In some email about the "sick thunderstorms" thread, Raymond Martin
recommended the NCDC storm database:

http://www4.ncdc.noaa.gov/cgi-win/ww...wwevent~storms

with data on storms going back to 1950. Neat site.

I was struck by Raymond's description of heavy weather in NJ over the past
15 years - when I grew up there in the 60s, there wasn't very much in the
way of severe storms. So I used the database to count storms.

The database lists 13 thunderstorms with winds greater than 50 kts in the
period 1/1/60-12/31/69.

In contrast, for the period 1/1/90-12/31/99, the database lists 306 such
storms.

Now, unfortunately, you have to examine the data to tease out "duplicate"
reports - reports from different stations of the same storms. So I limited
the search to Middlesex county, dropped the minimum restrictions and ran the
search again (which eliminated most of the duplication):

1/1/60 - 12/31/69: 2 storms
1/1/70 - 12/31/79: 5 storms
1/1/80 - 12/31/89: 9 storms
1/1/90 - 12/31/99: 65 storms

So what's going on here?

Is it really THAT much more stormy now, or is the database just more
incomplete the further back you go?

I'm betting the DB is incomplete; but that's some really striking data.

- Steve Stein

Stephen Stein wrote:

So what's going on here?

Is it really THAT much more stormy now, or is the database just more
incomplete the further back you go?

I'm betting the DB is incomplete; but that's some really striking data.


Maybe the "severe" criteria were lessened, sort of the way those for
blizzard were?


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Steve Okonski wrote in message ...
Stephen Stein wrote:

So what's going on here?

Is it really THAT much more stormy now, or is the database just more
incomplete the further back you go?

I'm betting the DB is incomplete; but that's some really striking data.


Maybe the "severe" criteria were lessened, sort of the way those for
blizzard were?

My memory goes back to the 50s and yes, there seemed to be less in the
way of continental ridging and dry zonal flows, and there were more
thunderstorms with the North Atlantic high prevailing; more tropical
cyclones also, and we might be headed that way again. Seas breeze
thunderstorms, cold frontal thunderstorms, warm frontal thunderstorms,
you name it they were there, showing up on TV weather daily,
especially the AMT's, popcord popping up everywhere, almost like
Disney World in June, not quite as heavy though on average, but about
half as frequent. But as for severe wx, we get about the same now,
maybe a little more, hard to say. Back then we'd have maybe one event
a year.


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