Damn, 16 people were killed in Arkansas last night, and 1 in Oklahoma. One of the towns the twister above passed through also got hit 3 years ago this week by another tornado.
— Alan
And it’s starting in earnest in Mississippi. There is a chain of Tornado Warnings stretching up through the I-55 corridor from Jackson to Oxford, moving generally ENE. This will translate into far northern Alabama (missing Tuscaloosa probably) and southern Tennessee over the next few hours.
DISCUSSION…SURFACE-BASED STORMS ARE BEGINNING TO DEVELOP FROM NE
LA INTO W CENTRAL MS…WITH ADDITIONAL DEVELOPMENT EXPECTED NEWD
TOWARD NE MS/NW AL AS CLOUDS CLEAR AND THE LOW LEVELS DESTABILIZE.
A COMBINATION OF MODERATE INSTABILITY /MLCAPE NEAR 2000 J PER KG/
AND STRONG DEEP-LAYER VERTICAL SHEAR WILL SUPPORT A BROKEN BAND OF
SUPERCELLS…WHILE SOME INCREASE IN LOW-LEVEL SHEAR IS EXPECTED THIS
AFTERNOON FROM CENTRAL MS INTO NE MS/NW AL…UP TO A RESIDUAL
OUTFLOW BOUNDARY IN SRN MIDDLE TN. SOME OF THE SUPERCELLS WILL BE
LONG-LIVED AND CAPABLE OF PRODUCING STRONG/LONG-TRACK TORNADOES…AS
WELL AS VERY LARGE HAIL.
Tupelo and Yazoo City, which got hit hard in the 2011 outbreak, looks like it’s going to get pounded again. The cells are training right towards it.
— Alan
Suffice it to say, the “Dixie Alley” corridor of Mississippi and Alabama got absolutely pounded yesterday. There were 88 reports of tornadoes yesterday (some may have been the same one in a different spot), most of which in this area. And guess what’s under the gun today? The same area, starting in central Mississippi.
AS ASCENT PROVIDED BY A 130 KT JET STREAK AND BOUNDARY LAYER
HEATING/MOISTENING OCCUR…THUNDERSTORMS ARE FORECAST TO DEVELOP
FIRST NEAR THE MS RIVER AND SPREAD EWD THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH MS AND
EVENTUALLY INTO AL. STRONG DEEP-LAYER FLOW FIELDS WILL STRONGLY
FAVOR SUPERCELLULAR STORM MODES AND A FORECAST STRENGTHENING IN H85
FLOW /30-40 KT/ THIS AFTERNOON INTO THIS EVENING WILL BOOST
LOW-LEVEL SHEAR AND CONCURRENTLY SUPPORT AN INCREASE IN TORNADO
POTENTIAL. GIVEN THIS SCENARIO…LONGER-LIVED SUPERCELLS CAPABLE OF
TORNADOES /SOME POSSIBLY STRONG/ AND A LARGE TO VERY LARGE HAIL
THREAT IS PROBABLE.
— Alan
I wondered how long it would be before the storm chasing hobby and tourism got out of control.
You mean aside from the four deaths of stormchasers last year directly caused by a tornado?
— Alan
According to the NatGeo article from last year, Tim Samaras was hardly a tourist. He was amongst the best on the planet.
Pretty nasty looking storm cell passing close to DIA yet again.
Kinda busy at the moment, will comment about the video that came out in social media a few weeks ago in a bit.
— Alan
Zephyr
1888
Yeah, it was just some light sprinkles in Boulder today. I did receive a pretty low quality cellphone picture of about 3 feet of hail at one of our new schools in Aurora and a message that the gym floor needed to be replaced again. I am hoping Boulder weather stays tame through the spring as we just signed a contract with the County to be available 24/7 to provide them with emergency stream stabilization design/advice if it floods again.
RichVR
1889
92 in Orlando today. 95-100 tomorrow and for the next five days or so. Welcome to Florida.
Another day of storms for Denver, shutting down DIA again. May be like this through the weekend. No tornado, but a bit of severe weather and some hail.
The local channels keep saying that 8 tornadoes touched down in the Denver area yesterday, but they are clearly just tallying the number of SPC reports, which actually probably indicate just one tornado.
— Alan
Mudslide in Colorado from a few days ago:
Some recent videos of note. About as close to a lightning bolt as you want to get (note the debris and smoke is coming up from the pavement from where it hit):
What not to do when faced with a tornado: get in your truck and start laughing:
— Alan
Arthur bump! And a crazy chaser stream from just west of Hatteras. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/chasercam-live
Volksy
1893
Here’s a page with Arthur videos from Frying Pan Tower, a bed and breakfast located 30 miles offshore of Wilmington. Yes, you read that right. It’s a former Coast Guard lighthouse tower that was replaced with an automated buoy, that was then sold and converted into a rather unique B&B. Not quite where I’d want to ride out a hurricane.
That’s really cool Volksy! I had read about that B&B, but even in fair weather the idea of being on a platform 30mi from shore kinda freaks me out. Really neat video, especially of the 20’ waves and also when they lowered one underwater.
Even in the northeast (Boston) we’re getting in on the action. My phone went nuts a while ago, turns out I was in a tornado warning area. There’s still a load of storms moving through, but someone on twitter got a pretty nice picture of a wall cloud forming.
We’re used to snow, and thunder snow. But tornadoes? Please.
Local weather reporter: “Sorry about the technical difficulties earlier, our microphone was frozen.” Ah, we do love winter. (Even if it hasn’t technically started yet.)
yeah, i just read the report of the BBC about that nasty early winter storm that hit the US:
RichVR
1898
Just a few miles north of me frozen ground conditions are expected. In Florida this means that they expect 20 degrees or less for at least 2 hours. That means that unprotected plants die. This is unprecedented for this time of year.
Here in Orlando it’s going down to about 40.
Get the ark ready, fellow Californians:
Thursday’s massive storm could be the biggest since 2008, possibly the biggest since 1998 with wind gusts over 100 miles per hour screaming over the top of the Sierra, and rainfall amounts forecast above 8 inches for coastal mountains.
The purple areas indicate torrential rainfall of over 1 inch of rain per hour, leading to flash floods and extremely dangerous driving conditions.
Wooohoooooooo! Bring it on!
