By Mark W. Danielson
Lately, the news has been filled with tragic weather-related stories, and more will certainly follow. Unfortunately, the United States is subjected
to some of nature’s wickedest storms, year ’round.
The good news is drought, tornadoes, hail, flooding, unseasonal temperatures and hurricanes can inspire great story scenes. To help get it "write", I’ll provide some weather facts that can add tension and realism to any story.
With winter now an afterthought,
it seemed a good place to start. Besides
the obvious problems associated with snow and ice, a “Blue Northern” cold front can easily drop the temperature thirty
degrees in two or three hours. Could your
character survive if he or she is caught in the open when one of these Arctic
blasts blows through? Add the chill
factor from near hurricane-force winds while being cold-soaked from rain or
snow and it seems unlikely unless they can find shelter and heat. Could wrapping them in a freshly killed deer
carcass be enough? Open your mind and put
yourself in their shoes to make it real.
If you want to make weather scene more severe, add thunder snow. Yes, it does
happen. I’ve seen it first-hand.
While on the topic of
thunderstorms, the most intense ones will normally form along the southern-most
portion of a squall line. Squall lines are well-defined fronts like in the photo above that can
divide the United States with cloud tops exceeding fifty
thousand feet. These fast-moving fronts
produce tornadoes and large hail, even at night.
F-5 tornadoes spinning their two
hundred mile-per-hour winds can rip up asphalt, level homes and toss semi
trailers like toys. Add grapefruit-sized hail to this and you have absolute terror. The tornado that tore a mile-wide swath through Moore, Oklahoma killed twenty-one, yet in spite of its destruction, pets managed to
emerge unscathed from the rubble. My heart goes out to all who are affected by such storms, and yet the resulting oddities such as tables still set when the walls are gone can make any novel pop. Before you
write about tornadoes, I recommend you listen to a recording of one passing
overhead. You will never forget this fearful sound.
Unlike earthquakes, thunderstorms
give plenty of warning. Besides news broadcasts
and warning sirens, the sky provides many clues about a storm’s intensity. Super-cells produce Cumulonimbus Mammatus clouds shown in the above photo. If you see these clouds, be prepared for
large hail or tornadoes as these clouds are the result of a very unstable storm. A green sky means hail is on the way. A sky that turns day into night means the air is
saturated and severe downpours are likely.
Thunder is the result from energy discharges we call lightning. Hearing thunder at the same time you see the flash
means the storm is directly overhead.
Counting the seconds from the flash to the boom gives the storm’s approximate distance away. One second per mile is a good rule of thumb. 
Dissipating thunderstorms can produce damaging concentric winds. To illustrate
this, try squeezing a full water bag an inch above a flat surface with maximum
force. Filming this will let you see the water shooting out in every direction. Isolated thunderstorms can lose their shape quickly once their have dumped their rain, just like the water-bag model. However, squall line
storms can continue to grow even while delivering a killer deluge.
Having dealt with weather throughout
two flying careers, I could write volumes on weather and never do it
justice. As a writer, I am sharing this information because when it comes to antagonists, nothing beats Mother Nature. When writing your scenes, be sure to include her or
be prepared to face her wrath.
