Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Supercell Thunderstorm Visits the Tetons

Supercell Thunderstorm visits the Tetons.

Late afternoon on June 12, 2013 a Supercell Thunderstorm developed over the upper Snake River Valley of Eastern Idaho and rapidly moved east across the Tetons and the Jackson Hole region.  Though no tornados were reported(and likely did not develop) this storm was a classic Supercell as seen both through the photographs taken and the radar signatures.  Jim Woodmencey(Woody) of Mountainweather.com has provided a couple excellent blogs on his web site with the photographs and other interesting meteorological observations associated with the Supercell.  The photo of the day was taken from Snow King looking west at the approaching storm



Here is a link to Woody's blog concerning the storm.  Be sure to check out the blogs on both June 12th and 17th.


MountainWeather Blog

Thanks Woody

3 comments:

  1. Pretty awesome! I missed it by a couple days... :(

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  2. Hey Jack... Got a few questions. I've been here a few days now (Teton Valley) and we've had several days of high based showers, mostly virga every afternoon and evening.

    3 things..

    1. is the atmosphere below just too dry for the rain to reach the ground... (or are the convective towers too small to create rain heavy enough to reach the surface). I know in the west, it's somewhat common to get alot of dry storms, but it seems like it's just been alot of trouble to get much to the surface.

    2. Why hasn't there been any lightning? Does it have something to do with the lack of rain or relatively small towers not creating enough static?

    3. Not sure you can answer this or if it's similar in the Star Valley... but every evening I've been here so far (sometimes at different times) we get strong downsloping easterly winds from the Tetons that lasts well into the night. Is this just the typical diurnal sinking of air from the mtns to the valleys that often occurs in this type of geography?

    Thanks for any help. Hope you don't mind me asking questions if they are not specifically related to Star Valley.

    Todd

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