The Nations Weather

Scattered showers and thunderstorms fired up across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic in the afternoon hours on Thursday, producing numerous reports of small hail and high winds. Hail near Garden City, New York reached the size of quarters, with other hail reports near penny and nickel sizes. Winds were also locally gusty, downing some power lines in York Pennsylvania. A sagging frontal boundary in Florida sparked off showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon hours, 1 of which produced a short lived tornado in Miami-Dade county. The tornado was reported to have moved and flipped a few vehicles before lifting off. Isolated showers and storms also plagued the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes, but no reports of severe weather were associated with the storms. Dry conditions held for the Tennessee Valley and western two-thirds of the Deep South.

Central states also experienced a great deal of unsettled weather ranging from tornadoes in the northern Plains to high winds in the southern Plains and northern Texas. Storms in the Dakotas and western Minnesota produced hail up to the size of golf balls, with a tornado in Aberdeen, South Dakota, blowing over tents and awnings at some fair grounds. A relative minimum of storms occurred across the central Plains, with the southern Plains and northern Texas seeing severe thunderstorms in the afternoon hours. Storms produced wind gusts nearing 70 mph in portions of Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle with hail up to the size of half-dollars. Storms near the Mississippi Valley were generally of the garden variety, but a few reports of small hail were associated with them. The Ozarks, Mississippi Delta and northwestern Great Lakes were about the only areas to see dry conditions all day.

The western reaches of the country was dominated by an upper-level low pressure system moving down the Rockies. This tapped into monsoonal moisture and sparked off scattered showers and thunderstorms from Montana down into Colorado. Storms became severe in the afternoon hours, dropping hail across much of the High Plains of Colorado. Monsoonal storms across the Desert Southwest created another day of high winds, with dust storms forming in portions of Arizona. Hot temperatures built into the Pacific Northwest and Great Basin, as well as interior California.

WEATHER EXTREMES FOR YESTERDAY:

HIGHEST TEMPERATURE (DEGREES F)............122 Death Valley, CA

HIGHEST HEAT INDEX (DEGREES F).............115 Avon Park, FL

LOWEST TEMPERATURE (DEGREES F)..............32 Wisdom, MT

LOWEST WIND CHILL (DEGREES F)...............31 Ely, NV

HIGHEST WIND GUST (MPH).....................81 Melrose, NM

HIGHEST PRECIPITATION (INCHES)............1.96 Crestview, FL

ON THIS DATE IN HISTORY:

In 1787, a major tornado outbreak occurred across central and eastern Connecticut Valley in New England.

In 1967, a inchesSundance Fire inches in northern Idaho was started by lightning in the midst of 1 of the hottest and driest summers on record.

In 1988, Washington D.C. soared up to 103 degrees before powerful thunderstorms caused major power outages.

DTN-Meteorlogix

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