Topic: 2008 US tornado season discussion

[Mike]

An apt thread to kickstart the season off in the US - albeit action firing early!

 Members might like to vent some thoughts on what they see as the season ahead, any patterns seen this early is similar to other years they have seen or chased therein.  Perhaps brief posts on the weather patterns or conditions to watch out for so that the not so familiar members with such storms can check now and then to see what's happening over there and be able to understand more of what they see.

Already there's tornado watches/warnings out today in Arkansas: http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/md/md0169.html

Radar animation of the squall line- (this site has lots of info by the way) :
http://www.wx.com/wxmaps/radar/wxradarSSanim.cfm?submenu=maps&radar=PAH&time=20500905022008

Mike

[Peter J]

Mike,

I have a regular check on the Accuweather website to see what they see as the upcoming weather patterns in the US are like, and the warnings came on as early as 10am AEST (7pm CT (US)) - they had tornado warnings and watches in Arkansas, and a couple of states to the E thereof. I don't know if they had any tornadoes at that time, but they were predicting large, long pathed tornadoes in the Texas, Arkansas and Tennessee areas on Tuesday their time. And also that some parts of the Mid-West region did have some unseasonally warm-to-hot conditions prior to this event.

Maybe worth a look - go to www.accuweather.com and click on the link for severe weather to get the latest updates.

Big Pete
p.s. this could be a good indicator for a wild season to come.

[Richary]

Already going I would say from this story on news.smh.com.au

Tornadoes across four southern US states have killed at least 22 people and injured dozens more.

The twisters that slammed Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky were part of a line of storms that raged across the mid-section of the US at the end of a day of Super Tuesday primaries in several states.

The tornadoes tore through homes, ripped the roof off a shopping mall and blew apart warehouses.

[Mike]

Terrible loss of life with this outbreak. There was also a couple and their 11 year old daughter killed when one struck. 

 Lots of info here http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/02/06/tornadoes/index.html

There's plenty of footage already about.  This one from YouTube http://youtube.com/watch?v=bnnUfDD2wk4   Reed Timmer at http://tornadovideos.net chased a supercell and documented it, the video features some footage also from Scott Currens from http://violentplains.com

It's so sad to read of deaths with these storms. Even with all the technology the forecasters must be so frustrated with just how little they still know about tornadoes and how unpredictable it must be to forecast touchdown areas.  It's something that just is - they may be the ultimate thing to chase but hey, one life lost is one loss too many.

Mike

[Mike]

SPC trend graph and related track map from these recent tornadoes.  Graph indicates a possible severe outbreak for 2008 for tornadoes?  One to watch with interest.

[Peter J]

I had been watching FoxNews on Foxtel today and an article came up about 40 twisters hit the mid-west US over the weekend, including an EF3 that hit Prattville, ALlabama (forgive me if i got the spelling wrong). Quite some footage of heavy damage there.
Did anyone else get some reports on this?

Big Pete

[Jimmy Deguara]

Big Pete,

Try these reports on the archives of the Storm Prediction Center website:

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/080217_rpts.html

44 tornado reports - yet another caning. Hopfully no fatalities.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Mike]

I have some great photos to share of actual personal documents that were found over 90 miles from where the tornado struck during this event and some other damage photos from Atkins.  The thing was on the ground for over 100 miles!  ...incredible stuff.


*here's some courtesy of Heidi Farrar who actually had her home damaged by this tornado and took photos of the damage path etc .. Also is a shot of a person's dental records AND x-rays of his teeth!  This is truly an amazing find because they were found here in a field 58 miles away .  Heidi contacted the person and all is well with the return of the documentation.  The other is of someone's invoice for some tyres!   Just astounds me to see this......

video of the tornado at Prattville.  The guy was 3/4 of a mile from the EF3 - great footage!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=NPqdpwj3M44

[Peter J]

Mike,

That You-tube footage was amazing! It looks as if he was a lot closer than .75 of a mile away (just over a km away)!

Thanks to all who have found footage, and details. This makes this forum the best in Oz for storm chasers by far (nationwide) in my books.

Big Pete

[Jimmy Deguara]

Big Pete,

You will find that the tornado based on the circulating winds was remarkably close - perhaps 100 metres or so. Spectacular being so close but scary!

I recall a video of a tornado from close range but this specific one was an F4 tornado! The debri was incredible and the change in wind direction just as spectacular.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Peter J]

Jimmy,

In all the chases you have done in the US, how close to and how violent a tornado have you chased?

Big Pete

[Jimmy Deguara]

Pete,

The best way to describe this is to perhaps go to the videos in the tornado alley section:

http://australiansevereweather.com.au/video/tornado_alley_videos.htm

That will explain how violent a tornado the White Deer tornado was May 29 2001. The closest obviously was the Dunoon event October 26 2007 - where do you take the edge of a tornado - I would safely say within 200 metres to 300 metres of this tornado. Of course the debri hit the power sub-station which was only 30 metres from the road I suspect.

http://australiansevereweather.com.au/video/movies/2007/dunoon_tornado_substation_explosion.wmv

I hope that is sufficient for your question. In terms of violent, the White Deer event was violent.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Brad Hannon]

Further to your question Big Pete, Jimmy and I (and another guy Ray) were chasing May 4 last year in Kansas and were 10 or so minutes behind the wedge (and associated satellite funnels) that destroyed Greensburg.  Because it was at night I only saw brief flashes (due to lightning) of one of the tornadoes (either strengthening or dissipating - not sure?) and Jimmy has reviewed his video footage to show the outline of the wedge in video stills - I am yet to sit down and review mine frame by frame.

Video still of the Greensburg tornado




These were taken from the same Nth-Sth road we were on (I would guess we were at least 5km further south at this stage):

http://towerofstorms.net/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=925
http://www.blufie.com/images/greensburgks/F5_GreensburgKS05042007full%20wedge.jpg

Brad

[Mike]

March02/03 tornadoes

Currently tornado watches out for parts of Oklahoma and Texas.  Chaser in the US emailed me to say he encountered an EF1+ elephant trunk crossing the highway a quarter mile in front of him.  another chaser intercepted two large supercells, one which showed signs of rotation but was mucked up by closer storms and the other turned into a HP which really got messy. As soon as I get some pics I'll post them up for you all.  Brisk start to the season! Here's a link or two http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/watch/ww0087.html and http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/wwa/

Here's the video hot of the press so to speak.  Some debris and rotation around the meso included in the footage - nice captures!  Courtesy http://tornadovideos.net

Here:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A_fbhQ3SMs

[Peter J]

Just been looking into the US weather reports from Accuweather.com - and there have been some reports of tornadoes stretching from Texas to the Mississippi Valley occurring right now and have been occuring from some time - if one looks at the dopplar radar for the above mentioned areas one can see quite severe weather moving in a front-like position heading from SW to NE - and quite a large number of supercell storms have formed in this region - at midnight US central time (3pm melb time) - 5 states had tornado watches in effect.

If anyone else is tracking this - for the season opener, this could be a good outbreak to start with - any further comments/sightings?

Big Pete