Topic: January 08 tornadoes in US

[Mike]

Some tornadoes have touched down in parts of the US.  SPC report attached and some text from Reed Timmer who is out chasing at this time.

At least 8 tornadoes have been reported already today across central MO, northern IL, and southern WI, with one particularly damaging tornado in extreme southeast WI near the town of Racine, WI around 2230 UTC.  Two simultaneous tornadoes were reported 3 miles northwest of Kenosha, WI right along the western Lake Michigan Shoreline!  Other very impressive tornadic supercells were ongoing in northeast MO and southwest MO as of 2330 UTC, with the latter storm looking absolutely incredible on reflectivity and velocity.  Damaging tornadoes are likely with any of these storms as they track rapidly northeastward at over 50 mph. 

Here's the SPC (Storm Prediction Centre) report and some other stuff.  Tornado warnings can be read at http://forecast.weather.gov/wwamap/wwatxtget.php?cwa=usa&wwa=Tornado%20Warning

Host of info including radar, maps and weather conditions found here: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/sgf/ and here http://www.crh.noaa.gov/sgf/?n=severebrief for a more detailed look.  Activity loop courtesy http://www.spc.noaa.gov/

radar loops can be seen at http://tornadovideos.net (as the NOAA site has their's down for maintenance - huh?!)
Mike

[Jimmy Deguara]

Mike,

You bet he will be chasing - at 50 miles per hour NORTH EAST very difficult to obtain sufficient ideal footage but good luck anyways.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Mike]

not a good day with some deaths involved.

From Reed Timmer...

At least 35 tornadoes have been reported yesterday from Southwest Missouri to as far north Southeast Wisconsin as several long-track tornadic supercells moved rapidly northeastward at 50+ mph across the region.  Most of these tornado reports were associated with two supercells:  one that developed in northern IL and moved across extreme Southeast WI, and a second that traversed Southwest MO along the I-44 corridor.  Sadly,  two fatalities have been reported in Greene County, MO near the town of Stafford, where several homes were destroyed.

  Several storm chasers were also tracking this damaging tornado, including Lanny Dean and Brandon Lawson.  This was definitely an unusual day for early January, with upper 50 dewpoints surging as far north as Lower Michigan.  I ended up chasing a tornado-warned cell in Muskegon County, Michigan with snow banks remaining in spots from a series of winter storms over the Holidays.  2008 will definitely be an active here if January 7 is any sign of things to come.

Mike

[Jimmy Deguara]

Picture of the tornado:

http://ozarksfirst.com/content/fulltext/?cid=15990

Another cone shaped funnel in Illinois:

http://www.rrstar.com/multimedia/x531360995

Beautiful base on this supercell

These were long tracked supercells and caught the forecasters by surprise given the time of the year and potency of the outbreak itself.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Mike]

More from Reed Timmer:

While not nearly as intense as yesterday, 8 tornado reports have still been received by the SPC as of 9:00 pm EST today (Tuesday).  Sadly, a tornado caused 1 fatality in Pope County of northeastern AR as a textbook supercell rolled through that region earlier today.  While the instability today in eastern AR/western TN was on par with yesterday in MO, the low-level shear was not as strong and not as optimally aligned with the storm motion, thus fewer and less violent tornadoes were the story. 

There's actually some excellent cloud/structure photos and a video on his site which is worth looking at http://tornadovideos.net

I was going to copy and paste them with credits but it's far easier to just go there since it's fairly up to date.

We require permament links or it becomes usesless down the track for anyone referring to this as an archive - delete this message when permanent links are made available thanks:)

Mike

[Harley Pearman]

January 08 Tornadoes USA 10/1/2008

Hello

On the subject of tornadoes, there is extensive coverage on CNN.com and associated local news networks of a very rare tornado (Most likely EF1) hitting a neighbourhood in Vancouver (Washington State) part of the Portland Metropolitan area (Thursday 10/1/2008).

I had a look at photo images provided. Amazingly this has occurred in winter and in an area that has not seen a twister since the 1960s. Worth having a look especially considering that this part of the USA is not an area usually associated with twisters. The story is available by going through CNN.com, in the weather section.

Additionally I have been following the weather lately in the USA and have been reading about the occurrence of winter tornadoes occurring from Alabama to Illinois including one not far from Milwaukee.

These are being documented well by local news all linked through the CNN network.


Harley Pearman

[twister1955]

Well SPC took moderate risk off Arkansas, in Jacksonville and Little Rock there was a confirmed ef-2 on the high side which was quite damaging there NWS in Little Rock didn't understand why. Survey team had 9 paths of damage in it. There's no excuses for SPC to take off a risk. A while after the risk was removed is when the tornado hit. Some people I'm sure are going to try to say I'm wrong but that's ok - everyone has there opinion.