Topic: Tornado Alley 2009 - Tornado season across the Mid-West has begun

[Jimmy Deguara]

Tornado kills 8 people in Oklahoma


A tornado killed eight people when it struck a small town in Oklahoma in central United States, a local official says.


http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/11/2489085.htm

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Richary]

From the SMH news site just now:

At least 15 people were killed when a massive tornado ripped across the Midwestern state of Oklahoma, local media reported Wednesday.

The Oklahoman newspaper reported that the twister tore a half-mile swath through the town of Lone Grove shortly before 7:30 pm (0130 GMT Wednesday), citing state officials.


Actually (and this may be a topic for another thread) I am curious as to the formation of these twisters at this time of year. From our experience in Australia and from what I have seen of storm chasing in the USA twisters are usually associated with super cell storms. Now it is still winter in the USA. So I can only assume there is a weather mechanism there occurring that allows for Supercells to form without the heating we would normally associate with summer.

I haven't studied US weather conditions, are these formed from warn weather or fronts coming from the Caribbean? And without even speculating I know people here will be able to tell me the cause without having to guess!

[Mike]

I was emailed that the tornado was a wedge EF3 and that the setups weather-wise were akin to May rather than February, something they have not seen in several years.  Lone Grove Oklahoma was the target area and a trailer park got leveled.  Here's the radar still

Short video credited to Reed Timmer who was out chasing near Lawton, Oklahoma. No tornado this time but structure is impressive.

http://www.youtube.com/v/3kryWqa9_1g&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs

Preliminary report on several tornadoes are here from the NWS public advisory ( Now 8 confirmed deaths) http://www.wunderground.com/US/OK/025.html#PUB

Radar from Lone Grove including couplet:

http://www.stormchaserco.com/20090210_Radar_809pm_Reflect.jpg

http://www.stormchaserco.com/20090210_Radar_809pm_Veloc.jpg

New video during the supercells formation - impressive lowering with wall cloud and some awesome structure shots..

http://www.youtube.com/v/-JHBWn3T1mE&hl=en&fs=1

[Shaun Galman]

Hi all,
Mike: Thanks for posting that video! I couldn't agree more about that structure, amazing!

I initially thought I was hearing an old news story when I saw the news report? I thought surely no tornadic supercells would be active this time of year? That's just crazy!

I guess anything would be possible with the whole changing climate thing?

Very interesting.
Regards,
Shauno

[Robert1984]

Short video credited to Reed Timmer who was out chasing near Lawton, Oklahoma. No tornado this time but structure is impressive.

If i didnt know better i could swear thats the same Reed Timmer from Storm Chasers on the documentry channel :-P

[nzstorm]

This was the second deadly tornado event to occur in the month of February in Oklahoma since 1950.  The other was SW Oklahoma, 1975. And it was the first February tornado since 2000. 

[Mike]

Indeed.  Reed had chased two supercells in the region on that day.  He had sent his other chase teams out there also and they got some footage of the tornado I think..I'll pester him for some info, but I think I do know where to find some images.  Leave it with me.

[Colin Maitland]

Just reading through world severe weather events and came accross this post for USA. (http://www.accuweather.com/news-summary.asp?)

Recent Large Hail and Tornado Incidents
Posted: 19-FEB-2009 4:13pm EST

Officials continue to sort through the damage and reports of severe weather in the South from Wednesday afternoon into early Thursday morning. In some cases it may take days for damage to be confirmed as being caused by a tornado.

Some of the suspected tornado incidents included here were from the same individual thunderstorm cells tracking eastward. This is not a complete list:

A confirmed tornado touched down in Valdosta, Ga., early Thursday morning.

A confirmed tornado touched down near Thomasville, Ga., early Thursday morning.

A confirmed tornado touched down in Boston, Ga., early Thursday morning.

A confirmed tornado touched down in Geneva County, Ala., and tracked into Grady County, Ga., early Thursday morning.

A confirmed tornado touched down near Reynolds, Ga., late Wednesday evening.

An unconfirmed tornado killed one person and injured two others in the Sparta, Ga., Wednesday evening.

An unconfirmed tornado damaged 15 homes south of Moreland, Ga., Wednesday evening.

An unconfirmed tornado injured one person and damaged dozens of homes near Eatonton, Ga., Wednesday evening. Large hail with a diameter of 1.75 inches also fell.

An unconfirmed tornado destroyed one home and damaged others in the Tyrone, Ga., area Wednesday evening. Hail the size of tennis balls also fell on the community.

Baseball-sized hail fell on Newnan and Fayetteville, Ga., Wednesday evening.

Tennis ball-sized hail fell on Jonesboro, Ga., late Wednesday afternoon.

Softball-sized hail fell just south of Palmetto, Ga., late Wednesday afternoon.

Story by AccuWeather.com Expert Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski (End Post)

[Colin Maitland]

This is the summary of the storms that hit from Canada down through the south of USA.

National Summary
As a storm system rolled northeastward into the Great Lakes and southern Canada Wednesday into early Thursday, up to 10 inches of snow fell on parts of upstate New York and Vermont, while up to 4 inches of a wintry mix of snow and ice fell in parts of northern Pennsylvania. A cold front associated with the storm rolled through the South as well. Warm air surging ahead of the front sparked damaging thunderstorms from near the Gulf of Mexico coast to Ohio. There were over 100 counts of large hail with the event, as well as at least five confirmed tornadoes and perhaps as many as a dozen or more as yet to be confirmed. The storm did succeed in bringing beneficial rain prior to the thunderstorms' arrival earlier Wednesday. Snow showers in the wake of the storm deposited up to a foot of snow to the lee of lakes Michigan and Superior through Thursday midday. Cold air was sweeping from the Midwest and into the Northeast on increasing west to northwest winds. Much of the area from the Plains to the Pacific coast was free of precipitation Thursday. Many areas, with the exception of central Montana and southern Texas, had sunshine. 

[Colin Maitland]

Some more information on the Tornadoes of Feb19 2009


February 18–19

Strong southwesterly winds transported a moist air mass northeastward across the Gulf Coast states and the Tennessee Valley. The moisture combined with daytime heating to support a moderately unstable air mass in advance of a cold front, which pushed southeastward across the Tennessee Valley and Gulf States during the afternoon and evening. The cold front combined with a strong jet stream aloft resulted in the development of severe thunderstorms along the cold front.[20] As a result, a moderate risk of severe weather was issued by the Storm Prediction Center for portions of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and the Florida Panhandle.[21]

Several tornadoes touched down during the afternoon and evening hours into the early morning of February 19. The strongest tornado was rated as an EF3 tornado, which traveled 18.6 miles (29.9 km) through Wilkes and McDuffie counties in Georgia. It destroyed a cinder block home, damaged 15 homes and destroyed 19 outbuildings. One person was killed in Hancock County after an EF3 tornado destroyed a church and four mobile homes in the area. A mile-wide EF2 tornado that touched down in Meriwether County damaged several homes with one home completely losing it's roof. One person was injured by debris as an EF1 tornado traveled through Putnam County, destroying a restaurant on the southwest side of Eatonton. U.S. Highway 129 was shut down after high winds downed power lines. Two different tornadoes caused damage in Jasper County, each with winds of 100 miles per hour (160 km/h). In Newton County, 20 to 30 homes in a heavily-wooded subdivision were damaged by trees blown down by an EF1 tornado that was on the ground for 2 miles (3.2 km). Other tornadoes, with winds ranging from 70 miles per hour (110 km/h) to 90 miles per hour (140 km/h), occurred in Taylor, Houston and Oconee counties.[22] There were also three tornadoes in Southwest Georgia,[23] and one in Alabama.[24]

US total tornadoes for 2009 - unofficial totals through February 19
Confirmed
Total    Confirmed     33
EF0            Confirmed      9
EF1            Confirmed     18
EF2            Confirmed      3
EF3            Confirmed      2
EF4            Confirmed      1
EF5           Confirmed      0
    

[nzstorm]

Looking like a quiet March for the US this year compared with recent years. And the GFS run out to the end of the month doesn't look good with a ridgy environment over TX. But severe thunderstorm season for the plains doesn't really kick in until mid April I guess. On a positive note there has been some rain in the drought ravaged parts of west central Texas. This has to be positive. I remember the droughty 06 season too well with the hot dry dusty conditions. There were surface based storms in the TX Panhandle with bases over 10,000ft! Not good at all for tornadoes. So I am hoping more rain occurs over the southern and western high plains between now and May. 

[FindTheTornado]

I thought I would add to this I drove down for both tornado events in tornado alley this year, I chased February 10th and also March 7th. Pictures are videos along with short re-cap chase logs are availible at my website www.findthetornado.com (not trying to spam just trying to add to the conversation)... Also on a side note that is the same Reed Timmer... if you were being serious  8)

[Mike]

Fellow Tornadovideos.net streamline chaser, Craig Maire from Des Moine, Iowa chased March 28/30th, 2006 west central Iowa along Interstate 80 and encountered these supercells which dropped tornadoes.   Here's some photos he has given me permission to show the forum.

[David C]

23 March:

SPC currently have a moderate risk out for the central plains tomorrow 23rd.

[Mike]

It's like honey to bees!  A lot have been waiting days for things to get right and most of the chasers I know of have planned their target areas.  There's been sporadic cells popping up over the last couple of days but today is definitely game on - with a moderate risk and these winds why wait!