This is Severe Weather Awareness Week throughout Minnesota and here in Wright County.
The week is designed to remind residents of the potential dangers with severe weather in the spring and summer.
Today, part 2 of a 5-part series highlighting the daily focus of severe storms, lightning and hail.
Weather officials remind all of us that virtually all severe weather scenarios in the spring and summer months stem from severe thunderstorms. While thunderstorms generally affect relatively small areas compared with most other storms, that doesn’t mean they should be taken lightly.
Severe thunderstorms can produce large hail and winds of at least 58 miles per hour. Some thunderstorms can produce wind gusts reaching 100 miles per hour. For this reason, severe thunderstorms should be treated similar to tornadoes, and you should get to an appropriate shelter if you are in the storm’s path.
Hail is another product of severe thunderstorms, and causes nearly a billion dollars worth of damage every year. While most hail is small, even marble size hail can cause property damage. Some severe storms can produce hailstones can reach baseball and even grapefruit size. Large stones fall faster than 100 miles per hour, and can cause serious injury, and even death.
The most common ingredient in severe thunderstorms however, is lightning. Statistics point to lightning as the severe weather ingredient that kills and injures more people than any other summer weather threat, and causes numerous fires each year. Lightning should be taken very seriously, and you should shelter indoors when lightning is present.
Wednesday, we’ll have part 3 of our 5-part series, when we focus on floods and flash flooding.
For more about severe weather safety, log onto; www.ready.gov or, www.dps.mn.gov.
