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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PRECIPITATION (IN)
YESTERDAY 1.85R
Cool picture but not at all an uncommon site
Not only do winds get easily above 300 mph, for the static electricity will zap any electronics. That's one of the main reasons we can't put a man on mars, if he/she gets hit with a dust devil, then they can pretty much be called dead!!
I saw this on the science channel therefore no link.
That's a tropical something, wave, trough, you name it!
If only the US could throw all of the politicians out and start over... Too bad it's not that easy here!
It just gives you an idea that this year from TX to FL will not be DRY. It looks as if a very wet pattern has set in. I was surprised to get 3.54" yesterday and the pattern looks the same for the next 3 days.
+1000000000000
THE SUN IS SHINING BRIGHT AND CHEERFUL......
first time in a long time, too.
Lol. Take your pick. :)
.MARINE...A WEAK PRESSURE GRADIENT OVER THE WESTERN GULF WILL MAINTAIN A
LIGHT AND SOMEWHAT VARIABLE FLOW INTO MID-WEEK. A COLD FRONT WILL
ADVANCE THROUGH THE COASTAL WATERS BY LATE
WEDNESDAY...ACCOMPANIED BY SCATTERED SHOWERS AND
THUNDERSTORMS...WITH A MODERATE OFFSHORE FLOW DEVELOPING IN ITS
WAKE. AN UPPER LEVEL LOW ADVANCING EAST TO NORTHEAST FROM TEXAS
WILL BRING A CONTINUED CHANCE FOR SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS LATER
IN THE WEEK...WITH INCREASING WINDS AND BUILDING SEAS AS THE
UPPER LOW INDUCES A SURFACE LOW OVER THE WESTERN GULF.
.SYNOPSIS...A RIDGE ALONG 28N WILL PREVAIL OVER THE GULF THROUGH
TUE. A WEAK COLD FRONT WILL MOVE INTO THE NW GULF WED AND LIE
FROM TAMPA BAY TO 25N87W BY THU EVENING BEFORE PASSING E OF THE
AREA. AN INVERTED TROUGH WILL PASS OFF THE TEXAS COAST FRI AND
SLOWLY MOVE E TO 92W BY SAT EVE.
Good sunny morning Pottery! We managed to have a few sunshine after the rain days this year. Enjoy. :)
+++++++ A Bazillion. Lol. Glad you're finally seeing the rain.
Good morning. That is great for you there,but folks in Guadeloupe and other Eastern Caribbean islands that are going thru a very wet period that may last for a few more days will want the sun to shine for the rest of the year.
Hey, pot... we've got good sun here too. Yesterday I walked to the place where I voted, and the sun was piping... looks like we are on the way to a typical hot summer.
Yeah it was great to see. There was some street flooding around here when I left work yesterday evening as 2.31" of the 3.54" fell in 45 minutes. The sad thing is about 10 miles to my south in Orlando barely got a drop so hopefully they can pick up some of this rain as well today.
They will as you can already see the impact of La-Nina being gone as the south is now getting some much need rains as the southern branch of the jet as moved back south and is now streaming from TX to FL.
The south GA drought is creeping back into N GA.
It doesnt get much attention though, but the peanut and peach farmers have had a hard time the last few years.
These scattered thunderstorms will relieve the drought a bit, but it is too scattered.
We need 15in even in ATL to end the long-term drought, something only a Tropical Storm could do.
I hope they get some too. It will fall like that around here too. Sometimes you have to be in the right spot.
That means snow this winter in GA if El Nino holds out long enough.
You should come up here next time it snows.
Link
I have family that lives in Macdonough, GA in Henry County. Love that area of GA! It's exactly 21 miles south of downtown ATL.
Thanks. I didn't know what it was called. But this proposed low/trough/thingy seems to crawl down the coast through day 7 anyway. Seems maybe they are showing it more intense when it pops off New Orleans? Anyway hope it rains all the way across. :)
It looks like it will infact the low maybe fairly strong as it crossses FL which could lead to a severe threat as Gulf Lows are notorious for this.
Look near JAX.
LA smog: more cows than cars? By Scott K. Johnson
Much to the chagrin of California tourism promoters, smog is likely one of the things you picture when you think about the city of Los Angeles.
Smog is very much related to weather. And the ArsTechnica author shoulda done some background research. The area was already known amongst the natives as The Land of Smoke long before the invention of automobiles, before the beginning of the IndustrializationRevolution, and even before Spanish missionaries "first discovered" the SanGabriel/LosAngelesBasin.
The basin is surrounded by mountains and mountainous terrain covered with conifers that release turpenes, PolycyclicAromaticHydrocarbons, and other VolitileOrganicCompounds along with nitrogen oxides that act as sunscreen during the hottest parts of the year. (A phenomenum known worldwide that produces such famous effects as the Blue Moon over Kentucky.)
The UltraViolet in sunlight causes those turpenes, PAHs, and VOCs to photochemically react with the nitrogen oxides, tropospheric ozone (produced by chemical and UV interactions with oxygen), and water vapor to produce "soap-like" compounds that counteract the mutually repellant charges (also caused by sunlight) held by water vapor and submicroscopic organic&inorganic dust particles. ie Those "soap-like" compounds allow the turpenes, PAHs, VOCs, water, and dust to cluster into droplets large enough to produce light-bending&filtering effects that cause the air to have color, cause the visible effect of smog.
Add a still-to-low wind condition and an inversion layer, and voila... what LosAngeles was notorious for even before there was a LosAngeles.
Anti-pollution controls on CaliforniaStandard automotive gasoline-powered engines have gotten so good that darn near every other category of fossil-fuel burning machinery -- antique automobiles, diesel-powered trucks and buses, lawn&garden equipment, ships in harbor, electricity generators, coal-burning in China -- produces either a highly significant fraction of, nearly as much, or more of the smog-inducing chemicals&particles found in SouthernCalifornia air as that that produced by the operation of modern automobiles.
Hence utilities such as SouthernCaliforniaEdison pay people to use fluorescent (and soon / possibly now, LightEmittingDiode) lighting instead of incandescent. ie Sales are subsidized by electricity utilities such that the most popular illumination-strength fluorescents sell for ~$1 or less, and LED lightbulbs now or soon will sell for around half of the manufacturer's retail-sales price or less.
The business decision to subsidize those lightbulbs was made to prevent SmogEmergency conditions (which can legally trigger local generator shutdowns) so that those utilities can continue to use their own generators to produce their electicity locally or at least buy their peak power from other closer-to-local generating-stations. Importing electricity from distant generating sites is EXPENSIVE; especially now that financial speculators are allowed to game the system.
Hence the Port of LosAngeles has made it so much cheaper for cargo ships to purchase electricity from the grid than to run their on-board generators that ship operators are strongly incentivised to install power-receiving&distribution equipment.
As usual, the US and the federal AppealsCourts (up to the USSupremeCourt) cite "treaty obligations" to prevent laws from forcing ship operators to act in even minimally-civil compliance with anti-pollution measures.
So it'd be rather unsurprising to find that the cattle (and pork, and chicken) industry produces more of SouthernCalifornia's smog than gasoline-powered automobiles.
i have friends there, but it is too far from atlanta for me.
I live in NW of Atlanta in Cobb county so Henry is a ways away from me.
Most companies will sponsor and donate to entities where the majority of stakeholders are in alignment with them, either economically or socially. Or with which marketing / research tell them the majority of their clients are in alignment with. And if that sponsorship drags them in too deep?
It's like the old saying, "I'll ride with you until you start slitting throats and then you're on your own."
Ah ok, hope there is no severe out of it.
"Cool picture but not at all an uncommon site"
The point was that there are 3 dust devils in the picture & it's 3D.
Tons of rain there
...It's like the old saying, "I'll ride with you until you start slitting throats and then you're on your own."
In the case of StateFarm and ATT, it's more a case of "I'll ride with you (and split the profits 100to1 in my favor) until you get caught slitting throats, and then you're on your own."
More later on their business motives, but I couldn't pass your comment up.
Im hoping there is a thunderstorm here in N GA this afternoon, then i wont have afternoon swim practice :)
There is now a 2% tornado risk across E GA, and W SC, NC, VA, and WV.
(I hope u know your state abbreviations)
Evan Lehmann, E&E reporter
ClimateWire: Monday, May 7, 2012
The Heartland Institute's failed billboard campaign attacking the existence of climate change is driving a surge of corporate donors to abandon the group and prompting a mutiny among its Washington-based staff, which is decamping for less volatile surroundings, according to sources.
At the center of the retreat is a contingent of insurance companies and trade groups that donated more than $1 million over the last two years to the libertarian group's Center on Finance, Insurance and Real Estate [FIRE] in Washington, D.C., for programs related to federal insurance reform.
...
[FIRE raised]... " $1.03 million from insurers over the last two years for programs that seek reduced government subsidies in federal flood insurance, decreased development along coastlines and increased funding for efforts to strengthen homes against natural catastrophes.
An awkward relationship shatters
Those efforts won support from environmentalists who are concerned that the federal government is promoting new development along seashores and in floodplains, even as those areas are increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of rising oceans and intensifying downpours.
Many of the insurers sponsoring Lehrer's work also publicly endorse the evidence behind climate change, requiring sometimes awkward explanations to justify their support of Heartland's insurance programs even as the group agitates skepticism about the impacts of greenhouse gases.
They emphasized that their donations were used strictly for insurance-related programs, not the campaigns against climate science emanating from the Chicago headquarters. And having Heartland as a partner in a consortium of insurers and environmentalists also opened doors to conservative lawmakers, insurers said.
http://www.eenews.net/public/climatewire/2012/05/ 07/2
That was so 4th grade:) and yesterday I had a thunderstorm which cooled us off slightly and so when that big line came through it went around me, I was so mad!!
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAMPA BAY RUSKIN FL
517 AM EDT TUE MAY 8 2012
FLZ039-042-043-048>052-055>057-060>062-065-GMZ830 -850-853-856-870-
873-876-090000-
LEVY-CITRUS-SUMTER-HERNANDO-PASCO-PINELLAS-HILLSB OROUGH-POLK-
MANATEE-HARDEE-HIGHLANDS-SARASOTA-DE SOTO-CHARLOTTE-LEE-
TAMPA BAY WATERS-TARPON SPRINGS TO SUWANNEE RIVER OUT 20 NM-
ENGLEWOOD TO TARPON SPRINGS OUT 20 NM-
BONITA BEACH TO ENGLEWOOD OUT 20 NM-
TARPON SPRINGS TO SUWANNEE RIVER OUT 20 TO 60 NM-
ENGLEWOOD TO TARPON SPRINGS OUT 20 TO 60 NM-
BONITA BEACH TO ENGLEWOOD OUT 20 TO 60 NM-
517 AM EDT TUE MAY 8 2012
THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR WEST CENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST
FLORIDA.
.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT.
...THUNDERSTORM IMPACT...
ANOTHER ACTIVE SHOWER AND THUNDERSTORM PATTERN IS EXPECTED THIS
AFTERNOON AND EVENING...ESPECIALLY OVER INTERIOR LOCATIONS.
SEVERE WEATHER IS NOT ANTICIPATED...HOWEVER A FEW STORMS WILL HAVE
THE POTENTIAL TO BE ON THE STRONG SIDE WITH GUSTY WINDS AND
FREQUENT CLOUD TO GROUND LIGHTNING. THUNDERSTORM COVERAGE AND
INTENSITY WILL DECREASE DURING THE LATER EVENING HOURS.
.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...WEDNESDAY THROUGH MONDAY.
...THUNDERSTORM IMPACT...
SCATTERED SEA BREEZE THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE MOST CONCENTRATED OVER
THE INTERIOR ZONES ON WEDNESDAY. A SCATTERING OF SHOWERS AND
THUNDERSTORMS ARE THEN EXPECTED REGION WIDE ON THURSDAY
ASSOCIATED WITH A PASSING COLD FRONT. SEVERE WEATHER IS NOT
EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.
...WIND AND SEA IMPACT...
WINDS WILL INCREASE OUT OF THE EAST FOR THIS UPCOMING WEEKEND.
THESE WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO REACH CAUTIONARY TO ADVISORY LEVELS
AT TIMES OVER THE EASTERN GULF OF MEXICO.
.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...
SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE NEEDED TODAY.
$$
MROCZKA
Rain!!!
perfect type of rain set up for central TX there. Good to see that most of that won't go to run off. Hopefully it will stay nice and steady and not become too intense.
as the rain rose north, it got the bends(as divers would say)
I myself have never noticed this, but i will look into it.
Got .08 inches in downtown Orlando. Watched the radar and it seemed storms popped everywhere but here.
haha :P
It seems to happen every few months, so it isn't too conspicuous.. and the only reason that I've noticed it, is because it typically ends up arching with me right in the middle of the dry slot -_-
but i kind of figured it had to do with a high over southeastern Canada or something. Which intellicast is suggesting there is at the moment.
Edit:
I really thought I had a good radar of it saved somewhere, but apparently not....
This isn't really what I was talking about, but it's the closes thing I could find.. remnants of nicole
in 2010.
In Nicole's case, all of the precip came from the southeast, opposed to the southwest, but it still managed to arch around the southern NY/ Connecticut region pretty well.
My initial thought is to question this; what about other portions of the country with a higher density of cows... why is there not smog there? The midwest may not see inversions and light surface winds as often as places like the LA basin where this is more common due to topography, but it does happen. Typically during said "stagnate weather," the pollution tends to be ozone related.
Cow crap these days
Houston has smog and ozone issues all summer - yet very few cattle. (actually, in the areas with cattle, we have LESS smog/ozone issues) And somehow, we have less issues on the weekends, when there are not as many cars on the road.
Oh my. Good point. The entities themselves are amoral. I have occasional naive tendencies. I sometimes make the mistake of identifying morality with the arbitrary lines in the sand drawn by massive goal driven entities made up of complex organisms, i.e. corporations and governments.
Are you near Austin or San Antonio or further south?
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