What the heck is a mesocyclone?

Because the Weather Underground's fancy-ass radar says one is coming right to my house. 90 percent chance of hail formation, supposedly. :-\

 

From wikipedia:

A mesocyclone is an area of vertically oriented atmospheric rotation (usually but not always cyclonic) that is most often associated with a localized low pressure region within a severe thunderstorm. The phenomenon is normally relatively localized in nature lying between the synoptic scale (hundreds of kilometers) and small scale (hundreds of meters).
In layman's terms, the mesocyclone is a rotating updraft within a severe thunderstorm around 5 to 10 miles in diameter, that usually spins in the same direction as low pressure systems for a given hemisphere.

 

Oh, well that's OK then!

It will be here in an hour, according to Wunderground.

 

Sometimes they spawn tornadoes.

 

Good news indeed!

 

Just keep an eye on your local TV. If they break into regular programming, saying something about doppler radar showing rotation, that should get your immediate attention. If they say trained spotters have reported a tornado on the ground ...
Well, hello Emerald City.

Can you find the storm on a computer screen, or are you relying on the TV guys?

 

And keep Jim Cantore off your lawn.

 

The former. It appears to be dissipating, because Weather Underground no longer marks it separately on the local radar picture.

Sadly, this probably means Stephanie Abrams will not be doing a live shot from my neighborhood as the storm rolls through. :'(

 

When last he was spotted, Mr. Cantore was sunning himself on the banks of the Trinity River in Labonte Park -- whatever part of Texas that is...

 

Nueces County. (EDIT: South Texas, about 16 miles from Corpus Christi.)

If a two-foot flood is what is attracting Danger Jim, we're in good shape.

 

This is why I want no part of living in the Great Plains, Oklahoma or Texas. That and the weird accents.

 

I live in none of those places.