Griffin! @Griff411 11m11 minutes ago If James Spann fucks up my #TGIT with this weak ass storm coverage, I'm gonna be so pissed.
Robby Donoho @RobbyDonoho 2m2 minutes ago Photo of the tornado that passed through New Hope, MS on Hughes Road courtesy of @DaneBoyd.
carl parker @parkertwc 4m4 minutes ago stunning view of supercell in Tulsa on 3/30 (courtesy Tina Strickland) prelim EF-2 (~135 mph) damage on the tornado near Tulsa last night
Shit, debris signature with that northern storm in Fayette/Walker County line (blue circle between Glen Allen and Eldridge)
Still got power here at the Woodlands. Hoping this shit doesn't make my night shift at the hotel hellish.
Another debris signature near Priceville, AL. Worst of it should be over for Tuscaloosa. Some back-end stuff, but that should remain sub-severe.
Chased for a while this evening and got fairly close to the storm that produced the tornado that impacted Ardmore, AL/TN and then rode the state line eastward. Couldn't find a good north road that wasn't gonna put me in a hilly, tree filled area in the dark so I chilled next to this field for a while seeing what I could see. I was spotting by the flashes of lightning but I'm pretty sure I was seeing remnants of the wall cloud as it passed just to my north.
Then I jetted south and caught the leftovers from the storm that produced the Hartselle/Priceville tornado as that "rotation" passed south of Huntsville.
I'll have to remember to share my story about that day. I was working in the NWS office at the time and was on the storm survey the following day. Also, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that the Super Outbreak was 42 years ago today: http://www.ustornadoes.com/2013/04/03/looking-back-at-the-april-3-4-1974-super-outbreak/ & http://www.weather.gov/lmk/april31974 30 violent (F4/5) tornadoes...insane.
Also, here is a decent 3-part read on the basics of tornadoes and forecasting supercells/tornadoes I: http://www.ustornadoes.com/2015/01/...ying-and-understanding-the-basic-ingredients/ II: http://www.ustornadoes.com/2015/02/10/how-to-forecast-tornadoes-search-for-boundaries-and-gradients/ III: http://www.ustornadoes.com/2015/03/30/how-to-forecast-tornadoes-looking-for-what-could-go-wrong/
That tornado was on the ground about 5 miles from the house I lived in outside of Tulsa. /look at me.
Jesus Dude had a death wish. Just watching that house across the street get obliterated in less than a second is crazy
Well, I said I would share my story about the Rochelle-Fairdale, IL EF4 from last April 9th...Can't believe it's already been a year. Could be kinda long... NWS web story about it (I'm sure they'll have a 1 year thing up soon) SPC archive (if you want to read watches and discussions from that day) Spoiler As I said, I had been working at the NWS office during grad school and had just finished teaching that day around 10am. Was talking with some friends about chasing, but ultimately decided to head to the office. Got there around 11am. We had multiple rounds of storms roll through that morning, not unusual, but added some uncertainty regarding the afternoon with any lingering cloud cover. Sat at my workstation (radar there is awesome) and got settled in. The office was staffed appropriately with jobs/tasks for the day handed out. A lead forecaster and the WCM (warning coordination meteorologist; works a lot with emergency management/disaster preparedness) made sure all of the books with phone numbers were easily accessible should they be needed. They had an iPad with RadarScope on it and were essentially the conductors of the day. Not long after I got there, a conference call between the SPC, us, and the neighboring offices got underway to discuss issuance of a tornado watch. The initial tornado watch encompassing most of western IL and IA went out around 1pm with another watch that included the Rochelle-Fairdale-Chicago area issued around 2pm. Storms started to fire in the Davenport/Quad Cities NWS CWA (county warning area) around 3-5pm, which we were all watching quite closely. The Fairdale storm evolved quite rapidly (which you can see via NWS Chicago's web story on it; I tried to download archived radar data from this day, but it's missing from the archive...). I was working the social media accounts that night and was tweeting warnings and reports. The rest of the night was kind of a blur. The office was cool and collected the whole time. I do remember the warning forecaster on the storm saying out loud at one point, "Uh, I think we have a massive tornado on our hands..." Was a hair-raising moment when you realized people's lives were literally being torn apart. Started getting all sorts of tweets and pictures of the storm. We turned on TWC and CNN because they both had chaser streams up. After the event we were inundated with phone calls from CNN, TWC, etc...The MIC (meteorologist-in-charge = boss) came in with food for all of us, not sure what time that was. He also helped get everything setup for the storm survey teams in the morning. I was asked to join; both extremely exciting and sobering that I had the opportunity. Left the office just before midnight. Came back around 630am the following morning for the survey. We had 3 survey teams; I was on the team that surveyed north of Fairdale, although we eventually worked our way back south to help out because the other two teams had so much to do with the survey and FEMA. Essentially we were on the dying remnants of the main tornado and were tasked to find evidence of other tornadoes as we had reports of smaller, satellite tornadoes rotating around the main tornado. First stop was a farm that had lost some animals... This was the first time I have seen significant tornado damage and the people that it affected. It was a very humbling day and put my love/excitement/research interest in severe weather into perspective. It was really nice to see neighbors helping neighbors. Saw a lot of people who's houses weren't damaged cooking large amounts of food and bringing it to their neighbors and those helping with the cleanup. They even forced us to eat lunch as we hadn't brought food and were out from 7am-5pm. The woman said she couldn't be more grateful for the work we did the night before and wanted to make sure we were fed. For all the shit you see and read about in the news, it was incredible to see the graciousness and generosity that day. I saw a lot of bad things, but I try to remember how resilient most of the survivors were. One man said that he didn't give two shits about his house; his family and dog were ok and that was fine with him. I never used to think much of seeing a debris signature on radar. In fact, I would get excited cause that meant a tornado was in progress. After this event, I cringe when I see that. Don't get me wrong, I still get excited about severe weather and love to save radar images (see: this thread), but think much differently when I see that little blue ball + velocity couplet on radar... Long wood shards turned into lawn darts: Farm building destroyed with concrete "foundation" cracked. Buildings directly behind me were untouched... A few more from the area...reeked of natural gas. The natural gas guys were just arriving (~9am the following morning to get the tree off the tank...) As I said, we eventually went back south just north of Fairdale as there were reports of heavy damage there. We pulled up to this house and it was by far, the worst of the day (for our team). We all just said, "Holy shit" These are from the official damage survey: https://apps.dat.noaa.gov/StormDamage/DamageViewer/ This is when it really hit me. The owner of the home was despondent, I'll never forget the look in his eyes. It was a hard conversation when we talked to him for sure... There is a shelving unit laying on the ground near the bottom right of the picture, next to the only remaining wall. Full of boxes of nails. Still neatly packed. The only signs of disturbance was the fact that the shelving unit was 30 feet from where it originally stood. Some ground scarring on the road near the house ~1000 lb farm equipment in a field 1/4 to 1/2 mile from where it originally sat
I got the opportunity to survey the damage of the Joplin Walmart and the neighboring Home Depot the next day and it was the most shocking scene I've ever witnessed. Will never forget the store manager being so stoic about what he had just been through. He could barely talk. Thanks for the story
It really is incredibly sobering to see it all in person. I was at work in Tulsa when the EF5 hit Moore a few years back and I remember pulling up the radar and seeing the size of the storm and thinking it could be bad. So many people immediately started showing up at the city to try and help that if I remember right they actually had to start saying they were getting overcrowded with workers. I drove through Moore shortly after a lot of the clean up had taken place and even then just on the interstate it looked like a bomb had gone off
I only took like 3-4 pictures before I just had to stop. I'll try to see if I still have any of those or pics that our team took and post them.
I've seen 3 tornadoes in my life. An EF-3 in Oxford, MS when I was senior that was part of the Super Tuesday outbreak in February 2008, the formation of the Shawnee EF-4 the day before the Moore EF-5 in 2013. The Moore EF-5 I watched from my roof in Norman. It was 6 miles north of me but you could still see the dark black mass moving really really quickly. Here is a pic I took of the Shawnee EF-4 forming right over my house in Norman in 2013. I think I may have posted it in this thread back then.
I worked cleanup in Moore for Team Rubicon (all veteran disater response volunteer org). My job was to walk neighborhoods and do damage assesments and talk to the homeowners to see what they needed, etc. Talk about being emotionally spent. I'm sure I've got some pics in my drive, I'll try to find them.
It looked like Hiroshima pictures. Looking east and west across I-35 is one of those things you never forget. I did insurance claims for that tornado and it was just unbelievable the damage.
Here is the one that shows the scale of the damage the best, IMO. All the way to those 3 antennas was residential area. Looked like someone took God's bulldozer and just pushed the whole area away.
The Fairdale tornado reaffirmed that I really needed to have a solid tornado plan in place. I had an "idea" in place, but did not really have an organized plan in place. Wife and I now have something that we both agree and and have talked through so that if we need to act quickly, we can. A few "other" preparedness things I learned during the survey and my time at the NWS: - wear a helmet, or put your kids in a bike helmet. Heard of that saving a few lives (Washington, IL among other events). I can't remember the exact event, but I heard that some parents put a bike helmet on their kid during a tornado warning and he was hit by the toilet. Cracked the helmet, but he was fine. - put on covered shoes or boots. I've heard that this was a huge issue during the 2011 Outbreak; people had massive trauma to their feet just from walking about their damaged neighborhoods.
Sobering story, thanks for sharing. Also - Is the helmets thing new? Don't remember hearing it much, until this year. While watching coverage of those storms going through Bama I noticed Spann saying that quite a bit. Makes sense, but it was never something I ever thought about
Not entirely sure. I think there have been more stories shared about how helmets have helped. Plus, there has been a big push to give better advice regarding what to do during severe weather. So much of what is out there is outdated or ambiguous guidance.
Couple Joplin pics I've got about 30 more in a .pdf document that I can't figure out how to export and upload.
going to be an interesting night tonight and tomorrow afternoon Brandon Sullivan @BTSullivan91 42s42 seconds ago Radar showing 100+ mph winds just above the ground in SW OK, northwest of Frederick, OK! Take shelter! #okwx
No tornado, but Geezus H. Paul Chryst...Denton, Texas is about to get walloped from same cell, I think:
Yeah, that storm is massive. Was tornado warned but moved into a less favorable environment for tornadoes (outflow from old storms cooled the air/stabilized the air), but it is still a prodigious hail producer.
big shoutout to BayouMafia for putting me in position to get this pic of some very angry clouds about 1 minute before the hail started falling. same storm as the one pictured above. managed to get south before anything larger that pea-dime stuff started falling.
Natasha Johnson @heelsandracing 7m7 minutes ago .@wxbrad from my friend in Wylie, TX tonight. Everything is bigger in Texas!