"Severe" thunderstorm defined
FROM TODAY'S PRINT EDITIONS:
Glenn Cucina, in Baltimore, says: “I’ve seen a lot of thunderstorms, plenty of which had high winds and heavy rain. But it seems to me we have never heard these storms called ‘severe’ like we are today. Is that a [new] designation?”
A severe thunderstorm is one that produces a tornado, winds of 58 mph, 1-inch hail or structural damage. The term dates at least to the 1960s, but changes in warning strategy in 2007 may be producing more severe storm watches and warnings, according to Greg Corbin, warning coordination meteorologist at the NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center, in Norman, Okla.
Rather than issuing warnings for whole counties, he said, the weather service began issuing them for geographical "polygons" along the storm's path. More polygons, more warnings.
Chris Strong, the warning coordination meteorologist at the NWS Baltimore-Washington forecast office in Sterling, Va., said he'd like to see the term changed:
"To be honest, I wish they would change it from 'severe,' which is a term that is widely interpreted, to 'damaging,' which is really what we are warning for ... winds that will cause damage or hail that will cause agricultural damage. It's also a much clearer term."
(SUN PHOTO: Gene Sweeney Jr., June 2009)
Categories: From the Sun's print edition
Comments
My father and I went through a NWS severe weather spotters training back in the late 80's... and back then, the hail threshhold for a severe t-storm was 3/4"... I wonder why that's been changed to 1", and how many fewer storms have been classified as "severe" as a result.
FR: The NWS changed the hail criteria in 2010, in part as a conscious effort to reduce the number of severe storm warnings. The number had been growing because of another change - a 2007 switch from county-wide warnings to "polygon" warnings.
Posted by: LC | March 28, 2011 11:48 AM