Smith Family Weblog

I came across this Kansas weather tidbit this morning:

In an odd twist of the 80/20 rule, only 20% of this year’s August days were 90 degrees or above, while 80% of last year’s August days were 90 degrees or above.

We sent the girls off today in coats–it’s barely 60 and rainy!

The first part of a long line of thunderstorms rolled in just a few moments ago. We need the rain–it’s been a number of dry days in the high 90s.

Olivia and I encountered a lovely sky on our walk Saturday morning.

I took these photos of a quick storm that passed just south of the reservoir this weekend.

That same weekend, an overnight storm in a neighboring county brought warnings for heat bursts. From Wikipedia:

A heat burst is a rare atmospheric phenomenon characterized by gusty winds and a rapid increase in temperature and decrease in dew point. Heat bursts typically occur during night-time and are associated with decaying thunderstorms.

While this phenomenon is not fully understood, it is theorized that the event is caused when rain evaporates into a parcel of cold dry air high in the atmosphere making the air more dense than its surroundings. The parcel descends rapidly, warming due to compression, overshoots its equilibrium level and reaches the surface, similar to a downburst.

Recorded temperatures during heat bursts have reached well above 90 °F, sometimes rising by 20 °F or more within only a few minutes. More extreme events have also been documented, where temperatures have been reported to exceed 130 °F, although such extreme events have never been officially verified.

Heat bursts are also characterized by extremely dry air and are sometimes associated with very strong, even damaging, winds.

I took these photos about 10 minutes ago. This storm passed through quickly, dropping half-dollar sized hail downtown. It’s the first in a long line this evening.

Another storm.

A wall cloud was spotted west of town at about 7 pm on Thursday; I snapped these photos around 9 pm.