SUMMARY
We are now in an unsettled pattern that can lead to showers or storms at just about any time. However, the best chance for a shower or storm will come in the afternoons and evenings, when heat and instability are greatest. You’ll notice humidity levels increasing as we go through the next several days. That humidity will help generate mainly afternoon showers and storms. By the end of the weekend, many of us will have seen some rain.
Widespread severe weather is not expected, but you must be mindful that any storm can be dangerous, especially with lightning and gusty winds.
As you read this, I may be finished with my 20th half marathon of my life. This one is in Asheville and is supposed to be a very pretty race. I sure hope so.
DISCUSSION
Well, I don’t have much to say except to remind you to be aware of the dangerous lightning that occurs in these pop-up storms we will be getting. Don’t become a lightning statistic.
Sixty-five years ago today people across the U.S. would have loved to have had the “boring”weather we’re having. While there have been severe storms across the northern Plains this week, they have not been destructive, staying out mainly out over open prairie.
Such was not the case in 1953.
The tornado outbreaks the first week of June of 1953 were especially intense. On June 8th, the most powerful tornado in Michigan’s history hit Flint. The tornado killed 116 people and wiped out everything in its path. At least 200 homes were destroyed by the half-mile wide F-5 tornado.
The next day, June 9th, the same storm system that spawned the Michigan tornadoes spawned another violent tornado in a place we don’t typically expect to see violent tornadoes (or tornadoes at all!). The town of Worcester, Massachusetts was hit by a half-mile wide F-4 tornado that mangled steel towers built to withstand winds of 375 mph! Debris from the tornado fell in Boston and the Atlantic Ocean, located about 50 miles away from Worcester.
The year 1953 was an especially bad year for the U.S. for tornadoes. By the end of that year, we had lost 519 lives to tornadoes in the U.S. The town of Waco, Texas was hit on May 11 by an F-5 that killed 114 of those people. More than 600 businesses, 850 homes, and 2,000 cars were destroyed in the twister. The tornado was the deadliest in Texas history.
Then came June when Michigan and Massachusetts were hit so hard. If only the tornadoes of 1953 hadn’t targeted such populated areas, the death and destruction would have been so much less.
Let’s be thankful that this tornado season has been so quiet across the U.S. Thus far, we have lost three people in tornadoes. That’s three people in the entire country. Interestingly, the U.S. is the only country to have seen any tornado fatalities this year, so that’s three people in the entire world lost to tornadoes so far in 2018.
You all have a great Saturday!