Brad_Burton's Blog

I always enjoy reading through the day's NWS forecast discussions. There is almost always something insightful or educational in them for both skilled meteorologists and enthusiastic amateurs. Although the FOX8 team does a great job of covering all aspects of the weather that the public needs to know, these technical discussions allow you to read more in-depth into the actual processes and goings-on of our current atmospheric processes which would most likely bore, confuse, or turn-away most viewers. But for those interested in more that just knowing whether or not its going to rain tomorrow, I highly recommend checking it out once in awhile. I even read other state's discussions occasionally, especially if there is interesting or exciting weather taking place there. Plus, every so often you get a rare nugget of information that serves to be a real treat.

Speaking of which, in this evening's discussion out of Raleigh, they had an add-on paragraph at the end about a phenomenon that happened today over Durham County. Commonly mistaken as tornadoes/funnels (for a good reason), this phenomenon can be quite an amazing sight if you ever get the chance. Below is a copy of the discussion text.

ON A SIDE NOTE... WE RECEIVED NUMEROUS CALLS FROM DURHAM COUNTY
EARLIER THIS EVENING WITH REPORTS OF A FUNNEL CLOUD. THIS FUNNEL
CLOUD WAS THE RESULT OF AN INTERESTING WEATHER PHENOMENA KNOWN AS A
COLD AIR FUNNEL. THE COMBINATION OF A RELATIVELY WARM GROUND... THE
COLD TEMPERATURES ALOFT ASSOCIATED WITH THE CLOSED LOW... AND SPIN
IN THE ATMOSPHERE CREATED BY THE CLOSED LOW... LEADS TO THE
POTENTIAL FORMATION OF A COLD AIR FUNNEL. A SHOWER DEVELOPED IN THE
AREA OF THE FUNNEL REPORT AND WAS LIKELY THE FACTOR THAT HELPED TO
FOCUS THE ROTATION ALOFT TO PRODUCE THE FUNNEL. THIS TYPE OF
OCCURRENCE RARELY EVER PRODUCES AN ACTUAL TORNADO AND IS TYPICALLY
HARMLESS. THIS TYPE OF PHENOMENA OCCURS MANY TIMES IN ASSOCIATION
WITH COLD UPPER LOWS.


For a little more information on cold air funnels, as well as a picture, check out this website: http://www.theweatherprediction.com/habyhints/329/