I’m in your band, Tin, I live in NoVa (western Loudoun county, specifically) and we got around 16-18 inches. They claim there’s more coming tonight but I refuse to believe it.
Lot of tornado warnings in the Ohio Valley and lower Mississippi Valley tonight (and quite a few tornadoes spotted in southern Illinois already):
— Alan
Yeah, a week ago it was 0 degrees here with a foot of snow on the ground, and now it’s 65, pissing down rain, blowing like crazy, and we’re under a tornado watch.
I saw a video from Illinois earlier where they were filming this tornado and snow was still on the ground.
— Alan
Yikes! Good luck and be safe!
Survived!
Actually, it wasn’t too bad here, and I wouldn’t have blinked twice if it were summer. It was just weird as hell coming in what I could have sworn was still the dead of winter. We should be back below freezing tonight.
ShivaX
1867
Here in Iowa we had a blizzard with lightning and thunder.
Very surreal.
Yeah, thundersnow! It’s a bit rare but it happens.
Looks like the bulk of the truly severe stuff was limited to Illinois tonight. Expect a windy, heavy rain system to migrate through the whole eastern seaboard in the morning, however.
— Alan
Alstein
1869
It’s Raleigh, so for many of them it’s normally 2-3 anyways.
The Smithsonian has a pretty freakin’ cool map of tornadoes from 1980 to 2012. You can zoom in and check out your neighborhood; my little corner of West Michigan has had only 5 tornadoes in the 22 years.
A lot of instability in the western Mississippi Valley today, especially western Missouri and Arkansas. Severe weather expected, though probably not a ton of tornadoes or big, long-term ones.
— Alan
After a very rainy 32~ degree day here in southern mid-Michigan, everything is covered in ice. Man I hope the power doesn’t go out…
Lots of severe weather jumping around the north side of the D/FW metroplex, including a number of tornado warnings.
Also–tornado on the ground in Washington, MO, heading due east and the south side of the St. Louis metro area.
— Alan
Interestingly, while snowfall totals have been pretty meager in the Sierra Nevadas again this year (despite a decent March) and to a lesser extent Colorado/Utah from what I hear, the Tetons have been hammered, with Jackson Hole resort reporting the fourth deepest snowpack in 48 years (and the deepest in the last 18 years) at around 500 inches. That’s 41+ feet. In contrast to last year, they only got 140 inches.
— Alan
Pretty good outbreak expected in the south/central plains this weekend. Had been hearing about it now since Sunday night and even considered flying out but ticket prices were already through the roof and I didn’t want to fly US Air anyways.
MODERATE TO EXTREME INSTABILITY SHOULD DEVELOP EAST OF THE DRYLINE
SATURDAY AFTERNOON ALONG ERN PLUME OF STEEP LAPSE RATES. STRONGLY
DIFLUENT FLOW ALOFT SHOULD ENCOURAGE VIGOROUS SUPERCELL DEVELOPMENT
FROM PORTIONS OF WCNTRL TX…NWD INTO KS. VERY LARGE HAIL AND
TORNADOES CAN BE EXPECTED WITH THIS ACTIVITY.
The system isn’t going to appreciably move until late Monday, with the areas of instability just shifting slightly eastward each day from Saturday.
— Alan
No worries. I’ll be at the center of the bulls eye. Will send pics.
High Risk for severe weather now forecasted for south-central Arkansas today.
MUCH OF AR…FAR NERN TX AND SRN MO STILL APPEARS TO BE THE GREATEST
THREAT AREA FOR TORNADOES. INSTABILITY AND SHEAR PROFILES WILL
CONTINUE TO BECOME MORE FAVORABLE THROUGHOUT THE AFTERNOON. VISIBLE
SATELLITE SHOWS SIGNS OF CU BECOMING GRADUALLY DEEPER WITHIN THE
LOW-LEVEL MOISTURE AXIS ACROSS NERN TX…SWRN AR AND NRN LA.
SUPERCELLS WILL EVENTUALLY ERUPT ACROSS THESE AREAS…WITH STRONG
TORNADOES POSSIBLE AS WELL AS VERY LARGE HAIL.
Should be noted that this is not for the line of storms that just passed through this area an hour ago, but new ones coming from the west and southwest when conditions will be ripening. May be happening in about 1-2 hours from now.
Tomorrow a moderate risk of severe weather extends from the northern halves of Mississippi and Alabama to middle Tennessee.
— Alan
And a PDS Tornado Watch (Particularly Dangerous Situation) now issued for basically most of Arkansas.
DISCUSSION…DISCRETE STORMS ARE BEGINNING TO DEVELOP ALONG THE
DRYLINE NEAR THE RED RIVER IN SE OK…WHILE OTHER CONVECTION IS
EXPECTED TO DEVELOP FARTHER S IN NE TX THE REMAINDER OF THE
AFTERNOON. THESE STORMS WILL MOVE ENEWD INTO THE WARM SECTOR AND
MATURE…AND WILL ENCOUNTER AN INCREASINGLY FAVORABLE ENVIRONMENT
FOR TORNADOES IN AR. LOW-LEVEL SHEAR IS VERY STRONG ALONG A
RESIDUAL OUTFLOW BOUNDARY ACROSS CENTRAL AR…AND THE LOW LEVELS
WILL SLOWLY WARM AND MOISTEN IN THE WAKE OF EARLIER CONVECTION.
DISCRETE SUPERCELLS MOVING INTO THIS ENVIRONMENT WILL HAVE THE
POTENTIAL TO PRODUCE LONG TRACK…STRONG/VIOLENT TORNADOES WELL INTO
THE EVENING.
Not sure if I’d want to chase in Arkansas… lot of trees and obscured sight lights, a bit too much for my taste.
— Alan
Eesh. Yeah, I was driving once through fairly remote woodsy hills when a nasty front blew in. The radio stations were all broadcasting NWS tornado warnings, and the worst part was not being able to see more than a hundred yards in any direction except straight up.
All day the potential had been maximum in central Arkansas, but tornadoes had been spawning all across the midwest and Mississippi Valley, including Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska and even Mississippi, but Arkansas was spared until about an hour ago, and the long-track tornadoes finally came. One cut across north of Little Rock (especially Mayflower) and/or along I-40 and caused quite a bit of damage.
Also some scuttlebutt that storm chasers again got too close and got wrecked, possibly on I-40. Also reports of at least one fatality.
— Alan
