A "Yoda Storm" Viewed From Maryland

A giant, distant "Yoda Cloud" looms over Interstate
70 near Frederick, Maryland last Friday. 
Photo by Laura Stark 

 Summer skies tend to be more interesting in the summer than in the winter, which is why watching the clouds go by is such a iconic seasonal activity. 

The most relaxing way to do that is to lay down in a field and watch the clouds go by, and decide which cloud looks like what person, place, or thing. 

But doing anything else in the summer can yield fun results too, if you think to look at the sky from time to time. 

Which yields, at least for me, this excellent and entertaining photo by dear friend Laura Stark. The pic was taken last Friday evening along Interstate 70 near Frederick, Maryland.  It's the Yoda cloud. 

For the three people in the world who have no idea who Yoda is, well. Yoda is of course from Star Wars, small in stature but incredibly wise and powerful.  

To be honest, though the cloud resembles Yoda, I'm not sure how much it has in common with the Star Wars character. 

The cloud is a a cumulonimbus. It's an isolated thunderstorm off in the distance. They can be seen from long distances away.  This one is likely 60 or more miles away.

It's hard to tell from the photo, but the uppermost part of it might be an overshooting top.  The Yoda cloud's "ears" are probably the anvil top of the thunderstorm, and the top of its head could be an overshooting top, a powerful updraft that pushed above what had earlier been the uppermost ceiling for the thunderstorm to grow up to.

Thunderstorms with overshooting tops are very often severe, so this one might have been. I can't figure out exactly where it was located at the time Laura snapped the photo. Severe thunderstorm reports came in that evening from northern West Virginia and southeastern Pennsylvania, so this "Yoda" storm might have been one of those. 

I don't know if the Yoda thunderstorm was wise or not, but it was almost certainly powerful.

If you have photos of fun and/or interesting clouds, send them my way.  If you want a dose of deep weather geekdom, let me know if you want me to analyze them, like I did for the now-famous Great Frederick, Maryland Distant Yoda Storm of '21.  

National Weather Service Burlington Goes Full Star Wars

Screenshot of a brief video the National Weather Service
in South Burlington released to social media to honor
a big day for Star Wars fans.

 Today, May 4,  is a big day for Star Wars fans.  

"May the Fourth be with you."  Get it?

Some of the meteorologists at the National Weather Service in South Burlington, Vermont sure do. 

They went full on Star Wars with their forecasting this morning. Their social media output is like the opening of a Star Wars movie epic.  

The social media weather forecasts begin, "In the North Country far far away..." in the familiar movie graphics.

Weather geeks like me like to dive deep into the National Weather Service forecast discussion page to help understand the reasoning behind the weather forecasts. These discussions get into technical terms like "frontogenesis" and how helicity might impact a QLSC, that type of thing. 

This morning's forecast discussion of course gets mixed up with Star Wars.  

While contemplating the prospects for any sunshine on Thursday, they had this to say, mixing weather and Star Wars geekdom into high art of a sort: "Under increasing surface pressure and mid-level ridging, expected for Thursday a dry, though partly cloudy day is. With any luck, some sunshine we may see; but as Obi-Wan would say, 'In my experience, there is no such thing as luck.'" 

Well, yeah, this is Vermont. We often do not luck out with the weather.  

The discussion for the end of the week and weekend go on with this Star Wars-type language. It looks like the forecasting Star Wars stuff from NWS Burlington was the brainchild of meteorologist Nichole Hammond, so good on her! 

I'm glad Hammond and the other meteorologists at the National Weather Service in South Burlington often have a little fun with their forecasting today. It just makes them all the more approachable and human, and by extension, trustworthy.  

There's no dangerous weather in the Vermont forecast this week, so the Star Wars levity doesn't distract from any important messages. (When bonafide weather threats arise, the National Weather Service gets really serious, really fast).

So, May the fourth be with you to ward off any raindrops that come your way amid a showery forecast for today.