Smith Family Weblog

A good show of lightening and a fair amount of rain–it seems that’s all this storm will amount to. We’re headed back upstairs for what will hopefully be a quiet night once this line passes completely.

How did everyone else fair?

Bryan has us camping out in the basement, so it’s hard to provide much of an update. I can hear thunder, but I can’t see a thing. So much for live weather blogging. Radar seems to show the storm slowing a bit, and the live images we’re seeing on TV show a pretty impressive shelf cloud.

This line of storms has formed a bow echo–a curve like an archer’s bow–due to the winds behind the storm. A bow echo usually means significant wind damage and is often associated with tornadoes.

The evening’s first line of thunderstorms is about 15 minutes away.

You can see how storms–even a line as strong as this one–wraps itself around large lakes. Check out the area just to the west of Leavenworth. I wonder if the same thing will happen in our area. Time will tell!

Here are a few shots I took about 10 minutes ago.

The temperature has dropped about 15 degrees, I’d guess. The wind is still–always–blowing.

This map is from an interesting weather blog at a Kansas City NBC affiliate. It still sounds like we’re in for some serious storms, and it will be fascinating to see how they develop.

It’s not quite 90 degrees yet today, but it’s very overcast and extremely humid. It’s also windy, but the wind seems to blow 20 miles an hour here no matter the weather.

There’s part of me that wishes I was headed a bit south and west to watch!