2011 Tornado Season Thread

Delighted you got there safe and sound. Texas decided to welcome you with a lil ol storm, how nice

have a great day, as they say

M.T. Cranium

Breaking news over here, CNN and other media reporting a major tornado with massive damage in the town of Joplin Missouri (in southwest MO) and while it's far too early to speculate, a substantial death toll seems likely with this given some of the video I've seen and reports coming in. A hospital parking area was apparently hit with numerous casualties known to have happened there, but other reports are talking about entire sections of this large town (it's likely a city, I think the population is over 50,000) being wiped out, and the tornado size apparently F4-5.

Anyone concerned about the Netweather team and Iancar, not to worry, they are a long way south of this location chasing a much less severe cell in Oklahoma.

I am sure much more accurate reports of this apparent disaster will roll in overnight (here) and during Monday (there). This may actually affect the planned visit of President Obama to Ireland. I would imagine that if en route he might have turned back.

nacho libre

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/05/22/2894308_tornado-strikes-joplin-mo.html?storylink=omni_popular

Iancar29

Just want to say first that it Was hard to hear about the Joplin tornado out on the road while we where going around looking for one. We all where feeling bad about hearing it. Hearts go out to the people effected.

In anyways , day 2 summary is up

http://irishtwisterchaser.blogspot.com/2011/05/day-2-summar.html

local time : 1.15am.

Could hav went to sleep at half 12, but noo... i chose to let u guys know whats happening as soon as i could!

Tlk soon........


PS, 2moro is A moderate risk!.... and we are IN THE ZONE!

M.T. Cranium

Update on Joplin MO tornado.

Found a video made by storm chasers who were near the southern edge (I think) of the mile-wide wedge of severe F4-5 damage. Despite time being about 4-5 pm local, it was pitch black like midnight, and you could only see anything in the video when lightning flashed. You could hear the wind and hail hitting the car and other nearby objects and a lot of shouting (they had the windows open for photography) from people advising other people to take cover or get the hell out of the way etc. While you could not see any real tornado damage or definition, the people in the car could (the optics for them might not have been as dark) and they were basically invoking the name of the Lord on a regular basis, and speculating that the town was about to be levelled. At least they were already thinking of going into the damage zone later to help rescue people. I forgot to link to it, sure you can find it on youtube by searching for Joplin wedge tornado.

Quite a scary video, despite the fact it is 90% audio and 10% visual. It reminded me of one or two very bad storms I was in during daylight hours in Ontario, when it would go dark but not quite that dark. And those storms might on rare occasion give an F1 tornado, so one can only imagine the nightmare of being in a wedge that wide.

Also, have seen maps on the google map system showing the track of damage through Joplin. The city (of about 50,000) is basically square with east-west and north-south streets, and the damage runs across the southern half of the city one mile wide. It almost reaches the southern edge of the built up area and crosses I-44, a superhighway that runs diagonally across the damage path. This is about where the hospital damaged is located. From a few pictures that I also found (taken in daylight after the storm) the damage looks very extensive and severe, and I will say that it would be a miracle if the death toll from this is under 100. From similar storms in the past I would estimate 200-300 and as there are large stores involved, it could even be worse than that. Let's hope not. :eek:

weisses

I hope you get to see a tornado as big as the one that hit joplin Iancar

Picture slide of Joplin at link. So Sad.

http://www.kspr.com/news/local/kspr-joplin-tornado-flickr-pictures,0,7467014.htmlstory

when you see steel and metal twisted up, it really brings it home, the forces of these Tornadoes.

They are saying on CNN another cell is heading for that area, and warning people to take cover. They dont have much left to take cover with.

Telling some of the emergency staff to return to command and take shelter if possible.

Just heard on Radio Reference they are going around with a mobile morgue.:(

http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?ctid=1527

weisses

Picked up this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWNwZ1IY2p0


From youtube ... scary scary stuff:eek::(

delw

weisses wrote: »

Picked up this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWNwZ1IY2p0


From youtube ... scary scary stuff:eek::(

wow thats some serious widespread damage :eek:

weisses

Another one from the actual Tornado itself

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuU-nFuIZN4

That's a f****n beast of a thing

gbee

delw wrote: »

wow thats some serious widespread damage :eek:

Nope, you underestimate methinks, it's total widespread obliteration. :eek:

delw

gbee wrote: »

Nope, you underestimate methinks, it's total widespread obliteration. :eek:

true

gbee

Iancar29 wrote: »

http://irishtwisterchaser.blogspot.com/2011/05/day-2-summar.html

Ian, could you put your blog link in your sig for the duration of the tour. So many links, u know, thanks.

Iancar29

Day 3 Summary up!

www.irishtwisterchaser.blogspot.com

And treat your eyes on this Gustnado !


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U36uFLjI7nE

maquiladora

Great pics Ian. Sounds like yer havin a great time over there, stay safe!

High Risk for severe storms today Tuesday (2011-05-24 CDT) ...
The Storm Prediction Center is forecasting a major severe weather outbreak today and/or tonight.

snowstreams

It seems like there should be plenty of tornadoes touching down later on today. Hopefully none hitting towns.
This article says that all the signs are there for a huge outbreak in kansas, nebraska, oklahoma and north texas too.
http://www.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/tornado-outbreak-tue-classic-ingredients_2011-05-23

Iancar29

Link to live stream
http://www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=chaselive;sess=

Dont forget the time difference folks so we wont be online for another few hours... the later the time over there the better to watch the stream.

And dont forget to comment on the facebook , saying if the connection is good or not and what u's can see !

Video of Hail yesterday

Goin north 2day into more of the high risk area.
There WILL be tornadoes today !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnBm8NchnIU

Glad you are having good time, and getting some action LOL
:D
Stay safe.

found these links for storm chasing, some of you here might be interested. new to me anyway, apologies if already posted before.

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/storm-chasers/live-tracker/live-tracker.html

http://chase.tornadovideos.net/pages/full_screen

The trailer you made is feckin brilliant!!!!!

M.T. Cranium

Today looks ominous, almost a perfect textbook case of a cold front going severe ... I've seen stronger dynamics aloft but the surface conditions are classic and the upper support is probably intense enough to guarantee multiple severe tornado touchdowns in KS, OK and TX spreading later to MO and AR. The most intense action will probably be on this radar link as we progress (time is currently about 3 p.m. CDT).

http://radar.weather.gov/radar.php?rid=vnx&product=N0R&overlay=11101111&loop=no

animate loop and refresh to see updates, also you can zoom in on cells when in loop mode by continually clicking on the image.

OKC and ICT (Oklahoma City and Wichita KS) are on this map and could be in the tornado threat zone. Hoping for the best in terms of tracks today, this part of the world is flat to rolling and 5% urban, 95% rural so there are a lot of empty spaces ideal for major tornadoes to come and go. Ian's current position I believe is about 50 miles south of Enid OK as they position to intercept the squall line developing to the west. I've mentioned on NW that Enid to Ponca City looks prime for later action, but also anywhere from Mineral Wells TX north to about Pratt KS would be likely to see supercell development and tornado chase opportunities this afternoon. Some cells already tornado warned in s.w. KS and w OK.

Set-up is as follows: deep low in north TX panhandle moving northeast to central KS. Cold front extends SSE from triple point near Garden City KS through western OK and central TX. Dry line (leading edge of dry desert-origin cT air mass) is closing in on that cold front through KS-OK then extends southwest into west TX. Typical temp/dp in the warm sector of this system today is 32/22 and in the cT air mass 40/-5. A colder air mass wrapping around the low in Colorado is around 18/10. The violent contrasts here as well as 60-80 knot winds low level aloft to 120 knots higher levels, could only be intensified slightly by a stronger jet, but with this set-up, the cells have longer life expectancy which also favours intensification.

Would expect numerous F2-3 tornado reports and some isolated F4-5 reports. Have to say, Oklahoma City in a dangerous situation given the way this is evolving so far.

According to twitter there has been a tornado spotted in Kansas, first of day there.


In Joplin they are saying1500 people still unacounted for. Horrific.


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/us/25tornado.html?_r=1

roryc1

NOAA update http://www.srh.noaa.gov/tsa/?n=camtasiaBriefing

Just watching some of the chasers, the sky looks evil :eek:

roryc1

http://www.news9.com/category/184600/severe-weather-embedded-live-stream-kwtv1?redirected=true

They are saying tornado on ground, big tornado in Longdale Ok.

delw

Verne Carlson on http://www.tornadovideos.net/live in hot pursuite of large tornado

forkassed

http://www.news9.com/category/184600/severe-weather-embedded-live-stream-kwtv1?redirected=true

Having probs connecting to netweather ;ive chase

feckin monster. Jees.
churning up debris on ground, near fairview

delw

Jake1 wrote: »

feckin monster. Jees.
churning up debris on ground, near fairview

im having trouble getting on to netweather aswell jake1,thats a big one at fairview