Possible Weather Anomaly - Midwest US

i'd been watching the radar at NOAA due to the storms and saw something that seems a bit peculiar.

In the southern portion of Lake Michigan there is a streak going against the general flow of the storm.

It moves in a SW direction as the radar light up the path.

I'm not versed enough to speculate the cause, and hope others can offer their explanations.

Please have a look and comment, thanks.

I don't know but we are having heat lightning.

interesting! it seems to go towards where the storm gains lake effect strength, the brewing red area over the water.

To top it off, when I clicked on the map for that region and got the smaller, java version of the regional radar, it rolled through the pictures, then had red flashing letters saying 'radar unavailable in this region' but before I could record it, it quit.

So that was two odd things....

reply to post by explorer14


The small line moving west of the main storm is usually indicative of a gust front, or downdraft which may also be called straight line winds. These are produced from a collapsing airmass thunderstorm. They may go ahead of, or out the sides of a storm. The line is formed by the collection of precipitation or dust that is read by the radar. It's a normal phenomenon, and if you're in the area it can offer a refreshing cool breeze!

These are typically nothing to worry about, but can have gusts of hurricane force.

That band you see is simply a storm cell that is increasing moisture content and thus severity and size of the cell. The reverse movement is an illusion created by the disbursement or the recently added moisture. With the latest heat wave there is probably much more latent energy in the lakes which will drastic increase storm strength over and near the bodies of water.

Originally posted by Mapkar
reply to post by explorer14

 

The small line moving west of the main storm is...
They may go ahead of, or out the sides of a storm. The line is formed by the collection of precipitation or dust that is read by the radar. It's a normal phenomenon, and if you're in the area it can offer a refreshing cool breeze!

These are typically nothing to worry about, but can have gusts of hurricane force.

Thanks for the explanation and I think we would all enjoy a refreshing cool breeze ASAP!

As far as the line direction, yes, I've seen them going outward and so-forth, but I hadn't noticed one that appeared like that. With the extreme weather, one could consider that we shouldn't be surprised to see things we don't see on a regular basis.

well it looked cool, and once again I ended up learning something on ATS.

There is no such thing as heat lightning