Weather of the Week

It was a mild start to the week with low 50 highs but cooling into the low 40s by the weekend. A rollercoaster of atmospheric conditions, with 2 days of fair weather (Tuesday will feature a quick front bringing rain), and then a storm system will bring rain with snow mixing in on Thanksgiving Day into Friday. Snow amounts I would say about a coating to 2”; potentially higher amounts in the Berkshires, this is shaping up to be a ski country snowstorm as of late. After that, the weekend is cool and dry, in the low 40s. 

What’s Going on in the Weather World?

Now we enter a lesser-known season known as the second tornado season. Many think Tornado Alley is moving east, most definitely not. This second season is in Dixie Alley, which is much worse than traditional Tornado Alley because of one thing: trees. This is hell because you cannot see most Dixie tornadoes. After all, they are covered by trees and rain-wrapped. (Rain-wrapping is when the inflow of a supercell thunderstorm intakes rain, or hail to cast a ‘cloak’ on a tornado, making it near impossible to see it.) For anyone, this is death. During the 2nd season, from December to late April, tens of thousands of tornadoes have spawned across the south in the past 70 years. In 2011, in 4 days in late April, 360 tornadoes spawned across Arkansas to Georgia, and the Carolinas. These tornadoes have been some of the strongest ever recorded in history, like the Phil Campbell-Hackleburg EF5 on April 27, 2011, or the Rainsville EF5 on the same day. Rainsville was terrifying on its own, stripping a school bus down to the chassis and dislodging an underground shelter. Damage was so bad in many parts of the southeast that the Northern Alabama nuclear plant shut off all power to affected areas for a week. This can be the sheer intensity of tornadoes.