John Wheeler: Storms do not 'always' weaken just before hitting your location

John Wheeler: Storms do not 'always' weaken just before hitting your location

FARGO — No, thunderstorms do not always change direction or weaken just before hitting your location. People watch the horizon or their radar pictures and see storms that appear to be headed straight for them with large hail or heavy rain or damaging wind or something. Then it misses or isn't as bad as advertised. First of all, storms wobble all the time, but you usually don't notice unless it happens just before hitting you. Second of all, a st…

John Wheeler: Very large hail is very rare

FARGO — Thunderstorms are caused by local columns of rising air called updrafts. Often enough, these updrafts strong are enough to overcome the force of gravity long enough to send raindrops up into the colder tops of the clouds where they freeze. Tiny hail usually melts on the way down but small hail (the size of peas or dimes or nickels) is a relatively common occurrence during summer. Very large hail is very rare. Nevertheless, almost every s…