Rare Japanese tornado kills 1, injures 48
A rare strong tornado ripped through Ibaraki Prefecture in eastern Japan 30 miles northeast of Tokyo on Sunday, killing a teenage boy, injuring 48 people, and damaging or destroying 890 buildings. The tornado carved a path of destruction 15 km long and 500 meters wide, said the Japan Meteorological Agency. The tornado was given a preliminary rating of F-2, with winds of 113 - 157 mph (Japan uses the traditional "F" scale to rate tornadoes, not the "EF" scale used in the U.S.) The tornado also damaged homes in a housing complex in Tsukuba where 20 people from seven families from Fukushima Prefecture had evacuated following the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, caused by the earthquake and tsunami of March 2011. I bet those families are feeling disaster-prone!
Video 1. A rare tornado in Japan hits approximately 30 miles northeast of Tokyo on May 6, 2012.
Japan's tornado climatology
Tornadoes are rare in Japan, due to the fact the nation is surrounded by ocean, which tends to stabilize the air. Between 1961 - 2010, an average of 15 tornadoes per year hit Japan, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. Only four F-3 tornadoes have hit Japan. The most recent F-3 hit on November 7, 2006, in the Wakasa area of Saroma, Hokkaido. Nine people died and 26 were injured. Over 30 buildings, including a dwelling, warehouses and temporary structures were damaged or destroyed. No violent F-4 or F-5 tornadoes have been recorded in Japan, according the Japan Meteorological Agency, though other sources list a December, 1990 tornado as having been an F-4. Wunderground's weather historian Christopher C. Burt has more details in his latest post, Deadliest Tornadoes. Only one F-2 tornado hit Japan in both 2010 and 2011. A 1997 study published in the Journal of Climate found that Japanese tornadoes occurred most frequently in September and least frequently in March, and that typhoons were responsible for about 20% of all the tornadoes. A list of Asian tornado outbreaks maintained at Wikipedia lists the deadliest Japanese tornado as one on 6 September, 1881, which killed 16 people.
Figure 1. Distribution of tornadoes in Japan, 1961 - 2010. Image credit: Japan Meteorological Agency.
Jeff Masters
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AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MELBOURNE FL
913 AM EDT MON MAY 7 2012
.DISCUSSION...
...FEW STRONG/ISOLATED SEVERE STORMS THIS AFTERNOON/EVENING...
CURRENT-TONIGHT...LOW (STRATUS) CLOUDS NEAR AND NORTH OF THE I-4
CORRIDOR WILL BREAK UP OVER THE NEXT COUPLE HOURS...THOUGH EXPECT
SKIES OVERALL TO BECOME CONSIDERABLY CLOUDY ACROSS MUCH OF EAST
CENTRAL FLORIDA THIS AFTERNOON. WEAK FRONTAL BOUNDARY DRAPED ACROSS
THE NORTHERN COVERAGE WARNING AREA THIS MORNING. THIS FEATURE SHOULD
SLOWLY SAG SOUTHWARD THROUGH THE DAY AND BE A FOCUS FOR AFTERNOON
SHOWER AND THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT. MORNING 10Z KXMR SOUNDING SHOWS
A PWAT OF 1.45 INCHES AND A 500 MB TEMPERATURE OF -11.5C. A VERY
WEAK PRESSURE GRADIENT WILL ALLOW FOR BOTH THE EAST/WEST SEA BREEZE
BOUNDARIES TO PENETRATE INLAND EARLY IN THE DAY. MID-LEVEL IMPULSES
WILL ALSO AID IN CONVECTIVE DEVELOPMENT THROUGH THE DAY. SCATTERED
SHOWER AND LIGHTNING STORM DEVELOPMENT SEEMS LIKE A GOOD BET TODAY
INTO THE EVENING DUE THE ABOVE MENTIONED AND VARIOUS BOUNDARY
COLLISIONS EXPECTED. COIN SIZE HAIL...TORRENTIAL
DOWNPOURS...FREQUENT LIGHTNING STRIKES AND GUSTY DOWNBURST WINDS TO
AROUND 50 MPH WILL ALL BE IN PLAY FOR AFTERNOON/EVENING STORMS.
GREATEST CHANCES FOR STORMS WILL EXIST ORLANDO METRO NORTHWARD AND
TOWARD THE COAST.
STILL A WARM DAY EXPECTED AND WILL SEE IF INCREASED CLOUD COVER HAS
AN IMPACT ON FORECAST TEMPERATURES IN THE MID/UPPER 80S ALONG THE
COAST AND UPPER 80S/LOW 90S INTO THE INTERIOR.
Hopefully it's also a spectacular light show like the storms Sat night/Sun morning were.
I can't believe that all happen that night, that wasn't forecasted and it was all the way east down I-10 not too far from SE TX
Looking foward to the rain forecasted here for today, and the cooler temps!! Yesterday it hit 93 with a 98 heat index!
I'm 17 so that's not good to hear right now lol! But thanks for the support everyone, glad to know I have friends in the Wunder Community! :)
That was very impressive Saturday night. I was down on 6th street in Austin Saturday night until about 2:30 am and I was in ahhh watching that lightning show. It was quite impressive and Austin finally got some much needed rain. They could still use a whole lot more!
You sure all that lightning wasn't just in your drunken head on 6th St?!
lmao yes I am pretty sure. It was quite a lightning show. I saw the storms out in Mason County around 6:30 that night and didn't think it would make it to Austin, but it sure made it and strengthen as it got to Austin. I had a friend down from NY and he was saying he has never seen lightning like that in his life haha. I guess they don't get that stuff up there
Link
er no, lightning causes fires, not puts them out.....
Would be like us never seeing the Auroras
I noticed in the Toulouse, France video last week that the sky was very blue just outside the cyclone. And no real signs of shelf clouds, etc...
May 07, 2012 - 13:45 UTC
An ACL tear is the one you have to worry about. MCL has the shortest recovery time, but you have to be very careful, as when you are recovering, your ACL and PCL are at increased risk of a tear. More than anything.. LISTEN to your Dr.
Up north yes but from TX to FL looks very wet for a long time to come. Yes we may have a dry day here or there but overall the pattern is looking very unsetteled.
Yes keep these weak fronts coming to FL as we need the rain!!
My garden was grateful.
The meteorological cloud features at this time were fairly benign, with some low stratus seen over the northern portion of the satellite scene, and multi-level clouds associated with a cyclone developing to the south. Of particular interest was the amount of sea ice motion during this relatively short 8-hour period %u2014 several ice leads opened up and became very prominent features on both the visible and the IR imagery.
May 6, 2012
Oh I listen to my doctor all right. I mean, he IS paid 6 figures to know what he is doing... He says MCL tear but possible ACL damage too, MRI is later this week to let swelling to down but I'm on crutches and no sports for 8 weeks. God I hope this doesn't end my sports career before it even starts!
All the way to Halletsville
You don't have that much to worry about even if it is a serious tear. Medical procedures in sports related injuries have come so far. I have had two arthroscopic knee surgeries, the first coming when they were a relatively new procedure. 6 - 8 week recovery time, now its down to about 3 - 4 weeks. Anyways, best of luck, here's to hoping its not that serious!
Please be careful. My son was in a similar situation but the issue was with his shoulder. Even though we followed doctor's advice he didnt come out so well. Was an awesome baseball player and was throwing low nineties in high school ...now he has had a partial shoulder replacement and has kissed his baseball career goodbye ..although he is now a college coach.
Dont know if you work out or not but make sure you dont concentrate on just certain muscle groups ...hit them all. My son was a lot stronger in his chest than he was in his back and that caused some issues. Also, the stretching excersises are a great way to balance things out ...should consider yoga
I truly wish you the best and will keep you in my positive thoughts
Amazing imagery. :) I couldn't imagine a cold cyclone.
ScienceDaily (May 7, 2012) — For 10 years, it has silently swooped through space in its orbital perch 438 miles (705 kilometers) above Earth, its nearly 2,400 spectral "eyes" peering into Earth's atmosphere, watching. But there's nothing alien about NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder, or AIRS, instrument, a "monster" of weather and climate research that celebrates its 10th birthday in orbit May 4.............
Link
May 6, 2012
With proper recovery, you should be good. 8 weeks is "if you're lucky". Your knee muscles will be rather atrophied after 8 weeks laid up, so you probably won't be 100% for 4 months or so. Plan on not being 100% until 6 months, so you don't push yourself too hard, and blow your ACL.
Also, don't be shocked if he wants to do surgery, or an exploratory scope of your knee. At your age, better to be safe than sorry. If you have any questions, feel free to WUmail me... I will try to put my nursing knowledge to use for ya. :)
The warm anomaly near Peru might be the start of an El Nino. Too early to tell yet, but more than 1,200 dead pelicans and 800 dead dolphins have recently been found washed up on the shore there. Preliminary investigations suggest malnutrition. The anchovies have moved away due to the warmer SSTs.
The waters off Peru are usually teeming with fish due to a nutrient rich upwelling cold current. This supports a huge population of sea birds. During the 1997 El Nino, sea bird populations crashed to around just 1% of normal.
If we are in for an El Nino this year, the combination of that and the peak of the solar cycle in 2013 could well set us up for a record breaking global average temperature in 2013.
http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/peru-m arine-animal-die-offs-a-1/64883
I think that's what the GFS is trying to make something out of. But seems to lose it as it moves east. Would be interesting to see if they call this right. Getting that time of year.
I'd hope that the "reporter" knew that someone hadda be joking.
"The chief culprits...were 100-foot-long plant-gouging sauropods, which weighed up to 80 tons and had enormous appetites...[and]...over the course of 150 years, collectively produced 520 metric tons of methane, more than all of today's sources put together."
Which means that all of them thar dinosaurs were putting out a total of ~3.5tonnes of methane per year.
To start with, each cow emits ~65kilograms of methane per year. So all of those critters combined would have had to produce about as much methane as 53 cows.
A sauropod must have had an unbelievably efficient digestive system for that to be true. And even if they did, there couldn't have been more than a handful of them.
Then there's " Globally, ruminant livestock produce about 80million metric tons of methane annually, accounting for about 28% of global methane emissions from human-related activities."
North Atlantic cooled quite a bit compared to last week.
Sssssss. I hope it is not too ssssssssserious.
I am the only one who ssssssseems to never have hurt anything. :)......sssss.
Different "facts" in this version, 520 tons annually.
Putin in Russia was re-elected, people outraged
Europe about to spin into another crisis
Wall Street about to spin into another crisis
America about to spin into another crisis
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