Tornado Warning Issued for north of Calgary: Update - TW for City of Calgary dropped

[LockedOut]

Amazing to see how those small cells are able to produce hail the size of golf balls. How is it so powerful and cold enough to build up and hold hail of that size? Mother nature rocks.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by KevanGuy

Annnnnnnd it died. BLECH. Crappy night. There is some sort of imaginary boundry on the Q2 that is keeping the storms at bay. Cant figure it out what it is.

Probably the crappy name they gave the highway.

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

Rain Shadow . . . . .The mountains are a physical barrier to weather advancing past that point . . . . hence it can be quite wet or snowy in the mountains but very arid and dry on the plains.

Not quite describing our situation but you get the idea:

The process starts on the windward side of the range where moist air is forced to rise over the mountain ridges. In the ascent, the air cools and its moisture condenses, forming extensive clouds and rain/snow. When ranges are high, like the coastal of western North America, much of the moisture in the air falls out on the windward slope. In the Pacific Northwest, this provides the conditions for the extensive temperate rainforests for which the region is known.


After crossing the ridge lines, the moisture-depleted air begins to descend and, in the descent, warms through compression. The downward motion has two effects on the air mass. First, by warming, the air re-evaporates a good portion of the liquid moisture remaining as raindrops/snowflakes and clouds. Second, the downward flow inhibits the formation of thick, precipitation-rich clouds, and thus the potential for precipitation decreases. The region of descending air and decreased precipitation is what we term the rainshadow.


Where rainshadows regularly form, the differences in precipitation can be extreme over rather short distances, in places a factor of ten in annual precipitation over a hundred kilometres or so. Some examples from the Pacific Northwest point this out ably. Spokane, in Washington's eastern arid zone received less than half of Seattle's annual precipitation total (16.7 inches (420 mm) to 37.1 inches (942 mm)); Kamloops in interior British Columbia receives less than a quarter of Vancouver's precipitation (279 mm (11.0 inches) to 1199 mm (47.2 inches)).

My favourite rainshadow place is Maui . . . . . . if you have the balls to circle Haleakala in a rental vehicle, past Hana, you go from rain forest to desert in as little as five miles. Remarkable.

Cowperson

Thanks smarty pants. University Physical Geography is coming back to me now.

[BlackArcher101]

Excellent, we are the lowest for once! Yahoo!

[Bobblehead]

I f'ing hate this summer so far.

It isn't like a trip to Mexico unless you need to pay for all your drinks, the bedrooms aren't air conditioned, there isn't a pool let alone a swim up bar, and they force you to go to work then cut the lawn.

If this was for a day or 2, fine. But there was one a brief respite from the heatwave, and even though tomorrow looks great, we then venture back into the heat.

This is exactly why I didn't complain in the bitter cold winter threads - I dislike this weather much more.

[Dion]

Have a friend in Medicine Hat and she says her air con can't keep up.

[BlackArcher101]

Originally Posted by Dion

Have a friend in Medicine Hat and she says her air con can't keep up.

No kidding... has the daytime high dropped below 35 degrees at all in the past few weeks? The heat alone would drive me insane, let alone being stuck in medicine hat.

[FanIn80]

I love the AC in my office.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by BlackArcher101

No kidding... has the daytime high dropped below 35 degrees at all in the past few weeks? The heat alone would drive me insane, let alone being stuck in medicine hat.

It hasn't dropped below 30. Plus stepping outside was like walking into a blast furnace. Frankly you couldn't pay me to live there. It's like a desert there.

[Slava]

I'm putting in Central A/C this week...I know its not totally worth it, but for a good nights sleep it seems like a steal of a deal.

[Resolute 14]

They just activiated the Emergency Public Warning System again. Massive storm east of Calgary, currently in the Rockyford region. The warning actually described it as "a possible tornado".

[Eddie Bronze]

Sounded like a bomb just went off on the NE corner of the UofC.

They said in that emergency update that there is rotation and the storm is moving 50 km/h but it shouldn't effect Calgary.

[KevanGuy]

Yeah that storm was looking pretty organized. I took off around 5 to go get some pics of it. Didnt really expect it to drop a funnel though. Just as I was turning around to head back to the city I got the EBS warning. Damn shame that it took me f'ing 45 minutes to get out of the city today, I probably would have been right behind it. GOt a bunch of decent pics though.

[KevanGuy]

Holy s, just took a look at the radar on that storm. Frig, if had have seen that I would have kept going. That thing just blew right up. Moving pretty damn quick though.

[Buzzard]

You need mobile radar !

[SeeGeeWhy]

Originally Posted by KevanGuy

Holy s, just took a look at the radar on that storm. Frig, if had have seen that I would have kept going. That thing just blew right up. Moving pretty damn quick though.

Have you ever seen a tornado in person, and got pics of it?

[Hemi-Cuda]

i just have to say that i LOVE this weather. its nice and cool out and very humid, which is awesome. this has easily been the best summer so far in terms of humidity since i've been in Calgary

[KevanGuy]

Originally Posted by Buzzard

You need mobile radar !

Ha yeah, I wish I lived somewhere where buying something that would actually make sense.

No, I haven't seen a tornado in person. I've seen a cold air funnel but thats about it. In Alberta you would really have to be Johnny On The Spot to see one.

Still some sorta nasty cells growing in and around the city, though I suspect they will be trailing off here in the next hour or so.

[Flames0910]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

i just have to say that i LOVE this weather. its nice and cool out and very humid, which is awesome. this has easily been the best summer so far in terms of humidity since i've been in Calgary

how can anybody like humidity

[Flames_Gimp]

Originally Posted by TanguayFan

how can anybody like humidity

I dunno how you couldn't like it. it's felt like we are in fricken hawaii or something