Thundersleet?
Now here's an unusual Thanksgiving Day forecast for Cape Girardeau:
THANKSGIVING DAY: RAIN AND A CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS IN THE MORNING...THEN RAIN...A CHANCE OF SLEET AND THUNDERSTORMS IN THE AFTERNOON. NO SLEET ACCUMULATION. HIGHS IN THE UPPER 50S. TEMPERATURE FALLING INTO THE MID 30S IN THE AFTERNOON. NORTHWEST WINDS 10 TO 15 MPH WITH GUSTS TO AROUND 30 MPH. CHANCE OF PRECIPITATION NEAR 100 PERCENT.
THURSDAY NIGHT: MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A 40 PERCENT CHANCE OF RAIN...LIGHT SNOW AND SLEET IN THE EVENING...THEN MOSTLY CLEAR AFTER MIDNIGHT. LOWS IN THE LOWER 20S. NORTH WINDS 10 TO 15 MPH WITH GUSTS TO AROUND 30 MPH IN THE EVENING SHIFTING TO THE NORTHWEST AROUND 5 MPH AFTER MIDNIGHT.
I don't like the sound of that "chance of sleet and thunderstorms." It's not clear if the forecast is calling for sleet and thunderstorms at the same time -- thundersleet! -- or for the thunderstorms to be followed later by sleet.
While it's unlikely that we will see a "White Thanksgiving", it's not completely out of the question. The National Weather Service has a new experimental forecast graphic showing the probability of receiving more than an inch of snow accumulation. Southeast Missouri is shown on the map with a 5-10 percent chance.
The graphic is automatically generated from an ensemble of several computer models. In other words, it's a wild guess made by computers. I wouldn't get too excited.
So could we see our first named system, Winter Storm "AC/DC", tomorrow? It's too early to tell, but if we get significant sleet then that will do it. It would be an appropriate name if we do, indeed, get thunderstruck with thundersleet.
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