Answers From You About Thunderstorms...And Another Question
Many thanks to those of you who took the time to answer my questions about thunderstorms. To refresh your memory, here are the questions.....
What kind of weather do you expect when you hear or see the word "thunderstorm" in your forecast?
Do you know what a "severe" thunderstorm is?
Do you perk up more when adjectives such as "heavy, gusty or strong" modify "thunderstorm?
To you, is there a difference between a "thundershower" and a "thunderstorm?
The answers did not contain any great surprises and they did confirm a couple of things I suspected...
1. Many of you have a general idea of how a severe thunderstorm is defined, but not a complete grasp of the details. And that's o.k. Just because the definition doesn't say anything about intensity or amount of rain or the frequency of lightning doesn't mean those factors aren't important and in some cases life threatening.
2. Most of you understand the difference that we try to imply by using either "thunderstorm" or "thundershower". A storm can be heavier with stronger winds and more lightning than a shower.
3. Most of you don't place much additional importance to the forecast when it includes words such as "heavy, gusty, strong" to modify "thunderstorms", because you believe any thunderstorm can contain heavy rain, as well as gusty and strong winds. However, we use those words just to place extra emphasis on the coming event in cases when we think the storms may be disruptive.
And here's another question for you ... as you know weather references have been used in music for ages and ages going all the way back to Vivaldi's The Four Seasons ... and probably even before that. Here are some of the lyrics from a song that was popular awhile back ... any guess what song and which artist?????
Humidity is rising
Barometer's getting low
According to our sources
The street's the place to go
Cause' tonight for the first time
Just about half past ten
For the first time in history
........................................
