From time to time I like to check for new research publications on severe storms or interesting weather in general. I was very surprised when I came across these two publications-
Title: An unusual hailstorm on 24 June 2006 in Boulder, Colorado. Part I: Mesoscale setting and radar features
Author(s): Schlatter PT, Schlatter TW, Knight CA
Source: MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW Volume: 136 Issue: 8 Pages: 2813-2832 Published: AUG 2008
Title: An unusual hailstorm on 24 June 2006 in Boulder, Colorado. Part II: Low-density growth of hail
Author(s): Knight CA, Schlatter PT, Schlatter TW
Source: MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW Volume: 136 Issue: 8 Pages: 2833-2848 Published: AUG 2008
As title suggests, these papers concern a hailstorm that occurred in Boulder, Colorado on the 24/6/06. I was fortunate enough to be living in Boulder at the time. I can remember that I was out home and watching the Denver radar. When I noticed the storm making a right turn I quickly grabbed the camera, jumped on the bike and found a good vantage point. This happened to be a multistory carpark within the Colorado University campus and was a perfect position to photograph the storm as it approached Boulder. The storm really started to look quite powerful and I was thinking, based on the structure, that Boulder might take a pounding of large hail. Luckily for Boulder this was not the case and only small, soft hail affected the city. A report of this storm can be found at-
http://www.australiasevereweather.com.au/storm_news/2006/docs/200606-01.htmBefore reading the paper (part 1) I did not realize just how remarkable this storm actually was. Amazing feats for a storm with so little to work with! The major points of the first paper are-
Concerning the conditions:
- CAPE was at most 1550 j/kg
- dry boundary layer (surface dewpoint was no more 8.5°C)
- weakly sheared environment
Storm characteristics:
- produced a kilometer-wide swath of water-soaked, low-density hail
- at one stage the storm had a bounded weak echo region (BWER) 14 km across. This is as wide as any BWER previously documented
- the mesocyclone was strong and large, wider than the BWER
When reading this paper it was apparent that the authors had not seen any decent photos of the storm structure. I therefore emailed the corresponding author. He replied that he was looking for photos just like mine about a year and half ago and had he found them, he probably would have included them in the paper. I think that would have been the real icing on the cake for me, never mind though.
Michael
