Snow, Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Hail, Green Skies And Pecos Hank

Greenish clouds associated with severe weather. Photo by Nicole
Ubalducci, via Lifehacker 

The nation is getting into the heart of the spring severe thunderstorm and tornado season now, despite the mid-winter chill gripping much of the North.

Severe storms need warm, humid air to get going, so the areas that have gotten scary severe thunderstorms has so far been mostly, but not completely, limited to the South.

A quick interjection here for us Vermonters: After yesterday's snow, another snowfall will miss us by a long shot Sunday, and the chances of a snowy nor'easter on Tuesday or Wednesday keep dropping, which is good news for most of us.

Anyway, severe storms. There was another batch of them last night, including one that looked like a monster on radar that was about to destroy the city of Choushatta, Louisiana. Luckily, that tornado weakened some by the time it got into the city, so there was lots of damage, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Other spots had tornadoes and strong winds. Many communities had damaging hail. Plano, Texas had baseball sized, hail, for instance

I'm sure some people that that got hit by severe storms in Texas and Louisiana on Friday saw green skies as the storms approached.

Which leads me to a video by musician and storm chaser Pecos Hank. He's just about the best storm videographer out there, mostly because of his wonderful time lapses, and especially his storytelling abilities. Most storm chasers just video tornadoes and scream and yell.  Pecos Hank puts together video packages that are engaging and so well done, as he unfolds his story in a deep Texas twang.

You really need to check out Pecos Hank's YouTube page. 

A recent Pecos Hank video explains wonderfully why the sky sometimes turns green - an eerie greenish/bluish/ugly - when severe weather approaches. (The cliche has always been if the sky turns green, you're screwed.)

Pecos Hank explains how low angle sun in the late afternoon and evening, when severe storms are most likely, scatter light in storms that contain a lot of rain, hail and blowing dust from strong winds.

Next, watch his great video, then below that another video - not as good as Pecos Hank's, but still really dramatic showing the hail storms and severe weather in Texas and Louisiana yesterday.

First, Pecos Hank:



Here's a good overview of several Texas hailstorms on Friday: