Official Tornado and Runaway Barge Thread

Discussion in 'The Mainboard' started by GoodForAnother, May 10, 2010.

  1. GoodForAnother

    GoodForAnother I’d rather be down the allotment
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    Potential for big storms today in Kansas and Oklahoma.

    [​IMG]


    Tornado Watch 147 remains valid until 10 PM CDT this evening for
    the following areas

    In Kansas this watch includes 11 counties

    In south central Kansas

    Butler Cowley Harper
    Harvey Kingman Reno
    Sedgwick Sumner

    In southeast Kansas

    Chautauqua Elk Greenwood

    This includes the cities of... Anthony... Arkansas City... Augusta...
    El Dorado... Eureka... Harper... Howard... Hutchinson... Kingman...
    Newton... Sedan... Wellington... Wichita and Winfield.


    Live stormchasing broadcasts:

    http://severestudios.com

    ---------------------

    Courtesy of lomcevak

    NewAlright, here's a start for stuff to put in the OP. If there is anything else or another question, I can add that.

    I have a bunch of links to observations, soundings, radar, satellite, models, etc on a site I put together to keep track of everything. I use SPC, COD, Pivotal Weather (PW), and Tropical Tidbits (TT) the most. COD has everything. http://wxsme.weebly.com/wx-links.html

    Radar stuff:
    Radar Fundamentals (NWS/Iowa State)
    How to read and interpret radar (Iowa State)
    NWS Jet Stream Doppler Radar
    Description of radar products (RadarScope) - near the bottom under "Radar Products"

    RadarScope (Apple and Android) - $9.99 one-time fee (9.99/year for lightning and a few other additional features)

    GR3 - 21 day trial or $80 one-time fee. Free NOAA/NWS radar feed, what I use at home. If you do happen to buy or get the trial, let me know and I can get you better color tables to use...the defaults suck. GR2Analyst uses Level 2 radar, essentially what is used in NWS offices. More expensive, data hog (if you chase with it). Iowa State has a free feed, otherwise you need pay 3rd party vendors for a reliable feed.

    Pykl3 (Android, not sure about Apple) - $9.99 one-time fee; I have this as well, it's nice but I prefer RadarScope for mobile. Pykl3 has more integrated GIS features and is more customizable than RadarScope

    Some app recommendations:
    aforementioned radar
    COD nexlab (only for iPhone)
    Weather Radio - essentially a mobile weather radio, can get NWS alerts based on your location
    SPC mobile
    NWS mobile forecast widget - the find your location feature doesn't seem to work; just plug in your zip

    Comet modules are used extensively in met classes and in the workplace:
    Skew-T - long module but covers everything you could ever want to know.
    Convection (some are quite technical, but if you're bored and want what a lot of met students get in the classroom (sans the equations), it's good - The first 3 are the most fundamental

    Decent algebra-based met textbook, focuses more on physical understanding, not the math: https://www.eoas.ubc.ca/books/Practical_Meteorology/

    The Weather Prediction website is a very thorough resource on most anything you would want to read about. Geared toward forecasting and has very little, if any math.

    US Tornadoes "Forecasting" stuff:
    Basics
    Boundaries and gradients
    What could go wrong

    SPC YouTube Tornado forecasting series, heavy emphasis on soundings and observations; highly recommend. There are 9 total videos

    TornadoTitans info on storm basics, skew-t/sounding, etc (haven't watched, but probably good enough to get a grasp)

    NWS Louisville Science Officer has tons of radar and storm dynamics stuff
    Hodographs - easy way to display winds throughout the atmosphere and shear
    Supercells

    A couple of papers on how tornadoes form and how the phrase "clashing airmasses" is highly misleading/physically incorrect way to describe how severe thunderstorms form.
    What we know and what we don't about tornado formation
    Clash of the airmasses

    To get a thunderstorm you need 3 things:
    1. Moisture (hard to get clouds and rain without moisture)
    2. Lift (hardest to diagnose; there was much better large-scale ascent last night (March 6) in Iowa and Minnesota than there was further south, large reason why those discrete supercells in AR and MO didn't get going until late)
    3. Instability (updraft strength/speed is directly proportional to instability --> higher instability = stronger updrafts

    Need a 4th ingredient to get severe:
    4. Wind shear (change in direction and speed with height; Generally, you'll see southerly-southeasterly winds at the surface that quickly veer (turn clockwise) west-southwesterly above the surface)

    This is key to storm organization; shear helps to organize storms and prevent precipitation from falling into the updraft, cutting it off. Shear also helps induce vorticity (spin) in the atmosphere that gives rise to mesocyclones (rotation of supercells). Supercells are amazing in that once they start to rotate, they self-sustain. The rotation induces mid-level low pressure --> "sucks" air up from below --> enhances the updraft and strength of the storm, augments the buoyant instability available to the storm. This is a reason why you can get supercells in an environment that some might consider to have marginal instability.

    In an ideal or classic case, supercells also can deviate to the right of the mean wind flow in their environment. What's the significance of this? This deviant motion enhances the low-level helicity --> enhances the shear and "spin" potential. Supercells are beasts that, by way of internal dynamics, can significantly enhance it's environment. Despite all of this, some research shows that only about 15% of supercells actually produce tornadoes.

    You can get tornadoes from non-supercell storms as well; also embedded within a line of storms. Often these squall line or QLCS storms have embedded supercellular circulations within them, rather than a discrete, classic supercell. Getting timely warnings out for QLCS tornadoes remains quite elusive as these things can form, produce damage, and dissipate within a few scans of radar or less (5-10 minutes).

    other great sites:

    https://tornadochannel.com



    Want to see the satellite imagery from the new goes-16 satellite, COD has an experimental page: http://weather.cod.edu/satrad/exper/
     
    #1 GoodForAnother, May 10, 2010
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 26, 2017
  2. dcon79

    dcon79 Nailed it
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    Anyone ever chased a tornado? How much fun was it?
     
  3. Futureman

    Futureman Check you later kemosabe
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    I'll be in Oklahoma this weekend. :ohnoes:
     
  4. broXcore

    broXcore cat
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    definitely smug right now

    love tornadoes
     
  5. GoodForAnother

    GoodForAnother I’d rather be down the allotment
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    In high school, my parents were out of town and had a few buddies at my house having a few brews. Big ass storms started filing in, so we hopped in my Jeep and drove out to meet the storm coming in in Cheney (about 20 minutes from my hometown). We camped out there (had a few more beers) and watched the rain/hail, then followed it for a bit once the intense stuff went by. Ended up seeing a small tornado in a field following it back toward my house. Storm dissolved shortly after that and we headed back to my place.

    Lotta fun, pretty exciting but it was pretty dumb of us to head out there with no information other than an AM radio. Lol.
     
  6. Gotch Yarbrough

    Gotch Yarbrough Canada eh?
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    [​IMG]

    Vastly superior logo to this I state shit. Fucking idiots at ISU.
     
  7. Andy Reocho

    Andy Reocho Please don't get lost in the sauce
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    Unfortunately I've never seen one. It seems like it's been way to chilly today for a Tornado, doesn't it require a big temp change?
     
  8. dcon79

    dcon79 Nailed it
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    Your adrenaline must have been through the roof. I need to do this once at least.
     
  9. tjosu

    tjosu This is kind of like the breakfast club, huh?
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    i just got home, and was thinking about this thread...wind is blowin pretty good in Stillwater right now, and i heard all kinds of alerts on the radio about big storms in the state, but they're mostly further out west. we're only under a tornado watch for the next few hours here :curses:
     
  10. ncrebel

    ncrebel Administrator
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    never seen one, and dont really want to
     
    PhupaPhever likes this.
  11. Butters

    Butters BALLISLIFE

    Douglas county is right outside the severe thunderstorm watch :aero:
     
  12. GoodForAnother

    GoodForAnother I’d rather be down the allotment
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    That's what I was thinking but if you look at the fronts right now, it's nuts. We're in a cold front, but there's a warm front rolling and a stationary front hovering around the state as well. Pretty crazy weather day overall.

    Link to follow Reed Timmer from Discovery's StormChasers show live:

    http://www.tornadovideos.net/live
     
  13. Futureman

    Futureman Check you later kemosabe
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    My senior year at Ole Miss I was on the phone with my dad who called to say there were tornadoes in my area and wanted to see if everything was ok. I told him it was getting dark outside (it was like 3 in the afternoon) but I didn't think there were any tornadoes. Just as I said that my roommate yelled to come outside. Walked outside and saw a tornado about 2 miles away going away from our house. It was awesome and definitely made the sound of a train like they say they make. I'd love to do a tornado chase after that experience, they're incredible.

    /cool story hansel.
     
  14. GoodForAnother

    GoodForAnother I’d rather be down the allotment
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  15. broXcore

    broXcore cat
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    so gfa, if this goes down im taking a 30 pack and exploring campus afterward
     
  16. BMR

    BMR Well-Known Member
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    Awesome.
     
  17. GoodForAnother

    GoodForAnother I’d rather be down the allotment
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    that's what I did after the last one two years ago
     
  18. broXcore

    broXcore cat
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    thats what my roommates did. i fucking went to bed like a bitch because i had to work at 5:30
     
  19. Andy Reocho

    Andy Reocho Please don't get lost in the sauce
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    Illinois looks like it's getting bananadog'd right now
     
  20. hardcorekickball

    hardcorekickball the meatus of the penis
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    yeah, that was pretty awesome. :feelsgoodman:
     
  21. FatGuyatthePool

    FatGuyatthePool I AM A KANSAS STATE FAN MOTHERFUCKERS

    I was in a tornado when I was in HS. Pretty crazy shit. My dad had to take out six inches of soil from our yard to make sure he got all the glass that had been buried into it by the wind. All my clothes had glass and fiberglass in them. Tornadoes haven't been nearly as cool since that shit.
     
  22. FatGuyatthePool

    FatGuyatthePool I AM A KANSAS STATE FAN MOTHERFUCKERS

    Tornado headed towards the Wichita airport. I'm just off Kellogg on 119th... :ohnoes:
     
  23. GoodForAnother

    GoodForAnother I’d rather be down the allotment
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    skipped over my hometown (Goddard)

    pretty crazy shit
     
  24. hardcorekickball

    hardcorekickball the meatus of the penis
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    Wichita sucks anyway.
     
  25. FatGuyatthePool

    FatGuyatthePool I AM A KANSAS STATE FAN MOTHERFUCKERS

    It was so dark here for a few minutes that it was ridiculous. I was positive that I was about to get struck again. Had the dogs in the basement and everything.
     
  26. Andy Reocho

    Andy Reocho Please don't get lost in the sauce
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    where u at?
     
  27. roonskie

    roonskie Getting older every day
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    When I was living down there a couple summers ago (summer of the Manhattan tornado) the weather in Wichita was ridiculous. Lots of fun storms.
     
  28. GoodForAnother

    GoodForAnother I’d rather be down the allotment
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  29. Jayrish

    Jayrish Well-Known Member
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    :sad:
     
  30. THF

    THF BITE THE NUTS, THUMB IN THE ASS!
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    Boarding a flight from Tulsa to Dallas as I type. The captain said its going to be pretty "bumpy" haah

    Should be a fun flight.
     
  31. Andy Reocho

    Andy Reocho Please don't get lost in the sauce
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  32. soonerintx

    soonerintx New Member

    Well I just survived two tornadoes today...They werent very big but they still fucked alot of stuff up. Id take pictures but I have to go find somewhere else to study because our power is out. Shit like this seems to always happen during finals week
     
  33. FatGuyatthePool

    FatGuyatthePool I AM A KANSAS STATE FAN MOTHERFUCKERS

    Where are you at AD?
     
  34. soonerintx

    soonerintx New Member

    In norman off of highway 9 and east 24th
     
  35. Andy Reocho

    Andy Reocho Please don't get lost in the sauce
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    Here it comes, the rains starting and i heard some thunder. Gonna open the window
     
  36. NittanyKnight

    NittanyKnight They got love bites and everything
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  37. soonerintx

    soonerintx New Member

  38. tjosu

    tjosu This is kind of like the breakfast club, huh?
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    been watching the news for a while here now, glad you're all good...looks like a lot of shit got fucked in that area, also saw them reporting 1 death last i checked
     
  39. broXcore

    broXcore cat
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    just raining here for now. like 86 i got my window open.
     
  40. FatGuyatthePool

    FatGuyatthePool I AM A KANSAS STATE FAN MOTHERFUCKERS

    Damn, 86 degrees? It never got above 65 here today. But talk about perfect tornado weather...
     
  41. Andy Reocho

    Andy Reocho Please don't get lost in the sauce
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    : laugh :
     
  42. Hogview

    Hogview Fan of the Green board, Razorbacks
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    You stole my thread :tebow:
     
  43. broXcore

    broXcore cat
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    talking about ochoseis. my bad.
     
  44. BMR

    BMR Well-Known Member
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    Baseball sized hail today north of norman on I-35. Fucked my roommates car up pretty bad.
     
  45. Butters

    Butters BALLISLIFE

    weather.com really pumped up a tornado outbreak today and there wasn't shit going on in Kansas (a few exceptions near the ok/ks border).
     
  46. ColeTrickle

    ColeTrickle 1-0 Culture, LLC
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    So do you plains states guys actually like tornados?
     
  47. FatGuyatthePool

    FatGuyatthePool I AM A KANSAS STATE FAN MOTHERFUCKERS

    Gawd damnit. And ochoseis, just so you know this is TRLB....and i still hate you.
     
  48. triple-r

    triple-r Not the mama!
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    Saw one when I was 7 years old off in a field, it was an amazing site to see.
     
  49. soonerintx

    soonerintx New Member

    I like them except when they are coming at my house, or when they knock my power out when I'm trying to study for my final tomorrow
     
  50. Butters

    Butters BALLISLIFE

    I'm more interested in how they form and shit like that. :lookatme: I'm an atmospheric science major so I guess I have to like them? :lookatme: