Sunday was a wild weather day across the Midwest, with 104 reports of tornadoes sent to the Storm Prediction Center, 336 reports of hail, and 89 reports of damaging thunderstorm winds. Damage survey teams are on the ground today to determine the how many tornadoes actually touched down, and how strong they were. Several of the tornadoes were 1/2 mile in width, and may have been violent F3 storms. I'll report tomorrow on the results of these damage surveys. The number of tornadoes was no doubt less than 103, since many of the tornado reports referred to the same tornado that affected more than one county.
Figure 1. Severe weather reports from Sunday's severe weather outbreak.
The severe weather will continue today, but atmospheric conditions are not nearly as volatile. The greatest threat of severe weather will be from large hail and damaging severe thunderstorm winds, although a few scattered tornadoes may pop out late this afternoon across Ohio and adjoining states. Today should be the last day of the severe weather outbreak, as the cold front associated with the strong low pressure area responsible moves off of the East Coast Tuesday morning.
Wildfires in Texas
Grass fires in drought-parched Texas killed seven people yesterday in the Panhandle, four of them in a car crash on I-40 caused by thick smoke obscuring visibility. More than 1,000 square miles of Texas burned yesterday--an area about two-thirds the size of Rhode Island. These fires were far more extensive than the ones in January that prompted the governor to declare a drought disaster. "This is probably one of the biggest fire days in Texas history," said Warren Bielenberg, a spokesman for the Texas Forest Service, in an interview with CNN. Amarillo has had only .32" of rain so far this year, compared to 1.55" in a normal year. The outlook today is more promising, as winds are expected to be lighter and temperatures cooler. The 10-day forecast is also somewhat promising, as a very active jet stream pattern is forecast to bring the chance of a major storm system to the desert Southwest and Texas early next week. However,this could also bring another severe weather outbreak to the country.
Figure 2.Latest drought map for the U.S., showing dry conditions in the Texas Panhandle that contributed to yesterday's deadly fires.
Jeff Masters
Lightning at St. Louis Gateway Arch (
jbpwings)
Lightning show at the Gateway Arch
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I think yesterdays outbreak of storms pretty much crushed my hopes of it being a below average year for tornados.
Members of my site, I've got a poll up.
"Today we're over 380 ppm," he said. "That's higher than we've been for over a million years, possibly 30 million years. Mankind is changing the climate". (Professor Sir David King)
It's monday ~ weekly ENSO report is out...
CREDIT~ NOAA
LA tied a record cold temp last night at 42 degrees and broke a record the night before.
A month ago it was nearing 70 degrees up there and plants were starting to sprout. It will be a weird spring.
I believe 2006 could break that 73 mark.
KU suffers $6 million in damage from storm
Storm-watchers are surprised by severity
Reader photos: Storm damage
Storm damage
I am not sure if this is what occurred, but it sounds like it MAY have been a derecho. A derecho would be a bizarre event to say the least.
One thing to think about: were all the trees, power poles, etc, blown down pointing the same direction? This is usually indicative of 'straight line' winds whereas tornados just throw stuff all over.
Inyo, there were a lot of reoprts of funnel clouds, but I saw it and looking at the photos its clear that iut was not a torndao. However, there were street signes that faced north and south that were snapped in half and there were signs that faced east and west that were snaoppoed in half. Some trees fell toward the east while others fell the west. It was like a swirling non tornadic wind - if that makes any sense.
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