Monday, June 20, 2011

Watch for the Bows, and I Don't Mean Pretty Red or Pink Ones...


When thunderstorms form into a solid line, the potential for wind damage often becomes rather widespread.  A tell-tale sign of likely damaging winds on radar is the "bow echo" or a bowing segment that occurs within the line.  

The image above was just taken from the Vance AFB radar near Jet, OK.  I have placed 4 white arrows on the image, identifying bowing segments within the overall line of storms (click to enlarge).  Wind gusts of 70 mph were recently reported near the Northern-most three arrows.

As the evening progresses, watch for similar bowing segments within the line of storms.  That is almost always where the strongest winds are taking place.

P.S.:  Special note to 'The Planet Pink', one of my most loyal blog followers - I apologize for the derogatory reference to red & pink bows in the title of this post....but it seemed to fit the situation...

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