First Alert Weather In-Depth: Severe weather season

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — Did you know that we are right in the middle of the severe storm season? Not so much for Rochester, but rather for the folks that live south of Western New York in the southern states.

A product put out by the Storm Prediction Center shows the greatest likelihood for severe weather. Right now, it’s focusing in right on Memphis, Tennessee.

Radar time-lapse shows there are lots of showers and heavy thunderstorms down through the mid-Mississippi Valley. As a result, there are tornado watches that are in effect in this part of the county. And the threat will be ongoing through the remainder of today and into tonight. In addition, there is already a history of some of the storms producing tornadoes, again, especially to the west of Memphis Tennessee.

This would be a good opportunity to remind you about the difference between a severe weather watch and a severe weather warning. A watch means there is just the potential for severe weather and we have the ingredients in the atmosphere for some severe weather. A warning is a little bit different. A warning means that severe weather is imminent or is actually happening. And one easy way to remember the difference is to say that you are “watching for the warning”.

The National Weather Service has different categories for a lot of these severe storms and it can depend on the actual wind speed or maybe the size of hail. Obviously, this is the kind of stuff that we do not want to see and at least for now, we are in pretty good shape here in Western New York.