SWFans Weatherpocolypse thread

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Right now it's a sunny and beautiful 62F with not a cloud in the sky. Friday however was a whole other story. Tuscaloosa/Northport got decently bitchslapped by a few tornados, though thankfully no one was killed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4KlnephWvQ&feature=player_embedded

Mandi, you'll more than likely recognize the landmarks these guys drive by, like the Sonic and Taco Bell, the Books-A-Million, and others. For others, this is highway 82, which intersects with Skyland Blvd. When they reach the intersection, straight on, is 20/59. At the time they filmed this, I was getting my ass away from work (which isn't but maybe two miles from where the guys in the video are).

And the thing about it all? It's just the start of tornado season here :x

[Sanis Prent]

For reference, that twister hit very close to where our old house used to be.

Also tornado season (we have two seasons) is usually a wrap by May. Not saying it's impossible to have a funnel drop after that, but once it gets hotter, we've usually just moved on to the regular afternoon thunderstorm instead.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

The info I've been finding is that March-May is the peak, but the season lasts from March till August :huh

[Tear]

Wheres Park Kraken the Swfans weather man when you need him!?:lol

Stay safe you two.

[Rossos Atrapes]

Gloucester County to north of me got hit by a tornado, three dead. So far the news is saying at least 24 dead in six states from the storms and tornadoes.

[Park Kraken]

Sorry, long week/end. That looks like strong F1/weak F2 damage there from that tornado in Tuscaloosa.

We were under about five or six tornado warnings during the train of storms that blew through a few weeks ago, but I only found substantial damage from one of them up north of town, although there was a ton of limb, fence, and power line damage all over the general area.

We can pretty well have tornadoes anytime here, but the main season is during late spring and pretty much all of summer, we get a lot of afternoon tornadoes during thunderstorms because of the east and west coast seabreeze collisions, but almost all of these are weak F1s at the worst. Mid to Late Spring is when we get our worst tornadoes, plus they normally happen at night during this time period, which has lead to some killer events here in the state.

[Reshmar]

We had some damage here in Central AR., but not like the people east of us. trees down and power out mostly. Power was out here for a couple but at least the damage was not bad.

Looks like we will need to replace a few shingles.

[Reshmar]

Here we go again...

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Stay safe, man :hug

[Reshmar]

Storms have left but headed east. Get ready MS. and TN.

[Taataani Meorrrei]

What the hell is this? We're getting the shit kicked out of us on a weekly basis lol.

I mean I love the rain, but damn!

[Park Kraken]

El Nino weather pattern in play. A weaker hurricane season, but a stronger thunderstorms in general across the mid and eastern United States during the Spring.

[Darth Turbogeek]

El Nino weather pattern in play. A weaker hurricane season, but a stronger thunderstorms in general across the mid and eastern United States during the Spring.

It's actually a La Nina right now.

Look at the general pattern for 1974 for confirmation. Massive floods in QLD in 1974 and now 2011, pretty much the signs of a sustained and resonably strong La Nina. Typically much wetter in Australia when you have that.

[Park Kraken]

Yep, just looked up the general weather pattern. I was getting El Nino from an old weather forecast that called for the weakening of the La Nina weather pattern by the beginning of the Atlanta hurricane season.

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/90day/fxus05.html

[Park Kraken]

Looks like some rough weather passing through the Miss Valley area right now, multipule tornado warnings out right now for central Tennessee and northern Alabama, looks like our friends in Tuscaloosa may have had a rough night last night.

Throwing out a link for anyone who wants to keep track of this record storm system.

http://radar.weather.gov/

[R. S. Esalis]

The power has been out since at least 530-ish AM, and it was an incredible light show I will say that.


Edit - power is about out everywhere. Just got out of Target, and they must be running on their generators cause it's as dark as anything in there. Gas stations are closed all over the place due to no power, trees are on lines, and this is just the beginning. This afternoon is going to be a weather warzone, and apparently we're in the high risk area. Working 3-11 for the rest of the week, but given what I've been hearing from NWS and folks around here, I have to wonder if the plant is going to tell their people to stay home. They really need to, since all weather stations I'm listening to are saying to STAY OFF THE ROAD from noon-ish onward.

[Park Kraken]

Mayhem out there right now. Attachment shows current Tornado Warnings in effect as of this posting in the Tuscaloosa Radar envelope. You can't see the storms for the warnings on the top because you'd need to go to the next radar site up to see them.

Looks like some rough weather in store for our Sweet Home state this evening (among elsewhere too).

http://radar.weather.gov/ridge/radar.php?rid=gwx&product=N0R&overlay=11101111&loop=no

EDIT: Good news is that most of the storms seem to be weakening. I'm only counting about 20 tornado warnings currently in effect for the local northern Alabama area. Something else, the weatherman was talking about doppler radar picking up debris that was lifted into the upper atmosphere by some of the tornadoes, obviously good sized and reflective debris at that.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Went right over the top of us. Distinct freight train sound and all. All I could think about was my car and if it would be ok. Plant is without power, cell service spotty, and there's more tornados on the way so I might not be leaving phifer anytime soon

[Vigilante]

Be safe you goofball who insisted on going to work :p :hug

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Made it home in one piece :) some folks had their car windows blown out, the chicken processing plant about a quarter mile up the road was hit bad, and t-town in general was ripped a new asshole :(

[Morgan Evanar]

Damn that is some brutal weather.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

So I guess you got off work early? I'm glad you're ok.

[Taataani Meorrrei]

They told me to peace outta work around 1 pm which was fine by me. Strangely the power was back on by the time I got home and aside from a little flicker, we kept power for the whole day. Dodged a huge bullet up on the hillbilly hacienda!

[Taataani Meorrrei]

Also my video game cave is subterranean, making it a fantastic tornado bunker. I played new Vegas for hours, safe and happy

[Flux]

And now we're getting the disaster weather. :ohno

[Darth Turbogeek]

Saw this in TV tonight and I was all like "Ive been there!" and all excited as a result.

BTW you still have Elmo's head?

[Park Kraken]

eath toll so far from last night's storms stands at 178 dead, with 128 dead alone in Alabama. Even while weakening from a lack of sunlight last night, storms are still strong enough to produce tornadoes this morning on the GA/FL border and up in the NW portion of Maryland as the storm system moves farther east.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEEMl7B1caA

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Still have the elmo head, yes.

Whelp. My work is closed until further notice due to storm damage :( sucks yes, but I'm eternally thankfull it's just closed and not wiped off the face of the earth.

[Park Kraken]

I'm just thankful you guys weren't wiped off the map as well. Death toll is up to 193, easily top 200 before the day is out. Wouldn't be suprised to see it reach 300, as some 150 or so tornadoes were reported last night, according to news sources.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

120 in T-town alone is the most recent number I have. One of my girlfriend's husband works with a lady who held her 6 year old daughter as she died :( :(

[Morgan Evanar]

I can't think of many things worse than that. :(

[Lilaena De'Ville]

:(

I'm really glad you guys are okay.

[Reshmar]

Glad to see you guys survived the storm. I was watching some of the footage today. Terrible stuff. We had a town wiped off the map here but no where near the death toll you Guys had.

[Mu Satach]

ditto, glad you are ok and feel awful about the lady who lost her daughter. :(

[Park Kraken]

Just had a talk with my father. The Polk County Emergency Response Unit might get deployed up to Alabama to assist with the disaster relief efforts there. Right now it's a wait and see thing, but they could be on their way up there by tonight.

[Reshmar]

more storms headed east.... sigh I hope these arn't as bad as last weeks

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

From what I've heard they won't be, thank god.

Our internet is still out, so all of what I've seen of the damage coverage is not much. What I get is from friends over facebook and what I'm told be friends who live in the disaster area. A coworker and really good friend lost her mom and dad, alberta city (which is adjacent to the campus) is completely gone. Just wiped off the face of the earth.

It's just... It's just really bad.

[Reshmar]

Storm was not too bad today. a few warnings but i do not think anything set down or damaged anything.

[Park Kraken]

I've done a little research on the tornadoes that hit Alabama during the outbreak period. Prelminary reports suggest as many as five or six EF-5s and perhaps 20-30 EF-4s hit the State during the April 27th Outbreak. Investigation is still ongoing into the Tuscaloosa area, but it appears the tornado that hit that town may have had a track 150 miles long into Georgia, and will be rated "at least an EF-4" according to the National Weather Service.

Here is a preliminary listing of the towns that were either heavily damaged or wiped off the map in Alabama alone, with parathensis indicating deaths in that town. Do note that 455 people are still missing in Tuscaloosa alone.



Alabama - Birmingham, Cullman, Tuscaloosa (45+), Arab, Tanner, Phil Campbell (26), Rainsville (30+), Sylvania, Hackleburg (25+), Shotsville (6+), Huntsville (11), Haleyville, Sawyerville (7), Shoal Creek, Lake Martin (9).

From what I've heard, some power plants, including a Nuclear Power Plant, were forced to shut down because they didn't have any power lines connecting them to the outside world.

[Hera]

Just cant imagine how awful it must be to go through all the above.

Glad you guys are ok, but sorry s'Il about your work.

:(

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Work is fine now. Substation was brought back online and we were able to start up yesterday.

[Sanis Prent]

Philanthropy efforts are huge right about now. We're trying to organize volunteer efforts via our team at work, but the groups we're talking to are fully staffed until June. That's a good thing. We're gonna try for next month because I'm worried that as time goes on this might fall off folks radar.

[Park Kraken]

Nice and cool weather this morning. A rarity for mid-May to be sure. :)

[Vigilante]

My parents live really close to Joplin, MO - thankfully they never go "into town" on Sundays. They've had some flooding from all the thunderstorms, but just on their property so far, no damage. They are under a flash flood warning though!

[Park Kraken]

117 dead so far in Joplin with another 1,500 unaccounted for. The tornado was a very strong EF-4 that measured three square miles wide.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmXAONuL9tM

The area is under a severe weather threat for tonight as a very powerful storm system moving across the Rockies combines with conditions sufficent to spawn the most powerful of tornadoes. Even if Joplin isn't hit again, there is the potential for a large outbreak and widespread destruction in the region.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I watched one woman's account of the tornado and there was apparently a discernible eye of the storm that she, her boyfriend and her son used to run from the bathtub they'd been sheltering in to a ditch to ride out the rest of the tornado, after looking up when things calmed down a bit to see no walls and just blue sky and their bathtub. Also she had the thought at the last second to make her son wear his bicycle helmet in the tub and it saved his life because part of the toilet hit him in the head and then her in the back.

Just devastating.

[Park Kraken]

Oklahoma City and its suburbs are under multipule tornado warnings right now as a line of supercells continues their march eastwards across Oklahoma. Not a good thing with rush hour just getting underway in central time (5:11 PM CTD).

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Bringing this thread back to life.

What a way to start the season early.

Sitting in the parking lot at work, it cloudy with the sun showing through. A few angry looking ones, but for now it wait and watch.

[Sanis Prent]

I am home. We sounded evacuation at work. My workplace at least takes this shit seriously

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Unlike, say, your wife?

[Sanis Prent]

My wife's workplace. For decorums sake that's all I'm gonna say because it makes me beyond angry

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

There were a lot of call-ins today, heh. So far it's quiet.

[Sanis Prent]

Lotta lightning and rain but so far so good. Haven't even got any big hail, which is what this storms been bringing to most places

[Park Kraken]

I saw your post on Facebook S'Il at about 3PM, so I checked the radar on the NHC and thought 'Holy Super Cell thunderstorm cluster batman'. From about Montgomery all the way north to Indianapolis were a ton of super cells (tear drop representation on radar, with reds in the bigger portion, tapering off to green).

Called my uncle in North Vernon, Indiana. They came through okay, but Henryville about 30 miles south got wiped off the map. Madison on the Ohio river was under five different tornado warnings at the same time.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Yeah, I saw a report that Marysville, IN is essentially GONE.

Thankfully around here it was just a lot of severe thunderstorms. We had a weather radio on in the office, and were listening to the NWS go tits up trying to keep track of everything today. They'd start their announcements naming of a handful of counties, and end them with completely different counties that had been previously unmentioned.

The drive home on 20/59 was gorgeous though. Lightning as bright and purple as I've ever seen.

[Park Kraken]

This is getting the time of year where I pay a lot more attention to the national doppler radar pictures to see where the severe weather is happening. Looks like right now there are some severe storms (Multi-Cells, I think) spawning tornadoes about halfway between San Angelo and San Antonio in central Texas. Apart from that, mostly flood warnings associated with a huge storm system spawning a line of storms stretching from Laredo, Texas all the way north to Winnipeg, Canada.

[Ilias Nytrau]

My sister lives about an hour outside of Winnipeg. O_o

[Park Kraken]

All the severe stuff looks to be in a line of storms from Joplin, Missouri down to Laredo, Texas, with what looks like a supercell spawning tornado warnings as it advances on I-35 and downtown San Antonio right now.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

My parents live really close to Joplin. :uhoh

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

THE POLLEN IS UPON US :dood:

[Cirrsseeto Quez]

Get into your protective envirobubble, Snots.

[Park Kraken]

Looks like nothing too bad happened yesterday apart from flooding and a confirmed tornado touchdown SW of San Antonio. Right now the line of storms, out ahead of a frontal boundary, is weaker but building strength back up again, and extends from Sioux Falls down through Beaumont, Texas into the Gulf of Mexico. It looks like the threat of severe weather extends through Louisiana and Arkansas this evening.

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/day1otlk.html

[Ilias Nytrau]

41km/hr winds, rain AND hail. YEEHAW. |I

[Emelie Shadowstar]

THE POLLEN IS UPON US :dood:

OHGODS. Don't remind me. There aren't enough antihistamines in this house.

[Morgan Evanar]

No mango trees in central Florida, so I am doing much better this year.

[Park Kraken]

They had some twisters in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, with additional tornadoes being spawned right now in a line of storms extending from Dallas to Texarkana, moving to the NW/NE.

[Halajiin Rabeak]

Yeah, tornadoes had us pinned down at work, and my wonderful MINI was pummeled by golf-ball-sized hail for ten minutes.

Poor Clubman S, it never hurt anyone. Why'd it have to suffer? =(

[Rutabaga]

I've seen the video of the Dallas area tornado that was twirling a couple of semis around. That was some scary stuff. :(

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Right now: 103.7 °F
Feels like: 109 °F

It is just too hot to do anything outside that doesn't involve sitting in a kiddie pool with a cooler full of beer.



In other news, I checked in with both Brian and Kale, and they are fine. That derecho that rolled across multiple states yesterday and last night did a number on anything and anyone it its' path.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

It took out Netflix :shakefist

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

A slideshow of some of the damage:

http://www.weather.com/news/derecho-slideshow-20120630

On top of the damage and power outages, let's keep in mind that temperatures for many folks is in the 100+ range. When I talked to Brian, he was was about ready to melt. And considering that he was in the process of moving, I really feel for him =\

[Park Kraken]

If I read the description of the Derecho correctly (first time I'd run across the term) then there appears to be two more going on tonight. One working its way south through Georgia, and another working its way south also into South Carolina. Also there's what appears to be a dying Supercell working its way the opposite direction, to the NE, in NE Alabama, about to hit the border area with Georgia and Tennessee. Apart from that I see a line of strong thunderstorms in Central Kentucky.

EDIT: The radar image just updated in South Carolina. Looks more like a few cells rotating around a low pressure now rather then a bow line of storms.

[Park Kraken]

Oddly divided weather going on. (With exception to SW Minnesota and S Texas) You could use the Mississippi River to define where all the thunderstorms are at right now; Just about every state east is covered with them, while every state west is bone dry and berefit.

[Park Kraken]

A Potential Situation is brewing with Hurricane Sandy in the Atlantic Ocean. After striking Jamaica as a Category 1 Hurricane with winds of 80 mph, and then Cuba as a Category 2 with winds of 110 mph, Sandy is now moving over the Bahamas still as a Category 2 with 105 mph winds, and is currently transitioning from a typical Tropical System into a large and powerful hybrid system, that although should weaken, will pose a powerful threat to the U.S. Northeast this weekend and into early next week. The models are having trouble predicting exactly what will happen, this situation being somewhat similar to the 1991 Perfect Storm Event, with a large swath (possibly thousands of miles) of damaging gale force winds, flooding rains, blizzards, and arctic subfreezing temperatures being dragged by the rotation of the system from Canada all the way down to the Carolinas.

Attached should be the latest (as of this posting) picture of the three systems on a collision course, Sandy to the south, the Winter Storm to the north, and approaching Storm system over the U.S. Midwest.

[Dee]

DAMMIT SANDY!

Someone please call if you don't hear from me by like Tuesday or Wednesday of next week >_<

Seriously, people around here have already started stocking up food, buying generators, and in general, mildly panicking even though we're not sure how bad we're going to get it.

I'm actually worried...a hurricane and a god damn nor'easter at the same time? WTF :ohno I'm convinced the bitch is going to smack us right in the teeth.

[Dasquian Belargic]

First snow of the winter in Newcastle

countdown to England grinding to a halt, 3... 2...

[Morgan Evanar]

It's not winter until December 22nd.

Also Sandy is going to crap all over the upper Eastern seaboard. Heh.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Good luck, Dee! Make sure you are prepared for several days without power. Better safe than sorry.

[Dee]

Also Sandy is going to crap all over the upper Eastern seaboard. Heh.Yes. Yes, she is. Bless her heart. She's going to make most of the New England states her bitches.


Good luck, Dee! Make sure you are prepared for several days without power. Better safe than sorry.Thanks hon! We're pretty prepared - luckily, we've got a gas fireplace in case it gets cold, and also a gas stove, so we'll be able to cook (pilot light is electric though, so we've stocked up on matches). Going to get some few things more at the market tomorrow, just in case :)

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Expect texts from me :)

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Shit's gonna get real in NYC I think.

[Nathanial K'cansce]

Hmm... pretty sure the eye of the storm is going to travel right over my house. It will be a tropical storm at that time, but still. So far, a few trees down up here in upstate NY, a few of the neighboring towns already have lost power. Was sent home from work early.

Bring it, Sandy. Cancel my jury duty tomorrow! :shakefist

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Hope you're ok still, Snacky!

Updates from Dee would be nice, too, hint hint. ;)

[Razielle Alastor]

They told me snow! I got NO snow. Lying bastards.

I did take Molly the wiener dog out last night for a walk and pretty much flew her like a kite there was so much wind. :D

Hope everyone else is ok! :ohno

[Pierce Tondry]

Hope you're ok still, Snacky!

Updates from Dee would be nice, too, hint hint. ;)

I got some texts from Dee yesterday so I know she is okay. As of midnight last night she had power, water, and vodka. I told her to call off the storm and she said she'd have a few choice Greek words with it.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Thanks for the update, Brian. :) Glad she and you are ok. :)

[Nathanial K'cansce]

Eh, just some strong gusty wind and rain. /shrug

Had a worse storm back in July/August when the Tornado hit and wrecked the place up.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Good stuff! Glad to hear everyone's doin okay :)

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Andrew/Khendon lives in Hoboken, NJ, I haven't heard from him on FB yet. :(

[Dasquian Belargic]

He posted on FB yesterday, looks like there's been some flooding at his apartment.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Must have missed it somehow. Oops.

[Makhaira]

I'm here! Totally unrelated to the storm, my PC has been having some technical difficulties. We weathered it well - loads of wind & rain, but I never lost power. Handy thing living in the center of town with underground cables :)

Also, my mom flew home from Greece last week. So I'm getting a year's worth of lecturing and speeches that she's been gathering for the last year since she's been down there. So, yay. >_<

Coincidence that she landed literally one week before Sandy hit? I think not!