Severe Thunderstorm Vs. Birthday Party
Severe thunderstorms developed this Saturday afternoon here in State College, PA, and my daughter had quite a story to tell. She was at an outdoor birthday party near the University Park Airport. Ironically, the party had been cancelled a week prior due to predict bad weather which didn't turn out -- in fact this was my yard sale weekend and the weather was beautiful.
In any case, a severe thunderstorm developed over the airport around 3:45 PM, then moved east slow enough to backbuild over the airport, putting that area in an intense lightning strike zone until 4:30 PM when the storm finally moved away.
RADAR AT 4:07 PM (PARTY LOCATION NEAR AIRPORT SYMBOL)
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According to AccuWeather.com LightningPlus, which offers real-time street-level lightning strikes, about 50 lightning strikes hit the ground near the airport, with another 50 in the general vicinity.
Around 4 PM, after hearing thunder the kids were pulled from the swimming pool and my daughter and a friend were picking up the toys around the pool when "BLAM!" a lightning strike hit nearby, with immediate thunder, sending them screaming into the house. Marble-sized hail followed. My wife, who drove over to pick her up, reported very dark skies with frequent lightning and I expressed regret at not being there with my video camera...
Although The NWS [JessePedia] never declared this storm a severe thunderstorm, marble-sized hail (0.5" in diameter) is close to severe criteria, which is 0.75". Considering the effect it had on my daughter, I'm going to call it severe.
Plotting the nearest strike manually on a Google Map confirms that the lightning (red) hit about 2000 feet from the party (blue). This would have made the thunder only be 1/2 of a second after the lightning, and quite loud, I can tell you from experience.
It reminds you how dangerous outside activities can be, especially in light of rapidly developing thunderstorms. Fortunately AccuWeather.com LightningPlus offers real-time email-to-cell-phone alerts, based not on lightning strikes occurring (as many of our competitors products are) but rather on a lightning forecast, because it's better safe than sorry. This is a service that I am proud to say that I helped create here at AccuWeather, and it's a must to have for any soccer/baseball mom, or outside party host.
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