Weather Break

Click here to listen to episode 803 of Weather Break.
Some features in the atmosphere are more or less permanent– the subtropical high pressure systems, the trade winds, and the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) are good examples.  However, most weather systems go through a clear life cycle, first forming, and later dissipating.  Thunderstorms are a clear [...]

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Click here to listen to episode 740 of Weather Break.
Back in 1981, singer Eddie Rabbitt hit Number 1 with the song “I Love a Rainy Night”, a particularly  evocative description of what nighttime (or “nocturnal”) thunderstorms are like.  This is particularly relevant in much of the Weather Break listening area, as much of our precipitation [...]

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Click here to listen to this episode of Weather Break.
In the past on Weather Break we’ve talked about the fact that many meteorologists get into this business because they are just the type of people who care about weather and get pretty excited about storms. Sometimes it sounds pretty cold or uncaring when a forecaster [...]

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Click here to listen to this episode of Weather Break.
Everybody, it seems, is interested in thundersnow. Questions about the basics and significance of thundersnow are easily the most commonly asked inquiries on Weather Break’s question hotline (302-258-1617). Today on Weather Break, Dr. Jon Schrage runs down what thundersnow is and when we can expect it.
LINKS:
Here’s [...]

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Click here to listen to this episode of Weather Break.
The Black Hills of western South Dakota are a great place to trigger thunderstorms in the late afternoon on warm summer days.  Isolated mountain ranges and plateaus form what meteorologists call “elevated heat sources” that efficiently use the heating of the day to generate buoyancy and [...]

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