Just When You Though Severe Weather Season Was Over..

We are in a slight risk yet again for severe weather. You can take a look at the outlook for yourself at http://www.spc.noaa.gov/. The main threats for us being strong winds and quarter sized hail according to the SPC. The organization for these storms does not look all that impressive. I would say heavy rainfall that may lead to localized flash flooding would be more of a concern at this point, something we have seen over the past couple of days.

Speaking of the past couple of days, you should check this out. CoCoRaHS is an excellent website that keeps track of the rainfall totals everyday. Logging the information into the system from local reports from volunteers around the state and in the various counties in Missouri. If you look at the data that was pulled from yesterday 7/20/10.. you will find some outrageous rainfall totals! http://www.cocorahs.org/Maps/ViewMap.aspx?state=MO. In Adair county, MO around Kirksville, they recorded a total of 9.13" of rainfall from 7/19/10. Another impressive total not too far away was Shelby county with a whopping 8.51" of rainfall on that same day. No wonder the Northeastern section of Missouri faced major flash flooding issues!

Just thought that was rather impressive so I wanted to share. So back to the weather for the rest of the day into the overnight hours.. We have some thunderstorms popping up presently because of the daytime heating that we have experience. Lots of moisture at the surface has helped to get these systems firing along with a mid level shortwave. No shearing, or turning of the winds, is present in the lower levels of the atmosphere so there is no threat for any tornadic activity. Just be careful if you will be outdoors at all, these storms are scattered about the area in nature.

After today, it appears that the severe weather will be lifting further to the North which is good news for us, we do not need anymore heavy rainfall. However, a ridge builds in over the top of us. This High pressure system will trap the hot and humid airmass over the top of us as we inch closer to the weekend. So make sure to take it easy when you are outdoors. Drink plenty of fluids and if you get overheated get indoors! It is going to be a steambath out there!