With the possibility of severe weather continuing throughout the week, many of us might not realize what weather experts look for in determining how a thunderstorm develops.

Weather Eye Meteorologist Paul Trambley describes the major factors he looks for in how storms tend to develop.

“If a thunderstorm develops, it’s usually going to have more energy (if) it’s (a) more humid and hot day. Other things that you look for also is cold fronts coming through or maybe a warm front, or some sort of an upper-level disturbance that’s coming through that’s going to kind of trigger lines of storms or cluster of storms, if you will, over the area.”

Trambley reminds everyone that not all storms are severe thunderstorms. The criteria that Weather Eye follows for a storm to be a severe thunderstorm includes: at least quarter-sized diameter hail, wind gusts of over 58-miles-per-hour, or isolated tornado activity. Trambley notes that they work with Raccoon Valley Radio anytime there’s severe weather in Greene, Dallas or Guthrie counties.

“We’re keeping an eye on severe weather potential everyday and every hour of the season. When anything does develop, we kind of give you kind of a rundown every 20-minutes of where the storms are at now, how it’s looking. So it just kind of goes that extra mile to give you ‘on-the-fly’ conditions with the storm system because they change quickly.”

Raccoon Valley Radio’s Severe Weather Action Team provides live coverage anytime there’s severe weather in our primary coverage area until either the levels go below severe or move out of our area.