Many parts of our viewing area were hit hard with severe weather yesterday, including high winds, heavy downpours, and large hail.  We knew yesterday's cold frontal passage would help relieve the heat through the development of some thunderstorms, but honestly I think we lucked out a bit.  CAPE values yesterday were near 4000J/KG and the lifted index was around -9!  That had me a bit concerned yesterday for some major development, but the other issue to consider was the heat.  Once again, we may have been capped at upper levels because the column of heat extended well into the upper atmosphere yesterday afternoon.  This could have helped keep the situation from becoming a lot worse.  Many places did see severe thunderstorms yesterday, but there were no tornadoes.  Here are yesterday's storm reports:

As you can see, many places across the Commonwealth reported high wind gusts and hail yesterday afternoon and evening.  There was one report in Lancaster county where the hail was 0.88 inches in diameter!  The other thing to note about yesterday is that while the air behind the front is indeed less humid, it is not all that cooler.  Temperatures this afternoon are still in the 80s.  In other words, if the air masses would have been completely different, the front could have been the boundary for some major action to take place.  Luckily, we survived with just a few severe thunderstorms.  Take a look at yesterday's mesoscale discussion map released by the Storm Prediction Center.

Notice the CAPE values across the lower Susquehanna Valley.  Anytime CAPES get up over 2000J/KG, the atmosphere is pretty ripe for some organized thunderstorms to develop.  CAPE stands for Convective Available Potential Energy and it is a measure of instability within the atmosphere.  At one point yesterday afternoon, as I mentioned above, we had CAPES approaching 4000J/KG!  That is significant.  We can be extremely thankful that no tornadoes developed yesterday, but it was not the appropriate environment for them to do so.  Another more pronounced cold front could swing through here on Saturday.  This front will actually help knock temperatures back into the 70s for early next week.  We will keep you posted on the thunderstorm threat as we get closer to the weekend.  Remember to send in your WEATHER questions to brettblogs@abc27.com or post them below!  Have a great day everybody and enjoy the lower humidity!