Random weather here?

Question

in nj. from saterday to later today it was BLAZING hot outside. so hot it was hard to breath. we have early dismisles from school yesterday and today because it was so hot. then just tonight, thuderstorm. huge one. it was so windy was the lightning was massive. the clouds looked practically terqious.

what do you think of this drastic change? some said we were even expecting golfball sized hail. we were under a tornado warning i heard too. i think it could be a climate change thing. (im big on global warming and environmental stuff) others are saying a cold front is coming through.

i just thought id ask since the weather changed so strangly in a matter of hours. i was outside in the heat around 6 and went in then came back out to storms like 8:30. funny.

=]

Answer 1

The atmosphere is constantly trying to equal itself out. You see that up in New Jersey today.

Global warming theory aside, and it still is a theory mind you, the storms you encountered today is weather's way of punching itself in the face. It realized things are too hot, therefore it needed a storm to cool off.

Now, for scientific reasoning, the thunderstorm you experienced is the product of a "thermal trough". These troughs are basically formed because of the extremely high temperature on land, and the cooler temperature at sea. This causes lift in the atmosphere, providing clouds with moisture and the lift needed to form a thunderstorm.

There is a cold front coming through up there, however the time of day leads me to believe that the storm was because of the trough.

Hope I have helped!

Answer 2

Sorry but I am not a proponent of global warming per se,  but we should clean up the atmosphere where we can.   We also have superfund cleanups that is fixing the mess around gas stations,  because a lot of those has gas seeping into the water supply...