weatherwiz

Thank God. IT is unfortunate because its obviously great with CAD scenarios and tends to be better with temperatures along boundaries with extensive clouds and precip but its useless 99% of the time. Oh...should add its also a bit more down to Earth where it will have 93/74 versus the 101/63 the GFS will pull.

Looks like they got 58 mph 6 minutes later

54 mph at IND and I think that was just from the gust front

I've said this before...the extremeness of our weather events is relatively tame. Even winter storms. Sure now and then we get the monster 2-3ft snowstorms but they're really not crippling. Look at the northern/central Plains and upper-Midwest...they will have large stretches of major interstates closed because combination of winds and snow. But infrastructure and density of trees and the issues of tree disease, the impacts for lesser weather extremes can be far greater than elsewhere.

Where they are geographically it just works out. They tend to end up on the northern periphery of the ridging and also closer to the EML source so a lesser chance to disrupt the integrity of the EML and they can very easily pull up dews well into the 70's. You get temps well into the 80's and 90's with dews into the mid 70's under lapse rates > 7.5-8 C/KM, good shear, and shortwaves moving through the flow and it all comes together.

Big wind headed to SBN. Can't wait to see the obs

It's just so hard to get everything to align perfectly. You need the ridge to be oriented just the right way, you need to time EML advection with a shortwave/front, you need the llvl flow to transport rich moisture into the region. Everything has to be perfection

I couldn't imagine what the scenes would be like if something like that ripped through here. I mean it kind of did on 7/15/95 but the Adirondacks took the worst of it...imagine just blowing through populated areas.

Some serious wind on the south end of Chicago and headed into northern IN. 70-80+ knots ~1500 ft off the ground!!!

What a difference between MAV/MET for tomorrow

Yup...quite warm and humid will be the consistent theme well into the second half of the month with some days of average to slightly below average temps and low humidity mixed in when fronts go through. Should also remain active with convective chances

Just makes it easier to get inside once you start getting that "bad" feeling

Lower dews may be a bit of a killer today but we certainly could see a few strong storms around

It's interesting for sure. I think alot of it comes down to the mindset many people have of, "it won't happen to me". At least when it comes to lightning, I don't think people truly respect how deadly it can be. Same goes with flooding, most people don't realize how powerful moving water is. It's hard to totally fault people this because the education on this is lacking but it's definitely become better over the years with the awareness provided by local TV mets, NWS, etc. But there needs to be another element to this. It's probably something that should be incorporated into sciences courses beginning at the middle school level - I'm sure it probably is in some districts but how in-depth, not sure. At least for myself, I am extremely cautious when I am outside when there is an approaching storm. Even if the storm is a good 15-20 miles away. If I am outside with the camera I am right next to the car door with the door open or if I'm at home I'm very close to the door. I'm pretty mindful of the objects around me and what they are. But all of this of course comes with my knowledge of thunderstorms and lightning. So I am thinking of things that most people don't even realize.

Wanted to respond to this earlier since it's pretty important lightning safety but it is 100% true. People can be a great source as a connecting leader between the ground and the forming stepped leader with positive charges flowing up the connecting leader (which can be people) and when the stepped leader establishes a connection with a connecting leader...lightning! In fact, because of this the "flash" actually travels from the ground to the cloud but the whole process is so quick we see it was going from the ground to the cloud.