Severe Weather Event July 29, 2002

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(from the warn mailing list…)

You haven’t heard much from us recently, because there hasn’t been very much to say. Most of the members of this list who are local to Cincinnati probably know that there was some heavy weather in the area today. Some trees and power lines were damaged, but no widespread damage has been reported. No hail was reported either.

Thanks to Steve (N8TFD) and Dan (W8DEX) for handling Net Control duties when the Wilmington NWS office called for a net. This was a relatively long net that didn’t really generate much in the way of severe reports.

There was one PERFECT example of why the Weather Amateur Radio Network is so valuable when severe weather strikes. As a severe storm moved through Hamilton County, the NWS called our net control asking for reports from the Colerain Township area. It seems they had received a report of a possible funnel cloud in that area, but they weren’t seeing anything on radar that would indicate such. There were several HAM radio operators spread throughout the area (about 6). None was able to see anything resembling a funnel cloud. All reported seeing a lot of “scud” associated with the gusty leading edge of the storm. These harmless clouds can easily be mistaken for funnel clouds, even by trained spotters who can only see them from one angle. In this case, multiple spotters viewing the storm from several locations were able to clarify the situation for the National Weather Service. It took about a minute for this to occur.

If you’ve ever seen one of our net control operators speak at a spotter course, you’ve heard them mention the coordination we have between many spotters. Tonight was a perfect example of that. Good job folks!

Looks like were back to the hot and humid weather now. Maybe the pink flamingos are just sunburned!