NATIONAL WEATHER SUMMARY: July 18, 2008

Yesterday in the East, a stationary front generated clusters of thunderstorms in northern Lower Michigan, western/central New York, and central/eastern Pennsylvania.

Several of these storms became severe during the afternoon. Hail up to the size of nickels and damaging wind gusts were reported. Meanwhile, a low pressure system produced showers and a few thunderstorms across coastal South Carolina and Georgia, as well as much of Florida. Rainfall totals yesterday across the East were generally in the 0.10" to 0.50" range. However, isolated areas in northern Michigan and northeastern Florida received over 1" of rain. The low temperature at Vicksburg, Mississippi dropped to 67 degrees yesterday morning. This tied the previous daily record low that was originally set in 1967.

In the central United States, a frontal boundary produced scattered to numerous thunderstorms from western Kansas/western Nebraska into South Dakota, and eastward to the western Great Lakes. Many storms became severe, including a storm that produced a 70 mph wind gust in Ceresco, Nebraska yesterday afternoon. There was also a report of a tornado in Hand County in South Dakota yesterday evening. Numerous storms generated flash flooding in southern Nebraska and northern Kansas yesterday afternoon and evening; rainfall totals in this area exceeded 2". Scattered afternoon showers and thunderstorms developed in western Oklahoma and western Texas, although none of these storms became severe. In the West yesterday, monsoonal moisture led to scattered thunderstorm development in the afternoon across much of the Rockies, four Corners Region, Desert Southwest, and parts of interior southern California. A few severe storms developed in eastern Wyoming, eastern Colorado, and eastern New Mexico. Golf ball sized hail fell in Adams, Arapahoe, and Yuma Counties in Colorado yesterday afternoon. Along the West Coast, onshore flow led to scattered morning fog.

WEATHER EXTREMES FOR YESTERDAY:

HIGHEST TEMPERATURE (DEGREES F)............120 Death Valley, CA

HIGHEST HEAT INDEX (DEGREES F).............120 Death Valley, CA

LOWEST TEMPERATURE (DEGREES F)..............33 Polebridge, MT

LOWEST WIND CHILL (DEGREES F)...............33 Polebridge, MT

HIGHEST WIND GUST (MPH).....................70 Ceresco, NE

HIGHEST PRECIPITATION (INCHES)............2.26 Des Moines, IA

ON THIS DATE IN HISTORY:

In 1889, flash flooding in West Virginia killed 20 people. In Rockport, West Virginia, 19" of rain fell in just two hours and ten minutes.

In 1987, 8" of snow fell across the northern Sierra Nevada Mountains

in California. The temperature at Susanville, California dropped to 17 degrees.

In 1996, an F5 tornado struck Oakfield, Wisconsin. The tornado destroyed 47 homes and injured 17 people.

DTN-Meteorlogix

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