Kearney Tornado - Nebraska 29/5/2008
I have taken an interest in this tornado simply because I was on the National Weather Service website and watching this thunderstorm at the same time the events were unfolding in the locality.
Had a look at a local newspaper - North platte Bulletin 29/5/2008 and 30/5/2008 and it appears much of the city has come out relatively lightly. However the north east quadrant of the city has been hit hard. It is thought that 6 tornadoes (Estimate only) may have occurred.
Additionally, a Union Pacific Train was wrecked near Odessa around 5.30 pm. It had 93 carriages (All derailed). Damage in the city is concentrated around mobile home parks and apartments.
I also found a report in a local newspaper of a tornado in the Grand Island area as well.
A small town called Wellfleet in Lincoln County suffered damage from a barrage of baseball size hail as well.
Auroa and York were also affected by the thunderstorm.
Incredible - A KETV Newswatch 7 (From Omaha) news team has reported on a $13 million private company jet wrecked inside a hanger at the airport following its collapse during the tornado.
Amazingly, there were no injuries despite the severe weather event.
North Platte Bulletin (A Local Newspaper) has done a good article on this event with various video clips and photos.
Tornado Indianapolis - Indiana News 31/5/08
Amazing scenes of a night time tornado leaving 18 injured in the city of Indianapolis. A narrow tornado on the east side of the city was 50 metres wide (reported at 150 feet) leaving a path of damage 2.5 miles long (4 km). It heavily damaged apartments off 38 Street.
The tornado is rated EF2 packing winds of 125 miles (Around 203 KM / H). The touch down was around 10.30 pm at night near the intersection of 42 Street and Post Road. It travelled SE to 38 Street near Germon Church Road before lifting.
It was on the ground for 3 minutes. The storm left 65,000 customers without power.
This is another classic case where tornadoes do not discriminate between rural areas and built up areas.
At the same time, thunderstorms in the area produced straight line damaging winds of up to 80 miles (130 km / h). Two homes were hit by lightning in Waverton Way in Fisher and a third in Carmel.
Hancock, Mario, Montgomery and Tippecanoe Counties suffered from various damage from trees being blown down, powerlines damaged and some wind damage to buildings.
This article and associated news items can be found on CNN.com which has links to The Indy Channel.com and local footage.
Harley Pearman
Posted on: 01 June 2008, 07:04:59 PM
Active day in Tornado Alley 5/6/2008 / Tornado Watch Box 462
The tornado statistics for 2008 are remarkable and 5/6/2008 was another active day.
In particular - 35 tornado reports and 144 hail reports (From the Storm Prediction Centre web site).
Today I watched a strong line of thunderstorms march across the American mid west on the National Weather Service web site. I shared the weather Warning that came with it to several at work being Tornado Watch Box 462. This was the strongest tornado warning that I have seen this season to date.
Tornado Watch Box 462
The warning was issued as computer models suggested an outbreak as bad as June 8 1974 but it later turned out not to be as severe as predicted.
- Warnings were issued for Winds to 80 miles per hour (132 km/h).
- Hail to 3 inches.
- Long track tornadoes.
This was an urgent message from the National Weather Service and in force from 11.50 am to 8 pm CDT.
"This is a particularly dangerous situation".
"Destructive tornadoes, large hail to 3 inches in diameter, thunderstorm wind gusts to 80 MPH and dangerous lightning are possible in these areas".
"The tornado watch area is approximately along and 60 statute miles east and west of a line from 30 miles north of Concordia Kansas to 70 miles southwest of Enid Oklahoma. For a depiction of the watch, see the associated watch outline update (WOUS64 KWNS WOU2)".
"DISCUSSION--- Thunderstorms will rapidly develop along surface cold front / dryline over Central KS and Northwest OK during the next few hours. These storms will interact with extreme instability and very favourable low level and deep layer vertical shear profiles for supercells and tornadoes. If storms can maintain more discrete structures through the afternoon, strong and long track tornadoes will be possible. Otherwise, widespread damaging wind and large hail are expected".
"Aviation--- Tornadoes and a few severe thunderstorms with hail surface and aloft to 3 inches. Extreme turbulence and surface wind gusts to 70 knots. A few cumulonimbi with maximum tops to 500. Mean storm motion vector 24040".
The line of thunderstorms did move across the region through Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma. There were 35 tornado reports. The ones I noted were:-
Report 2040 Voda in Trego County - Two tornadoes reported by 1 spotter.
Report 0053 Corning in Holt County Missouri - A large tornado was observed crossing the Missouri River near the county line of Holt and Atchison.
Most tornadoes were in the EF0 to EF1 range with a few stronger ones but mostly in rural areas. Damage seems to be relatively light compared to what was expected. There are a few exceptions to this.
Hail - Two hail reports stand out.
Report 1302 - 2 miles south of Wallace in Lincoln County (SW of North Platte) Nebraska, baseball size hail observed.
Report 2039 (I find this one hard to fathom) - Golf ball size hail and winds blowing at 100 miles per hour (162 km / h) same time 6 miles south of Cunningham in Kingman County, Kansas (ESE of Pratt). This occurred in a rural area.
While another storm did produce golf ball size hail (Based on reports and observations that I found), the majority of the 144 hail reports was for smaller hail.
The discrete storms eventually merged to form a narrow squall line that produced allot of damaging winds throughout with wind gusts between 60 and 80 miles per hour. There is much wind damage throughout the region with trees blow down, damaged electricity networks and some damage to buildings.
A look at the radar network at 9 pm (Eastern Australian time) showed that the storm front had weakened somewhat.
I have also looked at the 2008 tornado statistics to early June. There are now 1,330 reports and 350 now confirmed and the reporting is well above average for 2008.
Harley Pearman
