Local Storm Patterns

[Kirk Chestnut]

Inspired by Steve Miller's post "How The Shape Of Your City Determines The Weather," what uniquely local weather patterns have you observed around your home town. Here are some of mine. . .

Kansas City Metro - The "Tonganoxie Split."
This local myth, probably coined by a TV meteorologist, says that storms approaching the metro area from the west split in two near the town of Tonganoxie and bypass Kansas City to the north and south. The effect it is said is due to hilly terrain and the proximity of the Kaw and Missouri rivers. This has yet to be scientifically proven.

It does seem that Kansas City's position on the map places it far enough east that storms which form over central Kansas/Nebraska during peak heating arrive late in the evening/overnight and collapse in wind, hail and torrential rain. Occasionally when the timing is right tornado warned storms that do develop follow a general northern path: Bonner Springs, Parkville, Liberty or a southern path: Gardner to Lee's Summit. There has been the occasional EF-0 spin up into Overland Park but for the most part Kansas City has been spared from devastating tornadoes for a very long time.

Lincoln/Lancaster Co. - Beach Front
For the six years I lived in Lincoln, I never observed a single tornado but a few small ones did form in the southern part of the county. (I moved before the Hallam tornado hit.) I watched one tornado warned storm approach from the west out of Seward Co and then blow itself out over the airport and points north. It was almost as if the storms swelled up and then crashed on the "shores" of western Lancaster Co. only to redevelop to the east and hit Omaha.

Moore, OK - Tornado Magnet
It seems like the poor folks in Moore get more (pun not intended) than their fair share of devastating storms. What is it about this area's environment?

 

[Royce Sheibal]

Second on the Lincoln Effect. Lived and chased around it for 20 years. Storms tend to reach a peak just to the S/SW of town and lose organization as they push northward / northeast. I have not found them to lose any power however, if they approach from the W or NW toward the Raymond area. I've chased several decent tors through that area in the last decade.

The loss of organization may have something to do with the increase in elevation between Beatrice and Lincoln. Storms tend to spin up/inward and intensify going downhill, but going up hill they tend to broaden their circulation, spread out, and lose the angular momentum required to maintain supercell rotation. Lincoln is on sort of a weird salt-cap above the rest of the county, other than the salt-valley. I wonder if salt has any impact on storms?

Once you hit the NE side of Lincoln, the quick downhill angle toward the river valley seems to boost the cells back into shape, perhaps aided by higher boundary layer moisture near the river as well. Of note, Both of the Omaha monster tornadoes in 1913 and 1975 started in NE Lancaster County on the downslope before moving into Sarpy and Douglas.

 

[JeremyS]

Nobody here has heard of the Omadome? It's the huge invisible dome that prevents all severe weather from hitting Omaha including snowstorms and tornadoes. It's amazing how many people actually believe that exists!

 

[Josh Frank]

Here in Wisconsin we got something called the lake breeze. It occurs off of the Great Lakes and occasionally Lake Winnebago. There is two types of breezes that cause major storms. The first one is the Kettle Collider. This one is super shallow and as a consequence collides with the slightly higher terrain of the Kettle Moraine.It can cause flash flooding resulting from the storms that pop up from the collision with the moraine. The 2nd type is the East Badger Boundary. This one is super deep and far reaching. It can go over the Kettle Moraine and Niagara escarpment without any loss of energy. It can go as far west as the Baraboo Bluffs on extreme days. This one since it acts as an outflow boundary past the moraine can enhance storms that are already moving through (case in point tonight),or can kick off new storms that move with or along the boundary.

 

[rdale]

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/tornadoes/