Not all severe thunderstorms are created equal.
With that in mind, certain high-intensity thunderstorms will soon be treated with the same urgency as tornadoes and flash floods.
Starting August 2, the National Weather Service will start classifying severe thunderstorms with three damage threat levels:
Base/Baseline: The most basic severe thunderstorm, capable of producing 1.00 inch (quarter-sized) hail and/or 58 mph thunderstorm winds.
Considerable: 1.75 inch diameter (golf ball-sized) hail and/or 70 mph thunderstorm winds.
Destructive: 2.75 inch diameter (baseball-sized) hail and/or 80 mph thunderstorm winds. Warnings with this tag will automatically activate a Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) on smartphones within the warned area.
This is similar to WEA being activated during Tornado Warnings and Flash Flood Warnings.
"Once it hits 'destructive,' there is a pretty good damage threat with a storm," says National Weather Service Fort Worth meterologist Allison Prater. "We want to have people say 'This is not just a regular thunderstorm, this is more dangerous.'"
The National Weather Service notes that:
Thirteen of the 22 costliest weather disasters in 2020 were severe thunderstorms. The new “destructive” tag would have activated a Wireless Emergency Alert for many of these impactful events, including the costliest thunderstorm in U.S. history, the $11 billion derecho that affected Iowa in August 2020.
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