We were honored to host the annual National Weather Service Storm Spotters Class in lieu of our Feb 11th meeting. Tammy Vinson from Lawrence County EMA invited Kate Guillet from the NWS office in Huntsville to teach the Storm Spotter class. Kate gave an outstanding presentation and guidance on information that can be helpful for creating forecasts and understanding the effects of weather.
As you can see from this graphic, Huntsville has a high frequency of severe weather:
Kate covered the various types of weather events that primarily affect our area; severe heat, flooding, tornados, hail, lightning, and microbursts. Her graphic on Supercell thunderstorms helps communicate how they form and features that are important:
Thunderstorms also produce hail and the largest hail stone in Alabama was 5.38″ from Walter, AL (Cullman Co). This is a graphic of how hail is formed:
Microbursts are also forms of severe weather we encounter in our area. Microbursts result in straight line winds that may may be as damaging as small tornados (the NWS staff can help determine if the damage is from microbursts or tornados from ground surveys.)
We also encounter flooding that can be dangerous. As little as 6″ of flowing water can sweep a person off their feet and 24″ can sweep away a vehicle.
We welcome visitors Bethany Gallahair, Ken Piper KD8PZU, Anna Tenniswood KM4QNA, Farris Cason (expired), M/M Felton Fillyaw, Kate Guillet (NWS).