A blanket of snow 2 - 4 inches deep fell yesterday on the regions of Southern Indiana and Northern Kentucky pounded by deadly tornadoes on Friday, adding to the misery of survivors. The violent tornado rampage killed 39 and injured hundreds more, wreaking property damage that will likely exceed $1 billion. Hardest hit were Kentucky and Southern Indiana, which suffered 21 and 12 dead, respectively. Three were killed in Ohio, and one each in Alabama and Georgia. The scale of the outbreak was enormous, with a preliminary total of 139 tornadoes touching down in eleven states, from southern Ohio to Northern Florida. The National Weather Service issued 297 tornado warnings and 388 severe thunderstorm warnings. At one point, 31 separate tornado warnings were in effect during the outbreak, and an area larger than Nebraska--81,000 square miles--received tornado warnings. Tornado watches were posted for 300,000 square miles--an area larger than Texas.
Video 1. Spectacular video of the EF-4 tornado that devastated Henrysville and Marysville, Indiana on March 2, 2012. You can see small satellite vorticies rotating on the side of the main vortex.
Video 2. Another video of the EF-4 tornado that devastated Henrysville and Marysville, Indiana on March 2, 2012, taken from a gas station.
The deadliest and most violent tornado: an EF-4
The deadliest and most violent tornado of the March 2, 2012 outbreak was an EF-4 with winds up to 175 mph that demolished much of Henryville, Chelsea, Marysville, and New Pekin, Indiana. Ten minutes after that tornado demolished much of Henryville, a weaker EF-1 tornado hit the town. The twin tornadoes killed twelve people. The Henryville tornado was the only violent EF-4 tornado of the outbreak.
Figure 1. Radar reflectivity image (top) and Doppler velocity image (bottom) of the two tornadoes that hit Henryville, Indiana on March 2, 2012. The first (rightmost) hook echo on the reflectivity image belonged to the only violent tornado of the outbreak, an EF-4 with winds of 166 - 200 mph. Ten minutes after that tornado demolished much of Henryville, a second tornado hit the town. These tornadoes also caused severe damage to the towns of Chelsea, Marysville, and New Pekin, and killed twelve people.
At least eleven other tornadoes in the outbreak have been classified as EF-3s with winds of 136 - 165 mph. Capitalclimate.com reports that the EF-3 tornadoes that crossed three Eastern Kentucky counties were the first tornadoes that strong ever observed, since tornado records began in 1950. The deadliest of the EF-3 tornadoes hit West Liberty, Kentucky, killing eight. Here's a summary of the deadly tornadoes of the outbreak taken from Wikipedia:
EF-4, 12 deaths, Henrysville, Indiana
EF-3, 8 deaths, West Liberty, Kentucky\
EF-2, 5 deaths, East Bernstadt, Kentucky
EF-3, 4 deaths, Crittenden, Kentucky
EF-3, 2 deaths, Holton, Indiana
EF-3, 3 deaths, Peach Grove, Ohio
EF-3, 2 deaths, Blaine, Kentucky
EF-3, 2 deaths, Salyersville, Kentucky
EF-2, 1 death, Jackson's Gap, Alabama
Figure 2. Damage in West Liberty, Kentucky after the March 2, 2012 EF-3 tornado. Image taken from from a Kentucky National Guard Blackhawk helicopter, while landing in West Liberty, KY (Morgan County).
Figure 3. Radar image of the West Liberty, Kentucky EF-3 tornado of March 2, 2012, showing a classic hook echo. The tornado carved a 60-mile-long path through Eastern Kentucky, causing extreme damage in West Liberty. The tornado killed six in West Liberty and two near Frenchburg. At least 75 people were injured. It was the first EF-3 tornado in Eastern Kentucky since 1988.
Video 3. A woman prays for deliverance of West Liberty as the ominous wall cloud of the developing tornado approaches the town.
Incredibly fast-moving storms
The speed with which some of the storms moved was truly exceptional, thanks to jet stream winds of up to 115 mph that pushed the thunderstorms forward at amazing speeds. A number of the tornadoes ripped through Kentucky with forward speeds of 70 mph, and two tornado warnings in Central Kentucky were issued for parent thunderstorms that moved at 85 mph. NWS damage surveys have not yet determined if one of the tornadoes from the outbreak has beaten the record for the fastest moving tornado, the 73 mph forward speed of the great 1925 Tri-State Tornado, the deadliest U.S. tornado of all-time.
Video 4. A family gets in their car in an attempt to flee the Borden, Indiana tornado of March 2, 2012. Unless you know what you're doing, fleeing a tornado in a car can be extremely dangerous, especially when the tornadoes are moving at speeds of 50 - 70 mph, as many were doing during the March 2, 2012 outbreak. Most tornado fatalities occur in mobile homes and cars.
Largest 5-day and 2nd largest 2-day tornado outbreak for so early in the year?
The March 2 tornado outbreak spawned 128 tornadoes, according to preliminary reports as of 8 am EST March 7 from NOAA's Storm Prediction Center. An additional 11 tornadoes (preliminary) touched down on March 3, in Florida and Georgia; 3 additional tornadoes touched down on March 1 (Wikipedia does a great job tallying the stats for this tornado outbreak.) These preliminary reports are typically over-counted by 15%, but a few delayed reports will likely come in, bringing the total number of tornadoes from the March 2 - 3 outbreak to 115 - 125, propelling it into second place for the largest two-day tornado outbreak so early in the year. The top five two-day tornado outbreaks for so early in the year, since record keeping began in 1950:
January 21 - 22, 1999: 129 tornadoes, 4 deaths
March 2 - 3, 2012: 139 tornadoes (preliminary), 39 deaths
February 5 - 6, 2008: 87 tornadoes, 57 deaths
February 28 - March 1, 1997: 60 tornadoes, 10 deaths
January 7 - 8, 2008: 56 tornadoes, 4 deaths
Though the 36 tornadoes that occurred during the February 28 - 29 Leap Day outbreak were part of a separate storm system, the five-day tornado total from February 28 - March 3, 2012 is likely to eclipse the late January 18 - 22, 1999 five-day tornado outbreak (131 tornadoes) as the most prolific five-day period of tornado activity on record for so early in the year.
Figure 4. A key ingredient for tornado formation is the presence of warm, moist air near the surface, which helps make the atmosphere unstable. On the day of the March 2, 2012 outbreak, record warm air surged northwards into the tornado formation region, setting or tying daily high temperature records at 28 airports in Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Georgia.
Ingredients for the tornado outbreak
This year's unusually mild winter has led to ocean temperatures across the Gulf of Mexico that are approximately 1°C above average--among the top ten warmest values on record for this time of year, going back to the 1800s. (Averaged over the month of February, the highest sea surface temperatures on record in the Gulf between 20 - 30°N, 85 - 95°W occurred in 2002, when the waters were 1.34°C above average). Friday's tornado outbreak was fueled, in part, by high instability created by unusually warm, moist air flowing north from the Gulf of Mexico due to the high water temperatures there. This exceptionally warm air set record high temperatures at 28 airports in Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Georgia the afternoon of the tornado outbreak (March 2.) Cold, dry air from Canada moved over the outbreak region at high altitudes. This created a highly unstable atmosphere--warm, low-density air rising in thunderstorm updrafts was able to accelerate rapidly upwards to the top of the lower atmosphere, since the surrounding air was cooler and denser at high altitudes. These vigorous updrafts needed some twisting motion to get them spinning and create tornadoes. Very strong twisting forces were present Friday over the tornado outbreak area, thanks to upper-level jet stream winds that blew in excess of 115 mph. These winds changed speed and direction sharply with height,imparting a shearing motion on the atmosphere (wind shear), causing the air to spin. High instability and a high wind shear are the two key ingredients for tornado formation.
Figure 5. The other key ingredient for tornado formation is the presence of very strong winds aloft that change speed and direction sharply with height. This change of wind imparts a shearing motion on the atmosphere (wind shear), causing the air to spin. Here, we see the upper-level wind speeds at the peak of the March 2, 2012 tornado outbreak. The jet stream can be seen as the U-shaped belt of strong winds. Jet stream winds in excess of 100 mph (deep blue colors) were present over the tornado outbreak area in this analysis of data from the NOAA North American Model (NAM) from 7 pm EST March 2, 2012. Image credit: NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory.
Another bad year for tornadoes in the U.S.--what's going on?
Last year's tornado season was incredibly severe, and we are off to one of the worst early-season starts to tornado season on record now in 2012. However, it is too soon to ring the alarm bells on climate change being responsible for this. The tornado data base going back to 1950 doesn't show an increasing trend in strong tornadoes in recent decades. While climate change could potentially lead to an increase in tornadoes, by increasing instability, it could also decrease them, by decreasing wind shear. I'd need to see a lot more bad tornado years before blaming climate change for the severe tornado seasons of the past two years. One thing that climate change may be doing, though, is shifting the season earlier in the year. The 5-day total of tornadoes from February 28 - March 3 will probably break the record of 131 set in 1999 for the largest tornado outbreak so early in the year. Warmer winters, and an earlier arrival of spring due to a warming climate, will allow tornado season to start earlier--and end earlier. This year's early start to tornado season is consistent with what we would expect from a warming climate. I have a more extensive article on this subject that has just been published by Weatherwise magazine, and a 2008 post, Are tornadoes getting stronger and more frequent? Dr. Jonathan Martin of the University of Wisconsin-Madison is doing interesting research on the type of situation we saw with some of the recent severe tornado outbreaks, when two branches of the jet stream, the polar jet and the subtropical jet, merge to form a "superjet." In a December 2011 interview with sciencedaily.com, he said: "There is reason to believe that in a warmer climate, this kind of overlapping of the jet streams that can lead to high-impact weather may be more frequent."
I don't see any storm systems coming over the next 10 days that could cause a major tornado outbreak, though March weather is too volatile to forecast reliably that far in advance. There is a storm system expected to develop on Thursday in the Plains we will have to watch, but so far, indications are that it will not be capable of generating a major tornado outbreak.
Portlight disaster relief charity responds to the tornado disaster
The Portlight disaster relief charity reports that volunteers from colleges and churches made a strong showing in tornado-devastated Harrisburg, Illinois on Sunday. Team Rubicon and Portlight will push east to Indiana, where volunteer work is still restricted because of gas leaks and continuing SAR (search and rescue) operations.
I'll edit this post with new stats on the tornado outbreak as they become available, and have an entirely new post on Wednesday.
Jeff Masters
This picture of a small tornado was taken on Friday March 02, 2012 in southern Lincoln County, Tennessee about 7 miles south of Fayetteville.
Photographer: Angela Currey-Echols
A tornado in Dodsen Brach TN.
Rotating wall cloud and a possible funnel yesterday, north of Evansville, IN.
3/2/12 tornado damage to a business I pass on my way to and from work. This was a beautiful brick building.
I uploaded this photo once already and it was rejected for having the wrong date. I explained before, but I will explain again. The tornado came through March 2nd but I had just gotten out of the hospital, so I didn't get out to take pictures of the damage until today. This is five miles from my house in Hamilton County, TN.
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Are we looking at a chance of flash flooding in the Hill Country?
HA, At first I thought it was a gold nugget, not a chicken mcnugget.
I think you're looking for the GOES FTP server. I can't remember where it is exactly, but they have some mighty fine imagery available there.
Possibly, but I'm not sure yet. There are still many things to be hashed out with this upcoming storm, so alot of the specifics are not known at this time.
Lake Houston is full again. I went over it on 1960 2 weeks ago. That poor guy that had boats on the lifts can now launch them again. All he could do last summer was to drop them down onto the dirt. He did not have any water within 30 feet of his boats. He was stuck up a lift and with no place to go. ;-)
That's amazing that water climbed back up like that
Yea that is pretty much how it is all over Texas right now. I believe they pumped a whole lot of water out of Lake Conroe into Lake Houston right before winter time to get it back to a "normal" level. Plus the 10" or so of rain we have had since January 1st has helped a lot!
Try selling a cloud for that much on EBay."
588 DavidHOUTX "That is ridiculous. Who in the hell would buy that. Could use that money for much better purposes in life."
The person who will receive the money does have a better purpose in mind... which is good since the buyer obviously has a certain lack of imagination when it comes to spending money.
602 jitterboy "HA, At first I thought it was a gold nugget, not a chicken mcnugget."
If it were a natural gold nugget, it woulda sold for considerably more. Natural gold nuggets sell for many multiples of the market value for the metal. And a lump that size would weigh a pound or so.
Several Colorado cities are shown at GOES-East - Central Region WFO Satellite Imagery
Yes, The City of Houston was drawing from Lake Conroe. They only needed to so for a short period of time and they were only trying to maintain level when they did. They were not attempting to fill Lake Houston with water from Lake Conroe. We got lucky with the rains we did catch here and with enough rain to north to fill Lake Houston again. .... breathes heavy sigh of relief
Of course the usual low water crossing problem areas will probably get tricky late Thurs/early Fri.
If you want to see some great photos/vid of Hill Country flash flooding search for anything taken in Pedernales Falls State Park. The topography there promotes sudden and violent flash flooding.
I think that is it, does it cost money?
Nice one
Austin wx forecasts have been jumping all over: four solid days of rain and thunderstorms, then back to two 20%ers and one 40%er, as of last night 3-4" looked like a done deal, but the narrative has shifted back to .5 - 2.0".
And that picture does not really do her justice!
Added:
Link
In '96 a train of Tstorms ONLY over Llano went on for days without a drop here in Austin, which raised Lake Travis 14' in one day. I had a helluva time convincing my boss that I REALLY needed to leave to move the dock.
Previous record high since 09: 30.47in/1031.7mb
New record since 09: 30.64in/1037.3mb
thanx to that ridge sitting over the coastal areas of VA/NC
Dinah Shore Weekend 2012: The largest lesbian event in the world.
Anyone else see that or did I blink too fast?"
584 KEEPEROFTHEGATE "I think I am a lesbian too. I like girls."
For you
The pressure here is 1037.7 mbar.
My barometer has decreased by a few millibars lately, back down to, say 1035mb. (1037.6mb would equal 30.68 in barometric pressure, FYI lol)
Sunday/monday was not pop up showers it was a low pressure system moving through.
Interesting, that would be much more in line with the CMC's "deluge" solution.
for your area. keep in mind I am not in VA
Edit: went and viewed archived radar imagery for my area. there were showers in morning assosiated with low pressure sysstem, them afternoon showers popping up to my south and east. Monday, a few showers did develop in the afternoon around me, and to my west.
Invest:
those 2 blue ones in central NC are mean.
they woke me up while i was sleeping comfortably lol
Indeed, the max was 4.3" yesterday. Why the uncertainty?
A lot rides on this. Like the lake tourism economies of Texas, which was killed dead last year.
A slow moving upper level low pressure system and a cold front that will likely be slowing as it moves into the region will set the stage for a good shot of rain across the region. The potential for very heavy rainfall may exist on Friday. Confidence in how this system will develop is very low with some computer models indicating the that the front could stall with rains continuing through Sunday and other that the front could eventually move well out into the Gulf on Friday ending the threat of significant rainfall. Stay tuned and as forecast confidence increases the magnitude of rainfall and duration should become more definable.
Uploaded by ve3en1 on Mar 4, 2012
This video presents an on air recording by amateur radio station Frank DH7FB with his 144mhz EME array pointed towards the Sun. During the recording, Sunspot 1429 produced a long duration M2.0 solar flare and this is what he recorded. At 8 seconds into the on air recording, you can hear a sharp increase in background noise level which continues for a while until eventually returning to quieter levels.
Thanks to DH7FB for providing this recording.
NOAA Solar Report - [SIDC Report]
Prepared jointly by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, NOAA,
Space Weather Prediction Center and the U.S. Air Force.
Updated Mar 06 2200 UTC
Joint USAF/NOAA Report of Solar and Geophysical Activity
SDF Number 066 Issued at 2200Z on 06 Mar 2012
IA. Analysis of Solar Active Regions and Activity from 05/2100Z
to 06/2100Z: Solar activity was high. There were five M-class x-ray
events during the past 24 hours, all from Region 1429 (N17E31). The
largest event was an M2/1n 06/1241Z. None of these events was
associated with a CME that would be expected to be geoeffective.
Region 1429 dominates the disk in area (about 1010 millionths), and
exhibited growth during the period. The trailer portion showed the
most development but has separated a bit from the main cluster of
spots. The central portion is magnetically complex and shows
multiple deltas as well as strong shear along a pair of east-west
polarity inversion lines. Region 1428 (S17E08) also showed some
growth during the period (area of 280 millionths) but is simple
magnetically and was relatively quiet.
IB. Solar Activity Forecast: Solar activity is expected to be
moderate. Additional M-class events from Region 1429 are likely.
There is also a chance for a major flare and/or proton producing
event from Region 1429 during the next three days (07-09 March).
IIA. Geophysical Activity Summary 05/2100Z to 06/2100Z:
The geomagnetic field ranged from quiet to active levels with
isolated minor storm periods at high latitudes. ACE solar wind
measurements of the interplanetary magnetic field showed steady
strengthening during the period and there were numerous intervals of
weakly southward Bz. The greater than 10 MeV proton enhancement
continued throughout the period and reached a peak value of 4 PFU at
06/1335Z. The flux appeared to be on a slow declining trend at the
end of the period. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at
geosynchronous orbit reached high levels during the period.
IIB. Geophysical Activity Forecast: The geomagnetic field is
expected to be unsettled to active with a chance for minor storm
periods during the next 24 hours (07 March). The increase in
activity is expected due to combined effects from a co-rotating
interaction region with the CME that occurred on 04 March
(associated with the M2 x-ray event). Later in the day additional
effects are expected due to a glancing blow from the full halo CME
associated with the X1 x-ray event that occurred on 05 March.
Predominantly unsettled levels with a chance for active periods are
expected for the second day (08 March) as effects from the
anticipated disturbance should diminish. Predominantly quiet levels
are expected for the third day (09 March).
III. Event Probabilities 07 Mar-09 Mar
Class M 80/80/80
Class X 30/30/30
Proton 30/30/30
PCAF green
Description: Latest CME-based model run
Anyhow, 1st the tornadoes, then 5 1/2 inches of snow, last night low of 29, today high 70 degrees. All I can say is, huh?
your vocabulary has increased a bit...you have either stared at dictionary for awhile er taken interest in your spelling list ;)
if u want new handle then make new account...the same profile will save you from them bloggers that call all newcomers trolls , lol
A powerful solar flare greater than X5.0 is currently in progress. More information to follow.
The second strongest solar flare of Cycle 24 in terms of X-Ray Flux, just peaked around Active Sunspot 1429. This major event measured X5.4 at 00:24 UTC. A coronal mass ejection will likely result and due to the sunspots more geoeffective position, there will be a chance for some sort of impact.
Stay Tuned to SolarHam.com for images, video and more details should a CME be produced.
As it turns out, this home was actually occupied by a woman and her two children at the time the tornado struck. They are all alive, though the mother--Stephanie Decker--lost both her legs while protecting her children. See and read the story here.
(On a side note: the video shows that the house did collapse in on itself and into the basement, which is not visible from in front of the home.)
Indiana mother, Stephanie Decker, loses legs saving kids from tornado.
Tuesday March 6, 2012
Parents Joe and Stephanie Decker are shown here with their children Dominic and Reese. When a tornado slammed into their home, Stephanie Decker shielded her children with her own body and lost her legs. (Decker Family/Handout)
AP: INDIANAPOLIS -- An Indiana woman who saved her two children by binding them together with a blanket and shielding them with her body as a tornado ripped apart their house lost parts of both her legs, which were crushed by the falling debris, her husband says.
Stephanie Decker, a 36-year-old sleep specialist, lost one leg above the knee and the other above the ankle, her husband said Monday. She was in serious but stable condition at a Kentucky hospital. The couple's 8-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter survived Friday's storm unscathed.
"I told her, `They're here because of you,"' Joe Decker said by telephone from the University of Louisville Hospital. "I let her know that nothing else matters. I said, `You're going to be here for your kids, and you get to see them grow up."'
Decker, 42, was at Silver Creek High School in Sellersburg, where he teaches algebra, when the tornado hit. With storms expected, the school had been locked down, and he was debating whether to try to race home. Decker exchanged a series of texts with his wife, urging her to get herself and their children into the basement of their sprawling, three-story brick and stone home in Marysville, Ind.
"Then she sent me a text saying the whole house was shaking, and I texted her back and asked her if everything was OK," he said. "I asked her about six or seven times and got no response. That kind of freaked me out."
He said his wife told him later that she was in their walk-out basement, which had French doors leading outside and a wall of windows, when she saw the tornado approaching, moving across the family's 15-acre plot. Stephanie Decker had already tied a blanket around both children and to herself, and she threw herself on top of the children.
"She said she felt the whole house start to go, and then she felt like it moved them about before it kind of wedged her in there, but she was able to keep the kids from moving away," Decker said.
When the tornado passed, Stephanie Decker called to the children. Reese, 5, answered immediately, but Dominic, 8, hesitated before saying he was OK. Decker said his son told him he couldn't hear his mother because of the roar of the storm.
Dominic, however, soon ran across the street to seek help from neighbors, who had taken refuge in a storm cellar, Decker said. One neighbor, realizing the severity of Stephanie's injuries, ran for help and found a deputy sheriff traveling on a four-wheeler about a quarter of a mile away. The deputy applied tourniquets to Stephanie Decker's legs to halt her blood loss.
She has been scheduled to undergo surgery on her legs again Thursday, hospital spokeswoman Holly Hinson said.
"The house is gone. It's pretty amazing that she's alive," Hinson said.
With trees blocking the road after the storm, Decker said he ran part of the way home before two men gave him a ride. He found his house gone and his children with a family friend. His wife had been taken to a hospital 10 miles away, and the men drove him there, allowing him to see Stephanie briefly before she was airlifted to the Louisville hospital.
"I was afraid I might never see her again," Decker said.
Youtubes new channel design comes in tomorrow...Dont even get an option to stick with the oold design, AKA the BEST design
Well, the "Virgin Mary" grilled cheese sandwich sold for $28,000 Link. So a chicken nugget going for $8100 isn't really all that surprising. :P
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