David Watson via Twitter

This formidable shelf cloud was photographed yesterday morning in Fayetteville, Arkansas, as severe storms rolled through. Catch a good picture of local weather? Send us your photos to BresOneidaNews@gmail.com and see them featured here!

What We’re Tracking

• Alerts are in effect in Texas and Louisiana as a brutal heat wave settles in for an extended stay.
• By the way, America’s top weather killer isn’t tornadoes, hurricanes or flooding: It’s heat. Our deep dive explains why, how you can keep safe and what to expect in the future.
• Wondering what’s on tap for Father’s Day? Heres our forecast!

This caught my eye

Jonathan Erdman
Senior Digital Meteorologist

We’ve already had the “A” storm of the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season. But we’re still waiting for “Adrian” in the Eastern Pacific, the first time we’ve had to wait into June for this in four years.

The Eastern Pacific hurricane season usually becomes active sooner than the Atlantic Basin. That’s because wind shear and surges of dry, sinking air from the Sahara Desert keep the first month or so of the Atlantic hurricane season in check.

And while El Niño tends to work against Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes, it usually leads to a favorable environment of lower wind shear and rising air in the Eastern Pacific.

Right on cue, the National Hurricane Center has circled areas that might become the Eastern Pacific’s first depression or storm of the season. Fortunately, neither is a threat to land. But this might be the start of what could be an active Eastern Pacific hurricane season, if past El Niño years are any guide.

Weather Words

‘Heat Burst’

Among a thunderstorm’s many products – hail, high winds, tornadoes, lightning, heavy rain – perhaps the strangest of all is a heat burst. They occur when a thunderstorm is dying, sending temperatures rocketing to levels typically seen in the middle of a hot day. The phenomenon often occurs well after dark, accompanied by high winds. A large majority of thunderstorms have enough precipitation to survive at least some dry air aloft. Heat bursts, however, occur when there’s too little precipitation falling into the air aloft. This means that any precipitation evaporates well above the ground. Air from these storms still manages to plunge down to Earth, but compression makes it warm, which makes the air reach the ground as a blast of hot, dry wind.