WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.259 Hey, everyone, and welcome back to Meteorology 00:00:02.259 --> 00:00:05.379 Matters. It seems like, well, everywhere you 00:00:05.379 --> 00:00:07.179 look these days, the weather's making headlines, 00:00:07.940 --> 00:00:10.560 and, you know, sometimes not for good reasons. 00:00:10.759 --> 00:00:12.960 Yeah, that's for sure. We've had quite a run 00:00:12.960 --> 00:00:15.400 of intense events lately, haven't we? Yeah, we 00:00:15.400 --> 00:00:16.760 really have. And we're going to kind of dive 00:00:16.760 --> 00:00:18.579 into a couple of those today to kind of dissect 00:00:18.579 --> 00:00:22.059 what happened and what's maybe on the horizon, 00:00:22.219 --> 00:00:24.300 too. Sounds good. So, you know, let's start with 00:00:24.300 --> 00:00:26.260 what happened down in South Texas and across 00:00:26.260 --> 00:00:29.839 the border into Mexico. I mean, the pictures 00:00:29.839 --> 00:00:32.140 and videos coming out of there are just, well, 00:00:32.600 --> 00:00:34.500 they're hard to believe. I know. You see those 00:00:34.500 --> 00:00:36.939 rainfall totals and you just, I don't know, it's 00:00:36.939 --> 00:00:39.619 hard to wrap your head around it. Over 20 inches 00:00:39.619 --> 00:00:43.000 of rain in what, like 48 hours? Yeah. Thursday 00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:45.420 and Friday, bam, just like that. I mean, think 00:00:45.420 --> 00:00:47.039 about it. That's like half a year's worth of 00:00:47.039 --> 00:00:49.299 rain for some of those areas. Just poof, two 00:00:49.299 --> 00:00:51.740 days. Yeah. It's just an incredible amount of 00:00:51.740 --> 00:00:53.700 water in such a short period of time. And the 00:00:53.700 --> 00:00:56.759 thing is, that much water that fast? It just 00:00:56.759 --> 00:00:58.899 doesn't have anywhere to go. Right. And that's 00:00:58.899 --> 00:01:00.899 when you start to see the real trouble, the flooding, 00:01:01.159 --> 00:01:03.380 the rescues, tragically even, you know, loss 00:01:03.380 --> 00:01:06.719 of life. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we've already 00:01:06.719 --> 00:01:08.879 had confirmation of at least four deaths related 00:01:08.879 --> 00:01:11.400 to this flooding, three in Hidalgo County, Texas, 00:01:11.480 --> 00:01:14.200 and then one just across the border in Reynosa, 00:01:14.319 --> 00:01:17.129 Tomalipas, Mexico. And the stories coming out 00:01:17.129 --> 00:01:19.090 are just, I mean, heartbreaking, right? People 00:01:19.090 --> 00:01:21.090 needing to be rescued from their homes, cars 00:01:21.090 --> 00:01:23.629 stranded. I saw a picture of a fire truck almost 00:01:23.629 --> 00:01:25.489 totally underwater. I saw that one, too, and 00:01:25.489 --> 00:01:27.409 another one. A couple of those big passenger 00:01:27.409 --> 00:01:30.370 buses completely submerged. Yeah. Just, I don't 00:01:30.370 --> 00:01:31.909 know, it gives you a sense of just how quickly 00:01:31.909 --> 00:01:34.049 things went bad. Yeah, no kidding. It's not like 00:01:34.049 --> 00:01:36.290 a little puddle in the road. This was serious 00:01:36.290 --> 00:01:38.930 flooding. And, you know, beyond that immediate 00:01:38.930 --> 00:01:41.549 danger, you've got the long -term impacts, too. 00:01:41.629 --> 00:01:43.790 Oh, yeah, absolutely. We're hearing reports of 00:01:43.790 --> 00:01:46.480 pretty widespread damage. to homes and businesses, 00:01:46.480 --> 00:01:49.379 you know, flooded out, just wrecked. And it's 00:01:49.379 --> 00:01:51.519 not just the structures either, right? The agricultural 00:01:51.519 --> 00:01:54.000 impacts, the crops, the livestock. I mean, that's 00:01:54.000 --> 00:01:56.620 people's livelihoods. It is. And that's going 00:01:56.620 --> 00:01:58.840 to take a while to bounce back from. Hidalgo 00:01:58.840 --> 00:02:01.500 County actually declared a local disaster, you 00:02:01.500 --> 00:02:03.780 know, to try to get resources flowing to where 00:02:03.780 --> 00:02:07.040 they're needed most. Yeah, that's a huge step 00:02:07.040 --> 00:02:09.280 in starting the recovery process, getting things 00:02:09.280 --> 00:02:11.439 back on track. We actually heard from a couple 00:02:11.439 --> 00:02:13.439 of residents down there. One was a guy named 00:02:13.439 --> 00:02:16.659 Victor, lives in Primera, Texas. Oh, yeah. What 00:02:16.659 --> 00:02:18.479 do you have to say? Well, he was saying, you 00:02:18.479 --> 00:02:20.099 know, they're kind of used to bad weather down 00:02:20.099 --> 00:02:22.479 there, but this was just different. The speed, 00:02:22.639 --> 00:02:25.199 the amount of water, it just came on so fast. 00:02:25.280 --> 00:02:28.460 He said it brought back a lot of memories of 00:02:28.460 --> 00:02:30.860 past storms, you know, kind of that feeling of 00:02:30.860 --> 00:02:33.659 helplessness. Make sense, especially for folks 00:02:33.659 --> 00:02:35.379 who have been through this kind of thing before. 00:02:35.800 --> 00:02:38.439 It must bring back a lot of, I don't know, anxiety, 00:02:38.620 --> 00:02:41.539 maybe even trauma. Yeah, no question. It's a 00:02:41.539 --> 00:02:43.979 long road to recovery, both physically and mentally. 00:02:44.159 --> 00:02:45.500 But, you know, while they're dealing with the 00:02:45.500 --> 00:02:48.039 aftermath of that down south, we've got another 00:02:48.039 --> 00:02:50.560 weather story brewing that we need to talk about. 00:02:50.860 --> 00:02:52.939 Yeah, definitely. We've got a. Well, I guess 00:02:52.939 --> 00:02:54.860 you could call it a multi -day severe weather 00:02:54.860 --> 00:02:57.860 event shaping up across a big chunk of the central 00:02:57.860 --> 00:03:00.860 and eastern U .S. So not just your average afternoon 00:03:00.860 --> 00:03:03.319 thunderstorms. This is something a little more 00:03:03.319 --> 00:03:06.139 serious. Exactly. We're talking about the potential 00:03:06.139 --> 00:03:08.719 for strong tornadoes, you know, the kind that 00:03:08.719 --> 00:03:12.639 can cause significant damage also. large hail, 00:03:12.819 --> 00:03:15.319 maybe even baseball sized in some areas, and 00:03:15.319 --> 00:03:17.740 then those damaging straight line winds, you 00:03:17.740 --> 00:03:19.580 know, that can knock down trees and power lines. 00:03:19.900 --> 00:03:22.300 Okay, so where exactly are we talking about here? 00:03:22.400 --> 00:03:25.379 Where should people be on high alert? Well, today, 00:03:25.680 --> 00:03:29.979 Sunday, the main area of concern is kind of a 00:03:29.979 --> 00:03:32.960 swath from northern Louisiana all the way up 00:03:32.960 --> 00:03:35.789 to just south of Chicago. I mean, that's a big 00:03:35.789 --> 00:03:37.569 chunk of real estate. And that's the area with 00:03:37.569 --> 00:03:40.050 the highest risk, right? Most likely to see this 00:03:40.050 --> 00:03:42.349 really severe weather. Right. The National Oceanic 00:03:42.349 --> 00:03:45.110 and Atmospheric Administration, their storm prediction 00:03:45.110 --> 00:03:48.129 center, they've actually issued an enhanced risk 00:03:48.129 --> 00:03:49.870 for that area. So yeah, if you're anywhere in 00:03:49.870 --> 00:03:51.990 that zone, today's the day to be paying extra 00:03:51.990 --> 00:03:54.509 close attention to the weather. Definitely. Definitely. 00:03:55.289 --> 00:03:58.550 So all right, what about tomorrow, Monday? Does 00:03:58.550 --> 00:04:01.110 this thing just fizzle out or? No, no, it doesn't 00:04:01.110 --> 00:04:03.069 fizzle out. It actually kind of shifts eastward. 00:04:03.530 --> 00:04:05.830 So by Monday, it's the eastern seaboard that 00:04:05.830 --> 00:04:08.129 needs to be on guard. And it's a big area. It 00:04:08.129 --> 00:04:10.009 could be anything from New England down to Florida. 00:04:10.330 --> 00:04:12.689 OK, so that's what, like a thousand miles of 00:04:12.689 --> 00:04:15.210 coastline? Pretty much, yeah. But it seems like 00:04:15.210 --> 00:04:17.350 the Carolinas and Georgia, that's where the most 00:04:17.350 --> 00:04:20.949 concentrated risk is for those damaging wind 00:04:20.949 --> 00:04:23.269 gusts and maybe some isolated tornadoes. But 00:04:23.269 --> 00:04:25.629 there's a chance it could go further north, too, 00:04:25.709 --> 00:04:28.029 right? Yeah, there's a chance. The forecast models 00:04:28.029 --> 00:04:30.089 are still a little iffy on this. But there's 00:04:30.089 --> 00:04:32.709 a chance that tornado risk could extend up into 00:04:32.709 --> 00:04:36.189 the mid -Atlantic, maybe even towards DC and 00:04:36.189 --> 00:04:38.069 Baltimore. So that's something to watch for sure. 00:04:38.269 --> 00:04:40.480 Definitely. You know, it's interesting, right? 00:04:40.680 --> 00:04:42.899 We've got this massive flooding event down south 00:04:42.899 --> 00:04:45.439 and then this totally separate system cranking 00:04:45.439 --> 00:04:47.399 up severe weather in a totally different part 00:04:47.399 --> 00:04:49.399 of the country. It's a good reminder, isn't it, 00:04:49.500 --> 00:04:51.800 that weather is, well, weather is just a powerful 00:04:51.800 --> 00:04:53.800 force. We can't control it, but we can prepare 00:04:53.800 --> 00:04:56.439 for it. Exactly. And, you know, speaking of preparing, 00:04:56.839 --> 00:04:59.199 it might be a good time to talk about the, well, 00:04:59.399 --> 00:05:01.439 the why behind all this. Like, what's causing 00:05:01.439 --> 00:05:04.199 this whole severe weather outbreak? Yeah, yeah, 00:05:04.199 --> 00:05:06.720 let's do that. So break it down for us. What's 00:05:06.720 --> 00:05:08.779 going on up there in the atmosphere? So the main 00:05:08.779 --> 00:05:12.060 driver here is this big dip or trough in the 00:05:12.060 --> 00:05:15.319 jet stream way out west over North America. And 00:05:15.319 --> 00:05:18.000 these dips, they often lead to the formation 00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:20.220 of low pressure systems down at the surface. 00:05:20.420 --> 00:05:22.660 And in this case, we've got a low pressure system 00:05:22.660 --> 00:05:25.480 over Kansas. Right. Right. And it formed on Saturday, 00:05:25.740 --> 00:05:27.980 Western Kansas. And that low pressure system, 00:05:28.220 --> 00:05:29.540 it's kind of like a vacuum cleaner. You know, 00:05:29.959 --> 00:05:31.939 it's sucking all this warm, moist air up from 00:05:31.939 --> 00:05:33.879 the Gulf of Mexico. And that's the fuel, right, 00:05:34.060 --> 00:05:37.160 for the thunderstorms. Exactly. Warm, moist air. 00:05:37.300 --> 00:05:39.660 That's what thunderstorms love. So as that low 00:05:39.660 --> 00:05:42.709 pressure system moves east, which it is, it's 00:05:42.709 --> 00:05:45.269 dragging all that juicy Gulf air with it. So 00:05:45.269 --> 00:05:47.629 it's headed towards the Great Lakes. Right. And 00:05:47.629 --> 00:05:50.069 then eventually into Canada. That's the track. 00:05:50.110 --> 00:05:53.329 Yeah. And then behind it, you've got this cooler, 00:05:53.509 --> 00:05:56.730 drier air coming in and that clash, that boundary 00:05:56.730 --> 00:05:59.129 where those two air masses meet. That's where 00:05:59.129 --> 00:06:01.290 you get the fireworks, the thunderstorms. OK, 00:06:01.290 --> 00:06:03.730 so we've got the fuel. We've got the clash of 00:06:03.730 --> 00:06:07.310 air masses. What else is making these storms 00:06:07.310 --> 00:06:09.250 so potent? Well, there's also something called 00:06:09.250 --> 00:06:11.810 wind shear. And that's basically when the wind 00:06:11.810 --> 00:06:14.089 speed or direction changes with height, you know, 00:06:14.089 --> 00:06:16.189 as you go up in the atmosphere. Yeah. And the 00:06:16.189 --> 00:06:19.569 jet stream, it's packing some pretty strong winds 00:06:19.569 --> 00:06:22.290 up high. So the jet stream is helping to create 00:06:22.290 --> 00:06:25.230 this wind shear. Exactly. And wind shear is important 00:06:25.230 --> 00:06:27.769 because it can make thunderstorms rotate. And 00:06:27.769 --> 00:06:29.569 when thunderstorms rotate, you get what are called 00:06:29.569 --> 00:06:31.449 supercells. And supercells, those are the ones 00:06:31.449 --> 00:06:33.170 that can spawn tornadoes, right? That's right. 00:06:33.209 --> 00:06:35.209 They're the ones that can produce the most intense, 00:06:35.550 --> 00:06:38.990 severe weather, tornadoes, large hail, the whole 00:06:38.990 --> 00:06:41.449 shebang. So, bottom line, if you're anywhere 00:06:41.449 --> 00:06:44.110 in the central or eastern U .S. right now, keep 00:06:44.110 --> 00:06:45.970 an eye on the sky, keep an eye on the forecast, 00:06:46.050 --> 00:06:48.389 and be prepared, just in case. Couldn't have 00:06:48.389 --> 00:06:50.269 said it better myself. Have a way to get weather 00:06:50.269 --> 00:06:52.589 alerts, know where you'd go if a tornado warning 00:06:52.589 --> 00:06:56.449 is issued, you know, be ready. Absolutely. And, 00:06:56.649 --> 00:06:58.730 you know, to kind of wrap things up for everyone 00:06:58.730 --> 00:07:01.009 today, we've talked about two very different 00:07:01.009 --> 00:07:04.600 but - both very serious weather events. Down 00:07:04.600 --> 00:07:07.100 in South Texas and Mexico, the incredible flooding, 00:07:07.300 --> 00:07:10.120 over 20 inches of rain in some areas, just unbelievable. 00:07:10.600 --> 00:07:12.899 We talked about the tragic loss of life, three 00:07:12.899 --> 00:07:16.079 people in Hidalgo County, Texas, and one in Reynosa, 00:07:16.100 --> 00:07:18.920 Mexico. And, you know, all those rescues, hundreds 00:07:18.920 --> 00:07:21.019 of them, people needing to be pulled from flooded 00:07:21.019 --> 00:07:23.720 homes and cars. Those images of Harlingen and 00:07:23.720 --> 00:07:25.920 Tomalapus, just incredible. Yeah. And then the 00:07:25.920 --> 00:07:27.819 damage not just to homes and businesses, but 00:07:27.819 --> 00:07:31.329 to crops and livestock. It's a long road. recovery 00:07:31.329 --> 00:07:33.529 for those communities. Yeah, no doubt. And then, 00:07:33.529 --> 00:07:35.269 you know, shifting gears completely, we've got 00:07:35.269 --> 00:07:38.209 this severe weather threat ramping up across 00:07:38.209 --> 00:07:40.870 the central and eastern U .S. Sunday. That's 00:07:40.870 --> 00:07:43.170 today is the day of highest concern, especially 00:07:43.170 --> 00:07:45.910 for that zone from northern Louisiana up to just 00:07:45.910 --> 00:07:48.750 south of Chicago. Strong tornadoes, large hail, 00:07:49.089 --> 00:07:51.730 damaging winds. It's all on the table. And then 00:07:51.730 --> 00:07:55.810 by Monday, the focus shifts eastward, hitting 00:07:55.810 --> 00:07:59.290 the eastern seaboard from New England down to 00:07:59.290 --> 00:08:02.470 Florida. But with the Carolinas and Georgia looking 00:08:02.470 --> 00:08:04.470 like the bullseye for the worst of it, could 00:08:04.470 --> 00:08:06.990 even see some tornadoes up towards DC and Baltimore, 00:08:07.089 --> 00:08:08.990 though that's still a bit uncertain. And you 00:08:08.990 --> 00:08:10.810 know, we talked about the why behind all this, 00:08:10.949 --> 00:08:13.410 the dip in the jet stream, that low pressure 00:08:13.410 --> 00:08:16.709 system over Kansas pulling up all that warm, 00:08:16.790 --> 00:08:20.069 moist air from the Gulf, the clash of air masses, 00:08:20.389 --> 00:08:23.149 the wind shear. It's like a recipe for severe 00:08:23.149 --> 00:08:25.829 weather, unfortunately. It is, yeah. But the 00:08:25.829 --> 00:08:28.399 good news is we can see it coming. and we can 00:08:28.399 --> 00:08:30.860 prepare. Exactly. So be sure to check your local 00:08:30.860 --> 00:08:33.639 forecasts, have a plan in place, and stay safe 00:08:33.639 --> 00:08:35.860 out there. And for more in -depth weather coverage, 00:08:36.019 --> 00:08:38.460 you can follow meteorologist Rob Jones on Instagram 00:08:38.460 --> 00:08:41.399 at Meteorologist, on TikTok at TV Meteorologist, 00:08:41.500 --> 00:08:43.879 and on YouTube, follow Rob Jones Hurricane, where 00:08:43.879 --> 00:08:46.080 you can also find the Meteorology Matters podcast 00:08:46.080 --> 00:08:48.639 playlist. Stay informed, stay safe, and we'll 00:08:48.639 --> 00:08:49.299 see you next time.