Same 'Ol Weather...and It's Not That Unusual

It's nice of the weather to behave itself to where I can get back from a week off and the overall weather pattern is pretty much what it was a week ago.  That keeps it hot; it also means that a few afternoon and evening storms will be seen...and some of them may contain gusty winds and/or hail.  At least until Wednesday, when we are expecting some drier air to arrive, greatly curtailing the afternoon storm chances.

A question that has been posed to me recently: "Why does it seem to be so much stormier around here lately?"  As many strong to severe storms and reports of wind damage that have been around the past couple of weeks in our area, this may be on many minds right now. 

Locally, what we've been seeing lately isn't all that unusual...it's just our perspective has been thrown off in recent years by dry weather.

Every June from 2007 through last year at GSP, and for three of the last four years in Asheville, our rainfall has been below-average.  June of 2008 saw only 0.13 inches of rain at GSP, the record low total for ANY June since records have been kept.  Our last "wet" period as far as June goes ran from 2002-2006, with a couple of dry years before that.

This means that over the past few years, we have experienced relatively quiet months of June.  Since most rainfall this time of year comes in the form of thunderstorms, lower rain totals means fewer overall storms.  Fewer storms means less chance for severe weather. 

Anytime we get a wetter June, we're seeing more thunderstorms...and the chances will always be higher of picking up some stronger storms.

For the record, as of this Monday morning, June 27...we are not quite one inch below average for June rainfall at GSP, and a bit over an inch down in Asheville.  Of course, any rain over the next couple of days will move those numbers up.

Also coming into play...the last couple of years, our local National Weather Service office in Greer has been extra vigilant in searching for/receiving reports of downed trees in the aftermath of storms that roll on through.  In fact, I would be willing to bet that a severe storm that hits near a town in our viewing area now would generate more reports of severe weather than a similar storm would have striking the same spot just a few years ago...simply because more eyes are watching and the reporting of downed trees has improved.

So yes, it may appear stormier this month, but for a typical June, that's not strange; it's been our dry weather and occasional years of drought that are the "oddballs".  And thanks to greather awareness of severe weather when it happens, it's like the storms have a new publicist...we're more aware of them now, even if they've always been around!