Welcome Back: Crazy Weather Day

UPDATE: Little did I know the craziest weather event would take place this evening in Oklahoma where hail up to 6 inches in diameter was reported! The official reports listed 5" as the largest.

And check out this awesome high-res MODIS satellite image from yesterday afternoon, showing a severe thunderstorm in Vermont. Now that's what I call high-res! The MODIS satellites take two pictures of the U.S. daily, in the early afternoon, so it's not real-time, but it's still fun to look at.

After a long holiday weekend, I'm welcomed back to work today by so many weather stories, I can't keep up. This afternoon a storm developed suddenly west of AccuWeather HQ. Before I could assemble my tripod, Henry dragged me from my desk into the lobby to see the storm's impressive shelf cloud:

Indeed, today was the biggest severe weather day so far this season for Pennsylvania and New York, with an SPC Slight Risk upgraded to Moderate at 12:30 PM. By 5 PM, dozens of hail and wind reports had been issued.

Also this afternoon, an impressive thunderstorm outflow boundary was sighted on the Roanoke, Virginia radar after storms died (and "blew out" their cold air) in northern North Carolina:

Earlier this morning, before storms started breaking out from Tennessee to New York State, a thunderstorm downburst spiked the wind to 108 mph at Mount Washington, New Hampshire:

Shortly thereafter, severe flooding was reported at University of Louisville, where over 5 inches of rain was estimated to have fallen by Doppler radar:

OF COURSE, you'd have known this all already if you followed me on Facebook and Twitter. :)