There are many different types of weather scenarios that can cause a lot of damage to homes, cars and crops. Among these, during the warmer months, are lightning, hail, heavy rains and tornadoes. Naturally, the most damaging of these is usually the tornado. But there are times that another phenomenon is sometimes mistaken for the tornado and that’s something we call straight line winds. There are a few different storms that can produce these straight-line winds which include the super cells, the squall lines and the bow echoes. All of which can also produce a tornado. Microbursts can produce straight line winds as well but are not usually associated with the formation of a tornado. So, what’s the difference between straight line winds and tornadoes? First off, tornadoes have winds that circulate and rotate and can have speeds higher than 200 mph. Straight line winds, on the other hand, don’t have speeds that get that high but can get wind speeds that are sometime higher than 100 mph. Also, the straight-line winds are, well, straight, unlike the tornadoes twisting winds. These winds can be just as destructive as a smaller tornado and are usually responsible for most of the wind damage done during severe thunderstorms. And as long as the winds don’t originate from any type of rotation in a thunderstorm, they are deemed a straight line wind and not tornadic winds.
Weather Last Week
May 26: 49/54/0.37”
May 27: 49/65/0”
May 28: 42/61/0.14”
May 29: 42/68/0”
May 30: 43/79/0”
May 31: 46/78/0”
June 1: 44/86/0”
Forecast discussion for the week ahead:
Showers and thunderstorms are in the forecast for the next several days. It’s that time of year that if storms do form, some of them could be on the strong to severe side, so keep an eye out for that potential. Temperatures will be a little cooler than average, though, with highs mainly in the 70s.