Despite this week’s late season snow and cold temperatures, Northeast Ohio is entering severe weather season, with the increased possibility for strong thunderstorms and tornados.
While severe weather can happen any time of the year, shifting weather patterns make conditions more conducive to bad storms from spring through early summer. Northeast Ohio is entering a period in which high winds, thunderstorms, and tornados will become more common, according to David Bieger, meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
“These are really seasons where you've got clashing air masses,” Bieger said, “so you've got very cold and dense air masses that are clashing and competing with warmer and moister air masses, and that is just one of those very kind of early and basic ingredients to begin to develop severe weather.”
The presence of moisture, atmospheric instability and rising air, known as lift, can create the perfect recipe for severe weather, Bieger said.
“Particularly in northern Ohio, you can anticipate thunderstorms,” Bieger said. “Some are going to be severe, and you may have storms that discreetly produce tornadoes. That's very typical, very canonical of a spring and summer type of an environment.”
Shifts in the jet stream can also be a factor, according to Bieger.
“This time of the year, the jet stream is pretty far north, right?” Bieger said. “Northern United States, southern Canada, kind of in that border area. As we go on longer into the summer, that jet stream moves farther and farther to the south. And so as it begins to move a little bit farther to the south, you'll see more southerly storm tracks that are out there. You'll see less of a clash in the air masses as things modify and warm up through the summer.”
What to watch for
The National Weather Service can issue watches or warnings for high wind, thunderstorms, and tornados, depending on the level of the threat. Bieger said it’s important to pay attention to all weather alerts.
"Any time that there's a watch that gets issued, that's just telling you, ‘hey, we have all of the ingredients in place out there to lead to this severe weather,’” Bieger said. “ ... it doesn't mean that it's happening, and it doesn't necessarily mean that it will happen. It's that way of telling you, ‘hey please be alert.’”
If it’s a warning, Bieger said that’s the time to find shelter in a hardened structure, typically a basement if possible, and get to the most interior space available.
“Always make a plan, know when to get to your safe space, and try to get to your safe space before that threat really materializes,” Bieger said. “Because once you're in the middle of the hazard, at that point things can become incredibly dangerous.”
