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  • 3 weeks ago
In this Forecast Feed, AccuWeather's Geoff Cornish says gusty storms will bring some drought relief, but also localized flash flooding and travel disruptions from the Ohio Valley to the mid-Atlantic.
Transcript
00:00In the forecast feed, we have our eye on many different things.
00:03We've been looking a lot at the tropics and the activity in the northern Gulf,
00:06but we want to shift our focus just for a few moments here
00:11to the severe weather risk that's going to be escalating.
00:13We've seen issues in the Midwest at the beginning of the week.
00:16We're moving forward Tuesday and Wednesday.
00:18The risk escalates into the eastern two-thirds of the Ohio Valley
00:22and especially into the northeast as well.
00:24Damaging straight-line winds will be our greatest concern,
00:27but we also have some other issues out there as well
00:30involving potential for some hail, isolated tornadoes as well.
00:33So let's take a look at the overall setup here.
00:37And here we are Tuesday, and there's our cold front.
00:41Everybody east of there has the risk of severe storms.
00:44So this includes the Ohio Valley all the way east.
00:48Now, the greatest risk for many of us here is going to be Tuesday afternoon and evening.
00:52You get into areas around southeast Virginia, into the Carolinas.
00:55The front's going to be making more progress east.
00:57But by the time we get to Wednesday, that's when we see the risk probably reach its peak
01:02down into parts of Virginia and off the map a bit down into some sections of North Carolina as well.
01:07Flooding will be a concern out there as well.
01:10So I'm going to be looking at some computer model graphics
01:12and showing you some of the insight behind our reasoning for these graphics.
01:16But the greatest flood risk, generally, PA Turnpike, I-70, and southward.
01:22And down through parts of southern Ohio, we had some flash flooding in the Cincinnati metro late last week.
01:30So the ground's been nearly saturated there.
01:32This is going to be more drought relief, but it does come with some trouble into the mid-Atlantic states
01:37and then into Wednesday, kind of really be more of a Tuesday situation up to the north
01:42and a Wednesday situation down to the south here, just given the timing of the front.
01:47Let's step away from our graphics and go to the computer models here for a moment or a few minutes.
01:53And big features on the map here that may jump out at you here.
01:57We have our, well, I can actually just draw the overall high-pressure system aloft over the interior west, over
02:05the Rockies.
02:05And then we have a big trough, low pressure over east-central Canada.
02:10It's bringing some good news.
02:11We have these recent wildfires that are getting some rain out of this in parts of northern Minnesota and just
02:17north of the border.
02:17But let's take this forward here.
02:19And we have a trough.
02:21I'm going to illustrate the trough.
02:22And here's the base of the trough here.
02:24It actually begins to go negative with the tilt.
02:29So this is a negatively tilted trough.
02:31I'm connecting the dots between the southernmost pouch of these height lines.
02:36You'll notice that in various different models, this is the European.
02:40I'll go back to the NAM and the GFS as well.
02:43Instead of it being tilted southwest to northeast or even directly north to south, this is close to directly north
02:49to south,
02:49it does gain a negative tilt here.
02:52Here it's a little more dramatic as we highlight connecting the dots between the lowest portion,
02:57the southernmost portion of those height lines.
03:01That's a negative tilt there with the GFS and then the NAM.
03:05Similar.
03:06When we get a trough that digs in that fashion, draped northwest to southeast or north-northwest to south-southeast,
03:13that is an orientation that really leads to more lift, more dramatic lift in the atmosphere.
03:19And that makes it a really punchy storm setup here Tuesday into Wednesday.
03:23The greatest risk is going to be Tuesday.
03:26Wednesday's threat for the mid-Atlantic will still be significant, but it's not going to be as high.
03:30Meanwhile, to the south, you can see our tropical system drifting west here as Bertha becomes more of a problem
03:36for Louisiana.
03:37So overall, here we are with our setup here into the northeast.
03:42And looking at the precipitation forecast, Tuesday afternoon, this is the rainfall from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.,
03:47basically late morning to midday, Cincinnati, southern Ohio, look out, heavy rain.
03:52Moving forward, it's the evening when the I-95, including New York City, really gets into it.
03:57And we're going to be planning a YouTube live simulcast Tuesday, 4 to 8 p.m. because of this very
04:03threat.
04:03Yeah, we'll be talking about Bertha as well, but also a lot of eyes.
04:07The main impetus for us to do this is actually a severe risk for the short term for Tuesday.
04:12And here's the European looking at rainfall, 2 p.m. to 8 p.m., 8 p.m. to 2 a
04:18.m. Wednesday, Tuesday night,
04:20and then deep into the night, we'll see a new episode then on Wednesday here.
04:24For parts of the New England states, I don't think we're going to be as unstable by then.
04:29The greater severe risk may be down into the Carolinas by the time we get into Wednesday afternoon,
04:33but still some risk a little farther north until that front clears.
04:36And here's the European with that for Wednesday.
04:38I think the European actually plays this best, highlighting the severe thunderstorm hazards
04:43down into the Chesapeake Bay region, eastern North Carolina, South Carolina as well.
04:47Let's look at some other parameters out there.
04:49Here's the dew point surge.
04:50Man, it's really juicy air out there.
04:52Even in the short term, let's go to, say, Tuesday afternoon.
04:57I see this purple here.
04:58That is an 80-degree dew point.
05:01That's an 80-degree dew point.
05:03That's like really, really tropical air there in western Kentucky, in areas near and west
05:09of Elizabethtown.
05:10Is that overdone?
05:11Perhaps.
05:12But there is some other support for that in the NAM.
05:18Flirting with near 80-degree dew points in southern Indiana.
05:21In the European, there are some near 80-degree dew points there out near Paducah Tuesday evening.
05:27That is some really juicy air out there.
05:29And as we highlight the front, I'm looking at the wind streamlines here, converging.
05:34That really humid surge is right before the front arrives when we have that flow from the south.
05:40And then eventually, an abrupt shift in the wind will accompany those thunderstorms.
05:44Once we get into Wednesday, it's very juicy air to the Carolinas as well.
05:50Here's our front.
05:50You can easily see the dew point change there as well.
05:53Drier air follows this.
05:54But also, it's going to begin to shove some smoke back into parts of the Great Lakes area following the
05:59front.
05:59So, very humid air.
06:01Here is a look at the lifted index.
06:03This is a way of, it's kind of an old-fashioned parameter that looks at the updraft potential based on
06:09instability.
06:10Warp and humidity at the ground.
06:12Colder air aloft.
06:12You can see some very strong values there in southern Indiana with that high dew point air.
06:17The values aren't as incredibly high for the northeast, but they're certainly going to be high enough.
06:22It's very warm and humid out there.
06:24And the timing of this may be a factor in the lifted indices being maximized for the Ohio Valley.
06:29There is going to be some wind shear, but really this is moderate wind shear and stronger CAPE.
06:36The updraft potential is going to be maximized.
06:39One quick word here.
06:41Again, beyond the severe weather risk that we're facing for most of the northeast,
06:45we're also going to be facing some potential for some wildfire smoke.
06:48It won't be as thick behind this system.
06:50So, that's your forecast feed.
06:52Severe weather threatening the northeast Tuesday, Tuesday evening.
06:54We're going to be facing a few miles away.
06:54We're going to be facing a few miles away.
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