PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — We have an elevated, but LOW threat for severe weather late Wednesday night into early Thursday(Midnight-maybe 4 am).
Heavy rain at times, isolated quarter-sized hail.
Why Hail?
We will have the ingredients for thunderstorms. Potentially strong-to severe. Thunderstorms contain strong updrafts and downdrafts. Raindrops are carried into cold parts of the atmosphere and freeze into small hailstones.
Hail is carried up and down inside a storm cloud. The more they are tossed up/down, and remain in the clouds, they will continue to grow. They grow by colliding with supercooled water droplets.
This is a lot of “Meteorology-speak”, but hailstone size is maximized by high elevation (not us, we are around 500′), low freezing levels (where the temperature is around 32° or below-which we won’t have, our freezing level will be around 10,000 feet up), low Precipitable water (moisture in the air, which we will be on the low side-check), dry mid-level air, high CAPE (instability), and large wind shear (change in wind direction and speed) with height.
Do you have a garage or covered parking? Take advantage of it.
