Veteran storm chasers killed

The Weather Channel storm chasing truck was destroyed in El Reno, Oklahoma on Friday. Thankfully Mike Bettes and crew survived.

By now most of us in the weather community are well aware of the tornadoes that hit Oklahoma on Friday, just another destructive round of weather in what has been a terrible month. The death toll stands at 16 from this outbreak adding to that from the Moore storm two weeks ago. What many of you may not know is that we lost a veteran storm chaser, a well respected scientist, Tim Samaras in the EF-3 El Reno, Oklahoma storm. The violent storm trapped many in traffic on area highways. Also taken were Tim's son Paul and chaser Carl Young. They will be missed terribly and my thoughts and prayers go out to the their families. The Weather Channel crew from Tornado Hunt 2013 was caught in the same storm and their vehicle was rolled several times into a field off the interstate. The driver suffered serious injuries while miraculously Mike Bettes and the others in the truck received cuts and scrapes. Bettes, interviewed on TWC, has said they were on the dreaded north side of the storm trying to get away. The violent tornadoes just caught them, they needed 30 seconds more according to Bettes.

New Hampshire
Yesterday was another hot day here on the New Hampshire Seacoast as it was all across the northeast and into southern Quebec. Temperatures here were over 90F for the third day in a row. Meanwhile, a strong but slow moving cold front produced over 30mm of rain in Montreal. This morning the rain has finally reached us here on the coast. The storms yesterday across Vermont knocked down trees and power lines. Skies will slowly clear in Montreal today with clear and cooler weather, 19 to 21C into Thursday before more clouds and showers.

HURRICANE Season
June 1st was the start of hurricane season, which goes through to November 30. Already forecasters are watching the tropics for possible development of a depression in the Gulf of Mexico this week. If it develops the storm would be called Andrea, and it may move towards Florida by the middle of the week. More on that later, but for now bye from the beach. Remember a rainy day at the beach is still better than a sunny day at work!