Figure 1 shows the distribution of most of the spotters across Wilmington's county warning area. Of course, there are more spotters in the metropolitan areas of Cincinnati, Dayton, and Columbus. We have over 3000 spotters, which is an average of about 60 per county. We issue severe weather warnings for 52 counties across southwestern and central Ohio, northern Kentucky, and southeast and east central Indiana. The NWS in Wilmington does not recommend chasing storms! Our goal is to have enough storm spotters in each county to relay frequent reliable information from the safety of their homes or business directly to our office. Your spotter report can literally mean the difference between life and death! By providing observations, you are assisting the meteorologists at Wilmington in their warning decisions, and enabling the NWS to fulfill its mission of protecting life and property. Your real-time, ground-truth observations of tornadoes, hail, wind, and significant cloud formations provide a truly reliable information base for severe weather detection and verification. As a trained spotter, you perform an invaluable service for the NWS. It is impossible for any radar to detect every severe weather event in its coverage area, and radar occasionally suggests severe weather when, in fact, none is present. Doppler radar provides information about the motion of wind and precipitation inside a storm, but will not show the wind at ground level. However, the most important tool for observing thunderstorms is the trained eye of the storm spotter. There are no reports of injuries at this time.The National Weather Service (NWS) office in Wilmington, Ohio uses Doppler radar as the primary technology to detect severe weather. Large spires were blown off the top of a Church and came crashing down on the sidewalk below, and tall trees toppled over. So, bottom line: there's a lot of moving air going on in a shelf cloud and you do not want to be in that tumultuous windy mix when it passes over.Ĭhicago reported severe damage from strong winds on Wednesday as the thunderstorm tore through the city. "So what ends up happening then is as the air hits the ground, it then has to rise back up, and as it rises back up it cools the air and forms this cloud in this arc shape and that is the leading edge or gust front of a thunderstorm." That cooler air sinks compared to the warmer air around it, thus feeding the downdraft and increasing wind speed.Įventually, that column of cold air hits Earth's surface where it "spreads out into a circular shape." Sort of like a ripple, when you drop a pebble in a pond, Wysocki said. "As that rain falls, it evaporates, cooling the surrounding air," Wysocki said. It starts with a rain shaft that occurs when a downdraft of cool air funnels a large amount of rain into a small region. But something very specific has to take place to form that giant, ominous arc across the sky. Put simply, they form when cool and warm air mix. Shelf clouds are just one of the many types of clouds involved with a thunderstorm, Wysocki said. Shelf clouds form an ominous looking arc across the sky and are a warning sign to seek shelter. "You really should take shelter because once the cloud gets over you the winds pick up from like 0 mph to 45-70 mph in no time whatsoever," Wysocki told Insider.Ī video shared on Twitter shows a timelapse of the cloud passing over Chicago. If you see one of these apocalyptic-looking shelf clouds coming toward you, it's important to seek shelter, Wysocki said. So pretty much anywhere from 50 degrees north or south of the equator," Wysocki told Insider. "If you can get yourself a strong thunderstorm or line of thunderstorms will develop. In fact, shelf clouds are quite common and can develop just about anywhere there's a thunderstorm brewing, said Mark Wysocki, a senior lecturer at Cornell's Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Department and New York State climatologist. Video shows the cloud moving through the city, bringing strong winds up to 60 mph with it.Īt first glance, the shelf cloud that passed through the skies of Chicago on Wednesday morning looked like something out of "Independence Day." But don't worry - this ominous-looking formation isn't signaling the end of the world. The cloud is a sign of severe thunderstorms and you should take shelter if one is coming your way. An imposing, ominous shelf cloud was spotted in the skies above Chicago.
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