Weather -- or not?

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.     

Nail Storm

By Mark W. Danielson

Nail storm: Endless machinegun fire driving through roofs and into hammering one’s brain. Frequency: Within months of latest hail storm.
Recommendation: Tolerate it or move where it never hails.

There you have it – my post summarized in three sentences. But there is actually much more to this story. You see, it really began three years ago when a small tornado passed directly behind our house. (see photo.) Mind you, large or small, any tornado will do damage if it hits your house, so I’m grateful this one snaked its way around our neighborhood. Of course, that didn’t keep the hail from falling – enough to wipe out most of our plants, many of which were planted only days before.

As with every post-severe storm event, you lick your wounds and get your roof inspected. In our case, three inspectors came out and said the shingles were shot, but hey, it looks like a manufacturer’s defect so they won’t cover it. Really? I hadn’t realized the manufacturer ordered the tornado and hail storm. Shows how much I know.

Time passes too quickly and before long we have more hail storms – some severe enough to require the snow plows come out to clear the streets. I figure it was that same tile manufacturer again, trying to drum up business. And it must have worked because most of our neighbors got new roofs – but ours held on like a dog in a tug of war contest in spite of its sub-par singles.

I’m not one to take no for an answer, though, and another roofer decided to tackle the issue with wind damage versus hail damage. After all, here in Colorado, we get hurricane force winds every spring – you just don’t hear about it because it’s a fact of life. This time my insurance company decided that yes, there is wind damage, but he would only allow replacing the back slope. Wow – that’s like driving on four bald tires and only buying two. Take the deductible out and the insurance company didn’t have to shell out much. But I needed a new roof and since I’m trying to sell the house, I wanted to get it on now so it wouldn’t become an issue later.

The roofing company gave me a good price because I was paying out of pocket, and to reduce costs, they were supposed to leave the covered porch alone. However, my roofer forgot to add that stipulation to the contract so the roofers unknowingly began ripping it off. They tried to fix it, but naturally it didn’t match, so now they had to tear off the roof and start over at their expense. Bummer for them, better for me. On the down side, that extended our nail storm by two days, and since two of the four days were weekends, the neighbors must have been were thrilled – especially since they came at 7 AM on Sunday. Thankfully I apologized in advance, and so far have not seen any eggs on my house.

So now have a new roof and can list the property, but this has been a very odd weather year. Four times the normal snowfall in February, no snow in March, and temperatures in the 70s is a great recipe for severe weather. I can only hope this new roof manufacturer will not order another tornado.