Violent Weather Strikes Change

As severe weather outbreaks go, yesterday was not one of the more prolific ones. That is not in any way meant to downplay the nastiness of the thunderstorms that erupted in and east of the Appalachians yesterday afternoon and last evening. Here's the actual severe weather report from Monday:

This was taken about 7:45 last evening roughly a mile west of my house, with hail stones across the road, on lawns and covering farm fields over a 2- to 2.5-mile-wide path. Driving around in it and after it was freaky and frightening and exhilarating all at the same time!

These thunderstorms erupted as expected ahead of a cold front. The air mass simply became too warm and too moist in the low levels ahead of the front, and as a result, the strong thunderstorms bubbled up with gusty winds, hail and flooding downpours, even a couple of reports of funnel clouds. That front is now off the East coast. The temperatures are down, the dew point temperatures are down even more, and it's only the beginning of the change.

Back across Minnesota and Wisconsin, the full impact of that change is being felt this morning, as temperatures are in the 30s, winds are blowing at 20 to 30 mph with gusts to 40 mph, and snowflakes are flying! Now, the snow isn't really hard enough to stick in most places, but the difference from temperatures in the 70s a couple of days ago to snow flurries last night and this morning is striking.

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-blogs/lundberg/violent-weather/45978632