What Does "Particularly Dangerous Situation" Mean?
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NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - The National Weather Service warned of the possibility of hail as big as Texas grapefruits in some areas on Tuesday and CBS11 Meteorologists used the term Particularly Dangerous Situation (PDS) to describe weather conditions across North Texas today. Safe to say we pretty much all know what hail is by now -- but what exactly is PDS?
It sure sounds serious.
The wording is used in rare situations when long-lived, strong and violent tornadoes are possible. The last time our area had a PDS was in 2011, according to the local weather office. The enhanced wording may also accompany severe thunderstorm watches for intense convective wind storms, according to CBS11 Meteorologist Jeff Ray.
Specifically, PDS means all atmospheric parameters are lined up to produce long track tornadoes (more than 20 miles). It doesn't mean the odds of severe weather are greater, just the odds that the severe weather that forms has a better chance of producing powerful tornadoes, according to Ray.
And power is a dangerous thing.
Eighty-five percent of our (on average) 1000 tornadoes a year in the U.S. are EF0-EF1, which produce 5 percent of tornado fatalities. EF4 to Ef5 tornadoes are less than 1 percent of all tornadoes but are responsible for 70 percent of all tornado deaths.
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