Eyes remain on the skies

Glenda Hartwig kept her eyes on the sky last weekend.

Darkening clouds worried the volunteer coordinator for a special Thomas the Tank Engine event being held at Fremont’s Ronin Park. The worry on her face deepened when a severe thunderstorm warning was issued for Dodge County with a storm around Dodge making a line straight for Fremont.

But after only a few drops of rain before 11 a.m. the dark sky cleared quickly.

Becky Griffis, forecaster with the National Weather Service in Valley, said that is typical of a summer storm.

"A storm needs three things," Griffis said. "It needs moisture in the air, a forcing mechanism - like a front or an upper level disturbance - and wind sheer."

All three of those elements were present when the storms began to develop late Sunday morning north of Dodge County.

"We had an upper level disturbance," Griffis said. "We also had a boundary running across the area. The storms were traveling northwest to southeast. They were firing up north of the boundary, but once they traveled to the boundary they died out. They died rapidly. That cell in Dodge County died just south of Scribner."

People tend to think that severe storms mainly occur in the spring, but they occur frequently in the summer, she said, adding the recipes for storms are different in the two times of the year.

"The main thing about summer is that we have incredible heat and moisture. Corn has a lot to do with the moisture in the air. Corn releases moisture. That mixes with the moisture that’s coming up from the Gulf (of Mexico). We don’t get as much moisture from the Gulf that we do in the spring.

"Also, the jet stream is different between the spring and summer. In the spring, storms come from Colorado traveling southwest to northeast. In the summer, we get more west to east traveling storms and even northwest to southeast like we did Sunday."

Storms produce several elements that can cause damage and endanger people, she said. Many people think that tornadoes cause the most problems, but tornadoes are not as frequent as other storm elements.

"Lightning is a big problem," she said. "Every storm has lightning. Not all storms are severe, but all storms have lightning. We get quite a few storms around here. Right now, there are a lot of outdoor activities. That makes the storms more dangerous."

Flash flooding is another danger that many people don’t consider, she said. Only about nine inches of water is needed to wash away a car, and the danger to people comes when they try to drive through a flooded area.

"Even just straight line winds can do a lot of damage. Winds can knock down trees, knock out windows. If the ground is saturated, it just doesn’t take much wind to knock down trees."

Hail can cause serious damage, but it can also hurt people when they stand outside in a hail storm.

"The combination of big hail and wind can be much worse," she continued. "That’s what happened at Woodcliff not too long ago.

"People need to take any storm seriously. Any storm can be dangerous. People need to remember that."