Latest news with #supercell
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
On This Date: America's Record-Largest Hail Fell In South Dakota
Sometimes you need a little serendipity to set a new all-time weather record. On July 23, 2010, 15 years ago today, a supercell thunderstorm spawned a brief tornado and an 85-mph wind gust near Vivian, South Dakota, about 30 miles south of the state capital, Pierre. But it was the hail this supercell produced that etched this storm into U.S. history. One resident of Vivian saved several of the giant hailstones in a freezer after they pelted his property. Meteorologists from the National Weather Service in Aberdeen, South Dakota, later visited the Vivian resident and measured the largest of these stones to be a whopping 8 inches in diameter and 1.9375 pounds, both new U.S. records, topping the previous record from Sept. 3, 1970, in Coffeyville, Kansas. (WATCH: Flash Flood Floats New Mexico Business) It's hard for a single photo to illustrate how mammoth this hail was. The Vivian hailstone was almost as wide as a typical ball your child might use on the playground and roughly as heavy as a hammer. Now picture those stones falling at speeds over 100 mph, and you might imagine the damage they caused. The hail left large divots in grass and punched a hole through the deck of the Vivian home. And because the severe thunderstorm knocked out power at the home, the record hailstone melted somewhat between when it was first found and when the NWS meteorologists measured it. The Vivian hailstone is also the heaviest on record in the Western Hemisphere, according to the World Meteorological Organization. The heaviest hailstone anywhere on Earth weighed 2.25 pounds in the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh on April 14, 1986. Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
PHOTOS: Supercell hits Calgary area with hail, torrential rains
A strong supercell thunderstorm blew into the Calgary area on Sunday evening, bringing a dose of high winds, large hail, and heavy rains to the region. A favourable setup for severe weather on Sunday evening sparked numerous potent thunderstorms across southern Alberta. Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) issued a severe thunderstorm warning ahead of the storm's arrival, alerting residents of the potential for up to golf ball size hail and very strong wind gusts. There were no immediate reports of damage early Sunday evening. Check out some of the visuals of the storm and its hail, below. #yyc #yycstorm — Liza (@blabbit000) July 14, 2025 Kind of not loving what's above me right now SW Airdrie 7:55 pm#abstorm #YYCWeather #ABweather — Heather 🐾 (@hlmanser) July 14, 2025 It's #yyc #abstorm #calgary #stampede #hail — Denise Henwood (@DeniseHenwood) July 14, 2025 NW Calgary hail aftermath. #abstorm — Mark Lehman (@Mlehman99) July 14, 2025 Over toonie sized hail in Nw Calgary. Near Ranchlands #abstorm #yyc #hail — ⚡️Dave🌪 (@hailchaser77) July 14, 2025 #abstorm — (dm) (@LurvesFood) July 14, 2025 Citadel Calgary #abstorm — Christine (@DaLuCkYnUmBeR13) July 14, 2025 Storm NW of Calgary, AB at 7:31PM #abstorm — Mhairi McDonald (@MhairiAMcDo) July 14, 2025 View of the #abstorm just NW of the City of Calgary. 7:38pm — P Y Howard (@p_yhoward) July 14, 2025 OMG OMG OMG LOOK AT THE STORM #abstorm — RMTReviews (@tucsondog) July 14, 2025 Wow! 7:57 #abstorm — Liam (@Lejo171) July 14, 2025 Header image submitted by Heather/@hlmanser via X. Click here to view the video
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
PHOTOS: Supercell hits Calgary area with hail, torrential rains
A strong supercell thunderstorm blew into the Calgary area on Sunday evening, bringing a dose of high winds, large hail, and heavy rains to the region. A favourable setup for severe weather on Sunday evening sparked numerous potent thunderstorms across southern Alberta. Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) issued a severe thunderstorm warning ahead of the storm's arrival, alerting residents of the potential for up to golf ball size hail and very strong wind gusts. There were no immediate reports of damage early Sunday evening. Check out some of the visuals of the storm and its hail, below. #yyc #yycstorm — Liza (@blabbit000) July 14, 2025 Kind of not loving what's above me right now SW Airdrie 7:55 pm#abstorm #YYCWeather #ABweather — Heather 🐾 (@hlmanser) July 14, 2025 It's #yyc #abstorm #calgary #stampede #hail — Denise Henwood (@DeniseHenwood) July 14, 2025 NW Calgary hail aftermath. #abstorm — Mark Lehman (@Mlehman99) July 14, 2025 Over toonie sized hail in Nw Calgary. Near Ranchlands #abstorm #yyc #hail — ⚡️Dave🌪 (@hailchaser77) July 14, 2025 #abstorm — (dm) (@LurvesFood) July 14, 2025 Citadel Calgary #abstorm — Christine (@DaLuCkYnUmBeR13) July 14, 2025 Storm NW of Calgary, AB at 7:31PM #abstorm — Mhairi McDonald (@MhairiAMcDo) July 14, 2025 View of the #abstorm just NW of the City of Calgary. 7:38pm — P Y Howard (@p_yhoward) July 14, 2025 OMG OMG OMG LOOK AT THE STORM #abstorm — RMTReviews (@tucsondog) July 14, 2025 Wow! 7:57 #abstorm — Liam (@Lejo171) July 14, 2025 Header image submitted by Heather/@hlmanser via X. Click here to view the video
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Supercell storm blows through Ithaca and downs trees, electrical wires
The National Weather Service in Binghamton tracked a "significant supercell," or a strong thunderstorm with a heavy updraft, from Penn Yan to New Jersey, causing widespread damage on July 3 and 4. Meteorologist Adam Gill confirmed a tornado warning near Ithaca on July 3, but no evidence of a tornado touchdown. The storm produced strong winds and extensive damage, including downed trees and wires, Gill said during a July 7 interview. "That storm produced what's called a rear flank downdraft, and in that rear flank downdraft, there is frequently 70 to 90 mile an hour winds, so there's a pretty broad swath of damage, basically extending some the Ithaca all the way Southeast through Binghamton and then down into Northeast Pennsylvania," he said. Prior reports and communications sent to The Ithaca Journal from residents in Newfield, Enfield and Danby suggest localized damage and outages. A video by Ithaca-area photographer Cindy Massicci, which has since been featured in ABC World News, showed the world a view of the skies in the Ithaca area on the evening of July 3. More than 1,500 people in Ithaca were without power for the night of July 3 as upwards of 50 electrical poles were repaired throughout the region, according to NYSEG statements. This article originally appeared on Ithaca Journal: July 3 Ithaca storm was a 'significant supercell,' meteorologists say
Forbes
11-06-2025
- Climate
- Forbes
Tornado Chaser Chris Coach: You Never Forget Your First One
A tornadic mothership supercell, near Santo, Texas, May 18, 2025. The U.S tornado season is wrapping up. For me, it was a fruitful one, having seen multiple twisters this past spring, my very first photogenic one near Silverton, Texas, on April 24. I had been storm chasing with veterans Tim Bovasso and Jeff Anderson at the time (story link below). Three weeks later, I found myself back in Texas, giving thrill rides to NASCAR Racing Experience customers at the Texas Motor Speedway near Dallas. A friend of Bovasso's, Chris Coach, 26, asked if I wanted to chase with him on my day off, Sunday, May 18. There wasn't a high probability for tornadoes that day in the immediate area around DFW - maybe 2% - so we weren't too excited. But hey, you never know. Tornado forming near Santo, Texas, May 18, 2025. Around 2:30 p.m., Coach picked me up at my hotel, with - surprise - his entire family in the back of a Honda Pilot: wife, Seiyana, and five kids. What's important to know here is that Coach had never seen a tornado, despite having chased a few dozen times going all the way back to 2021. So, if we found one, it would be a big deal, both for me and for a frustrated Coach. Traffic wasn't bad for a Sunday, and we made good time north toward Santo, where a supercell, the giant cloud structure that produces tornadoes, was building. Using his cellphone radar app - you could tell he had done this before - Coach navigated us via smallish back roads to a farm. Across the flat fields in front of us, we watched the sky slowly darken and the lightning pick up. Powerful stovepipe tornado off of I-20 near Santo, Texas, May 18, 2025. An ominous black Wall Cloud (WC) with rotating air appeared directly below the supercell, perfect conditions for a tornado to drop. We waited and Sure enough one of the rotating nipples hanging from the WC began snaking its way toward the ground. The funnel danced and flickered, as if it wasn't sure weather or not to drop.. It finally did, but didn't last long before it evaporated back into the supercell. But it was definitely a twister, perhaps the first of many that night. To avoid approaching hail, which Coach could see on radar and which sometimes is as big as softballs, we high-tailed it back to the main roads, then followed the temperamental supercell as it traveled south. It was already 8:15 p.m. and getting dark, but tornado warnings kept popping up on our phones, so we stayed vigilant. Cellphone radar app indicates a tornado on the ground near Santo, Texas, May 18, 2025. After about 15 minutes on I-20, Coach's wife and kids started yelling, 'Tornado,, tornado!' I couldn't see anything, being on the right side in the front passenger's seat, nor could Coach, who was driving. He immediately found a safe spot on the side of the 70-mph highway, and pulled over. Sure enough, about four miles above a ridge behind us, a stovepipe tornado was raging. It was a big one, too, at least an EF-2, and all hell broke loose in the car. The kids were screaming, and so were Coach and I. We got out and started snapping away. He had finally seen a photogenic tornado - and so had his kids - and it was a damn impressive one. Tornado visible from highway I-20, May 18, 2025. Coach was in disbelief. 'I couldn't process what was actually happening at the time,' he told me this week in an interview. 'But I have the photos and keep looking at them. My kids told everyone at school, too. They were as excited as I was.' Now that Coach has finally seen his tornado, will he keep chasing? 'You bet,' he says. 'It's addicting. But you never forget your first one.'
