F-1 close to me yesterday. Went about a half mile, tossed around some cars. Shows up around the 13 second mark.
Under a tornado watch for the first time since moving to Minneapolis. I feel like everyone is freaking out over it. Tornado watches are an everyday thing in kansas in the summer.
A shot of two tornadoes at the same time in one supercell in Colorado: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slat...shows_two_tornadoes_and_supercell_all_at.html
More derecho straight line winds than tornadoes but that bow echo game ridiculous this afternoon in the Minne/Iowa/Wisky corridor.
Insane instability today, hot surface temps plus pretty moist low-levels. Low-level wind shear is pretty good per recent observations. Tornado threat is greatest within the next few hours; storms will most likely congeal into one big mess and race east/southeast across WI/IA. Very interesting setup that has given the models a lot of difficulty.
People on Facebook are talking about this derecho thing heading to Ohio. Can someone that follows this shit confirm or deny?
Extreme instability across IL and IA; like pushing 95% percentile. We'll see if anything can hug the boundary left behind by the morning line of storms. If so, the tornado chances will be slightly elevated. Probably looking at another overnight line/mess through IL-IA-MI-OH and beyond.
A nice FAQ from the SPC on derechos: http://www.spc.noaa.gov/misc/AbtDerechos/derechofaq.htm That term is thrown around way too much for big lines of storms. The definition is much more specific: wind gusts along the line of at least 58 mph across a 240 mile damage swath.
There was an EF1 that happened just up the road from where I was in Gentry AR the other day. There was no tornado warning. This was the explanation from one of our local meteorologist: Rotation was broad on radar, but the radar beam had to make it through some really heavy rain in Washington Co and the beam might have attenuated a little bit. Plus the beam height above Gentry is about 5,500 feet above ground so the strong circulation wasn't detected. Link to the video: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?st...7725650791&refsrc=http://t.co/CsVtO9EtyR&_rdr
That's a huge problem with our detection of tornadoes. In ideal conditions we can resolve rotation within the lowest 2000 feet, but the storm would have to be very close to the radar site with little interference from ground clutter. Usually when you see or hear mets talk about rotation in a storm, what we really see is the mid-level rotation in the storm. This is part of the reason that false alarm rates are high-ish and hard to improve upon. There are additional ways to verify the likelihood of a tornado, but the traditional method is hardly enough. Edit - Even in the Plains you have this issue, despite the flat terrain. You can have a tornadic storm 100+ miles from the radar and the radar beam is sampling the storm at 10-20K feet. No way in hell you can actually resolve the tornadic circulation.
How's hurricane season looking this year? I'm in south Florida (east coast side) for work until October.
Active Pacific, dead Atlantic thus far. Been pretty dry across most of the Atlantic thus far. However, as 1992 proved with Andrew in August, it only takes one storm in a "slow" season to make everyone forget about the quiet tropical season.
Badass picture that shows the height of a thunderstorm. You can see how the anvil cloud spreads along the tropopause, the layer that separates the troposphere from the stratosphere, as it is no longer warmer (less dense) than the air surrounding the cloud; the air can no longer continue to rise, but rather spreads out horizontally. Spoiler
at this storm report from the Des Moines WFO a couple days ago: 0320 PM FLASH FLOOD 4 SE ELLSWORTH 42.28N 93.52W 08/28/2015 HAMILTON IA TRAINED SPOTTER FLOODWATERS FROM LONG DICK CREEK ARE 6 INCHES DEEP...AND FLOWING...ON 340TH STREET 1/4 MILE WEST OF XIRCUS AVE.
That shit was crazy yesterday. Tons of awesome pics. Really was not expecting it. No watches, just boom storms, look out. Lots of rain and small hail on my end.
Fucking warning sirens going off here in Fort Worth/Tarrant County. Nothing confirmed to touchdown, just rotations visible in radar.
Warning for tornadoes due to spin ups in big lines is a huge pain in the ass. So difficult cause they ramp up really quickly and then bam, they're gone.
Twice in the last week there's been separate blizzard warnings and tornado warnings in Nebraska at the same time.
And here's the text of the watch Spoiler SEL9 URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 559 NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK 1155 AM CST WED DEC 23 2015 THE NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER HAS ISSUED A * TORNADO WATCH FOR PORTIONS OF SOUTHEAST ARKANSAS FAR NORTHEAST LOUISIANA NORTHERN AND WESTERN MISSISSIPPI WESTERN TENNESSEE * EFFECTIVE THIS WEDNESDAY MORNING AND EVENING FROM 1155 AM UNTIL 800 PM CST. ...THIS IS A PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION... * PRIMARY THREATS INCLUDE... SEVERAL TORNADOES AND A FEW INTENSE TORNADOES LIKELY SCATTERED DAMAGING WINDS LIKELY WITH ISOLATED SIGNIFICANT GUSTS TO 75 MPH POSSIBLE ISOLATED LARGE HAIL EVENTS TO 1.5 INCHES IN DIAMETER POSSIBLE SUMMARY...ONGOING SEVERE STORMS EAST OF LITTLE ROCK SHOULD INTENSIFY THROUGH THE AFTERNOON WITH ADDITIONAL STORMS FORMING SOUTHWARD ACROSS THE ARK-LA-MISS REGION. ENVIRONMENT IS CONDUCIVE TO LONG-TRACK SUPERCELLS WITH SIGNIFICANT TORNADOES AND DAMAGING WINDS AS THE PRIMARY HAZARDS. THE TORNADO WATCH AREA IS APPROXIMATELY ALONG AND 100 STATUTE MILES EAST AND WEST OF A LINE FROM 10 MILES NORTHEAST OF DYERSBURG TENNESSEE TO 50 MILES EAST OF MONROE LOUISIANA. FOR A COMPLETE DEPICTION OF THE WATCH SEE THE ASSOCIATED WATCH OUTLINE UPDATE (WOUS64 KWNS WOU9). PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... REMEMBER...A TORNADO WATCH MEANS CONDITIONS ARE FAVORABLE FOR TORNADOES AND SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS IN AND CLOSE TO THE WATCH AREA. PERSONS IN THESE AREAS SHOULD BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR THREATENING WEATHER CONDITIONS AND LISTEN FOR LATER STATEMENTS AND POSSIBLE WARNINGS. && OTHER WATCH INFORMATION...CONTINUE...WW 557...WW 558... AVIATION...TORNADOES AND A FEW SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH HAIL SURFACE AND ALOFT TO 1.5 INCHES. EXTREME TURBULENCE AND SURFACE WIND GUSTS TO 65 KNOTS. A FEW CUMULONIMBI WITH MAXIMUM TOPS TO 500. MEAN STORM MOTION VECTOR 22045. ...GRAMS
"@NashSevereWx: NWS is launching special weather balloons at 3PM. That'll give us a better idea of what's going on." Leave now homey
So the Mississippi Highway Patrol just shut down traffic on the interstate in the wrong spot and some people likely got ran right the fuck over by a tornado in their vehicles because they could not move