Nostalgia for unexpected severe, like back in the 90s.

[Ed Lizard]

Back in college, in the 90s, when the internet was young, but I had the SPC and NHC sites, and AUS had its own NWS office, an older version color weather radar, and NOAA weather radio transmitted on one of the cable TV stations, I found my best thunderstorms were the unpredicted ones.

Back then, people talked about the scarcity of sounding sites in Mexico, and, of course, the computer models were almost twenty years older. In the days when the GFS was called the MRF. And forecast discussions would mention the 'perfect prog' model.

On a humid, Spring day, much like today, especially with a weak boundary in the area, the forecast would be ghost 10%s, if anything, and then, joyously, a thunderstorm would pop up.

I suppose its a good thing that a couple of decades of improvement in satellite remote sensing technology has cut way, way back on the chances of a subtle disturbance slipping between the fairly sparse Mexican RAOB sites, and the more sophisticated computer models, means rarely does something sneak up undetected, but it used to be nice on warm, humid days, with weak boundaries somewhere in the state, to get a surprise 'fun-derstorm'.

[knitwx]

Ah,yes. The good old days chasing with an anemometer,the barometer from the wall and a C.B radio. Those were good times..