"Ask Steve" Lots of Local Weather Trivia (Pacific: elementary school, tornado)

[scirocco22]

I often send this webpage to friends who are curious about Washington's weather.

Steve Pool is a meteorologist for KOMO TV in Seatte and is well respected by some locals. I know many of my friends whom are women just love him!

He's answered many questions about weather, earthquakes, and related topics from viewers over the years and they have them summarized on this webpage:

http://www.komotv.com/weather/asksteve

There's some interesting trivia covered. This is a good site for those considering moving to the area and are curious about weather trivia and other related topics. It's even interesting for those who've lived in the area for a long time.


Thanks.

--'rocco

[brightcopperkettles]

Cool site, 'rocco!! Answered a lot of questions I had...and a lot I never even thought of!

[scirocco22]

*lol* yeah, kettles, me too! Some I would never even thought of asking.

I think a lot of them were sent in by elementary school students.



Thanks.

--'rocco

[brightcopperkettles]

That explains it; most of them are smarter than most of us... :-)

[scirocco22]

Hah! so we're not smarter than a fifth grader, eh?!



Thanks.

--'rocco

[brightcopperkettles]

Originally Posted by scirocco22

Hah! so we're not smarter than a fifth grader, eh?!



Thanks.

--'rocco

Some days I know I am definitely not!

[jwb123]

Awww, Steve Pool! I miss him!

[brightcopperkettles]

I re-read a lot of Steve Pool's explanations this morning, and I have to say, he is absolutely great! This morning, I did send him a question about tornadoes in the South, though. Hope he answers it.

My question was if the marine climate helps the NW avoid tornadoes, why doesn't the fact that South Carolina (well, for that matter, NC and Georgia as well) is on the coast help them avoid tornadoes as well. My guess is that it has something to do with the west-to-east movement of air, but that's only a guess. Hopefully Steve will answer me; I'm sure he knows. He really is the nicest gentleman!

[scirocco22]

Let us know if he gets back to you. I'd be curious what he has to say.

--'rocco

[brightcopperkettles]

Originally Posted by scirocco22

Let us know if he gets back to you. I'd be curious what he has to say.

--'rocco

Here is the reply I received:

[Hi Cheryl

It has to do with the kind of marine air. Here, our air comes off the cold Pacific Ocean, which is in the 50s year round. In SC, your marine air is coming off the warm Atlantic, which can be in the 70s or 80s for temperature. That warmer air helps make the atmosphere more unstable and condusive to tornadoes. Although in SC, you aren't quite in tornado alley because you aren't in the heart of the tornado zone. That is more in the central Midwest -- a la Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri. The worst case scenario for tornados is to have very cold air from Canada mix with warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico or the southeast Atlantic. The rate of tornadoes drops as you go east because you don't get as much of the cold air from Canada to mix, but sometimes, you get enough of that mixing that far east to get a strong enough cold front to make tornadoes that far east.


Tornadoes are nearly unheard of along the West Coast becuase we don't get the cold arctic air from Canada (it usually pushes east of the Rockies) nor do we have the warm humid air from the Gulf (the Rockies prevent that from getting too far west). Our air is predominantly the stable cool breeze off the ocean -- that also explains why bad thunderstorms are rare here too

Here's a good map showing frequency of tornadoes across the U.S.:
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/img/climate/severeweather/avgtpsm.gif

And this page:
http://www.hprcc.unl.edu/nebraska/USTORNADOTOTALMAPS.html

Will show the number of observed tornadoes for each state by year
Sincerely,
Scott Sistek
KOMO Weather Producer]

So there you go! Who knew?? Well, our weathermen, of course!