Winter Time Phenomena

Photos, weather maps, satellite pictures and radar for San Francisco record breaking 1/2 hour rain, and flash flood, 2/25/04

Backbuilding Convection and SF Area Flash Floods, 1/22/97

"Pineapple Express" (Low Latitude Storm Type) and Warm Advection, 1/21/97

December 12, 1995 West Coast Bomb

See beautiful images of an explosively-developing cyclone (with eye) along the California coast

February 4, 1996 Flood-producing (SF Bay Area) Subsynoptic Wave

See surface and 500 mb images for the January 29, 1996 Rex Block

See surface and satellite images of tule fog.

Summer Time Phenomena

See outflow-boundary generated roll clouds above the coastal stratus.

See beautiful mesoscale vortices

See a high resolution photo of the smoke from the Point Reyes Fire

See a case study of a great Catalina Eddy

California Tornadoes, Thunderstorms and Funnel Clouds

High Sierra Tornado, 7/7/04, Tornado, thunderstorm, hail photos documenting the highest elevation tornado ever observed in the United States. Meteorological analysis is also included.

Sunnyvale, CA, F2 Tornado, 5/4/98, Damage photos, Doppler images, vis satellite image and digital images of cloud features for a F2 Damage Producing Tornado, May 4, 1998

Chowchilla Tornado, March 24, 1998

Weakly Rotating Thunderstorm,San Francisco, 12/8/97

San Joaquin Valley High-Based Funnels, 1/20/97

Animated satellite pictures of tornado-producing right-moving supercell in the San Joaquin Valley (Lemoore, CA, Nov 22, 1996).

Satellite images, animated loop and other images of San Joaquin Valley right-moving Supercell Storm

See charts and photos for the September 26, 1986 Tornadic Supercell in Sacramento Valley

Doppler radar images of a shallow Central Valley supercell producing a Mesocyclone-induced Tornado 23 March 1995

Radar and satellite images of California Low-Top Supercell Storms 4 March 1996

Doppler images of a California Thunderstorm split  28 Feb 1996

Case Studies and Opinions Relating to California Weather Events

On the Uses and Misuses of Vorticity Advection as "Dynamics"


• Pitfalls of Ignoring WarmAdvection: case study (2000)
  
• Vorticity Advection Pitfall (1999)
  
• "Pineapple Express" and Warm Advection, 1/21/97
  
• PVA Only A Part (sometimes small) of the Story
  
  On El Niño and La Niña
  
• El Nino and California Rainfall
  
• La Niña and California Rainfall
  
  On Verification of Medium Range Models
  
• Verification of Forecasts: An Example #1
  
• Verification of Forecasts: An Example #2