Storm Components

Lots of severe weather reports from storms last night and this morning. But things could have be lots worse. I wanted to go over one variable that we have never talked about on here before. A variable that we as meteorologists look at to determine whether or not the atmosphere is primed for severe weather, specifically tornados. One thing really caught my eye as I was looking through some of the current conditions early this morning was this picture below of Storm Relative Helicity.

Helicity is basically just a big fancy word for rotation. This product we use to see how much the air in the atmosphere is rotating. The bigger the number, the more vigorous the spin. Now, this picture is significant just because of the shear value of the helicity. Here's a little perspective. A helicity value of 100 can produce a tornado and 200 is considered a "good" number to have if you want tornados. So, when I see a bulls eye of over 1000, then I know the atmosphere is primed for business. Now keep in mind that there are many other things that go into a severe weather day which is why there were only a hand full of tornados. But remember, as bad as it was for some of you, it could always be worse!

~KDLT Meteorologist Cody Matz