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Glenn Burns Weather
An unusual start to
summer
 The
month of June turned out to be one of the more unusual beginnings to
the summer season I have ever seen. Afternoon thunderstorms with
large hail, damaging winds, and intense lightning displays continued
to pound us. The rain those storms brought was certainly welcome but
little that actually fell into the Lake Lanier basin.
Then the heat wave came. We saw
seeing temperatures in June the likes of which we had not seen since
the mid 1980s. Athens set a new record high of 102 degrees! We did
have a nice reprieve from the heat the week before the summer
solstice. But it’s now July and the heat will be coming back big
time!
During that little heat wave we
had, I wrote to our state climatologist, David Stooksbury. I asked
him about the evaporation rate at the lake. David said it would be
about .15 inches per day! It will even be higher than that during
the peak of the summer heat. So, in addition to the usage of water
by residents, we also will have an extreme evaporation rate to deal
with. Seems we can’t win!
As far as July is concerned,
it’s the month where we see severe afternoon thunderstorms feeding
on the intense heat of summer. Many of these storms will contain
some small hail. However, the main threat from our July storms is
the intense lightning. With our radar we can peer inside these
storms and actually see the hail inside. The hail is actually
responsible for the intense lightning due to the friction of the
hail stones bumping together with the ice and rain inside the
storm. Our lightning detection network can actually pinpoint the
lightning strikes and can tell the difference between the positive
and negative bolts. The negative bolts are bad enough but the
positive lightning bolts are 10 to 16 times stronger than the
million volts of a negative strike. What makes positive bolts even
more dangerous is that they can leap out well in advance (as many as
25 miles) of the parent thunderstorm. Positive bolts are largely
responsible for lightning related fires and damage.
So, this month, we’ll certainly
be keeping an eye on the sky for those afternoon storms. We suggest
you tune in before you head out on the lake or take the radar with
you! You can always check out our Storm Tracker 2 HD Radar at
www.wsbtv.com
mobile.
Until next month, enjoy your
time on the lake and never take the weather for granted. This time
of year storms can blow up in minutes.
Glenn Burns is chief meteorologist for WSB-TV in Atlanta.
glenn@lakesidenews.com
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