Spinning columns of air take many forms, from areas of high and low pressure, to much smaller scale ranging from harmless whirls to devastating tornadoes.
Tag Archives Weather Vane column
Straight-line winds pose nasty threat
Nearly all straight-line winds occur near the leading edge of a thunderstorm, which are made up of areas of updrafts and downdrafts.
Understanding how hail is formed
Most thunderstorms will produce hail; the question is whether or not the hail will grow large enough to make it to the ground without completely melting.
What thunderstorms need to turn bad
In this issue we are going to look at what takes a regular old thunderstorm, and turns it into a severe thunderstorm or, occasionally, into a thunderstorm that you truly remember.
Weather outlook is for dry summer
As we move into summer, it is time to look at the latest and greatest summer forecasts.
Forecasts foresee hot and dry summer for Canadian Prairies
A scorching and arid spring is set to tick over towards more of the same
As we wrap up the last month of meteorological spring and start the first month of summer, it is time for our monthly look at how the weather behaved last month, compare it to what the weather models predicted, and then look ahead to see if there are any changes to the long-range forecast for the rest of the summer.
Understanding wind all about the force
Last issue, we talked about how the pressure gradient force is the main driving force of wind in our atmosphere and that it exists due to the unequal heating of the Earth’s surface.
Wind: gravity, pressure, coriolis, friction
I had a basic weather question from one of our younger readers that simply asked what wind is and why has this spring been so windy, at least across parts of the Prairies.
What makes a severe thunderstorm?
Severe thunderstorms need rising air, and to get that you need heat, or rather, you need a large difference in temperature between two areas.
Weather models predict hot summer
It is time for our monthly look back at how the weather shaped up across the Prairies and then our look ahead to see what kind of weather the different long-range forecasts or predictions are calling for this summer.
