrees compared to normal so far this month; last year was about normal and 2004 was slightly below normal. 2005, which was the only stormy year of the last three, was +4.5.

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