Severe Weather

[Ksyrup]

I know we have a bunch of Missouri folks on the board and shit is going down in STL right now.

We just had our own scare here in the Lexington area. We were 30 miles NE at a softball tournament when the weather started, and let me tell you - sitting in the car listening to the local weather guy describe your neighborhood while discussing the imminent path of a tornado sucks shit. But not as bad as it actually doing damage, of course. And we got lucky. It looks like a tornado went through downtown Versailles right through my neighborhood - knocked down our basketball goal, but the trash can on the curb was still upright. Amazing.

That STL storm is headed this way for the middle of the night - should be a fun night.

Stay safe.

[MizzouRah]

Stay safe too Ksyrup!

I live north of St. Louis and we just had rain thankfully.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Hope everybody got through this safe & sound. Watched a good bit of it on TWC at dinner as the storms were rolling into the STL area, that was some nasty looking shit.

[panerd]

The airport really got hit hard, lost its roof and had winds blowing through the inside of the baggage claim and pinning people against the walls. Just rained with a little hail where I live.

[tarcone]

A tornado was spotted on the ground 5 miles from my area. Otherwise lots of rain and a little hail.

Im watching the news now. They are showing the destruction near the airport. Devastating. The neighborhood is a mess. 135 to 200 mph wind last night.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by panerd

The airport really got hit hard, lost its roof and had winds blowing through the inside of the baggage claim and pinning people against the walls. Just rained with a little hail where I live.

Saw that on the news this morning.. crazy.

[Ksyrup]

We've had nothing but wave after wave of severe weather today, too. It's crazy. Saw a really cool wall form just south of the airport as we were driving home. Looks like another night of waiting for a line of severe weather to come through.

[Ksyrup]

Jeebus, more frickin' tornado warnings. Where exactly do you go from the 26th floor during a tornado? Today/tonight is supposed to be really, really bad. Good start, anyway.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Watching the tornado warnings roll across Alabama & into TN right now ... as my wife drives right smack into them with her mother (who was hellbent & determined to go deal with some b.s. on her old house that she's prepping for sale ... nvrmnd that she's had over a year for this stuff).

[Butter]

On track for the 4th rainiest month in recorded history for our area. Approaching 10" of rain, which for a month, is quite a bit. Have had constant flash flood warnings for seems like 2 weeks now.

My back yard is a mud lake.

[Ksyrup]

Yeah, same here. We're up over 11 inches, I think. This has been crazy.

[GrantDawg]

Seeing reports on severe damage around the area in Alabama where I once lived (Arab and Guntersville is just south of Grant where I got my board name). This just the leading edge of what is supposed to be worse storms this afternoon/tonight. Everyone keep safe today.

[terpkristin]

Tornado watch for my area until 8 p.m. tonight.
Washington D.C. area’s worst five tornado events - Capital Weather Gang - The Washington Post #3 on that list is the one I was in, was probably within 500 yards (if that) of the girls that died.

/tk

[Ksyrup]

April 2011 is the 5th wettest month in Lexington history, and we're about to get dumped on for the next 12-18 hours.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Wife & m-in-law under a tornado warning until 4p eastern. Riding that one out & then going to try to scoot through a break in the lines to get back ... just in time for what should be a fun night here. Yeppers, it's just a peachy day.

[Warhammer]

The Mississippi is supposed to crest in Memphis at 10' above flood stage in a couple of weeks. I'm really looking forward to that. The Wolf River is supposed to flood by Friday and will submerge about a mile wide area just south of where I live...

[GrantDawg]

They just reported on the news here several dorms were destroyed on the University of Alabama's campus.

[MJ4H]

Posted the first one of these in the image thread, but here is some of the damage to roads from the flooding near the school where I work:

[GrantDawg]

I'm watching the live coverage out of Birmingham. T-town had two large tornadoes hit it, and they had it on webcam until hit right at the stadium on campus and took it out. The tornado is still on the ground and is 15 miles out heading toward them, but the debris is already falling around their studio, including 20 ft long pieces of plywood.

[GrantDawg]

Live Video - FOX 6 News - FoxAlabamaLive.com

They have it live on camera as it coming into Biringham. It has never left the ground since it left Tusc.

[ntndeacon]

the tornado look like it is headed for downtown birmingham. We have had several tornados hit the ground today. at least 5 dead. 4 from the morning straightline winds one from the tornado in Tuscaloosa

[GrantDawg]

They are guessing it at a mile wide, F4.

[cougarfreak]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Live Video - FOX 6 News - FoxAlabamaLive.com

They have it live on camera as it coming into Biringham. It has never left the ground since it left Tusc.

Geeze, watching now, that's unbelievable.

[GrantDawg]

Watching it as it went and the power blinking off, the lights going dark, and the transformers blowing up. Knowing the damage being done underneath that that you couldn't see just sent shivers down my spine.

[GrantDawg]

They are confirming the mile wide damage swath from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham. Damage from f4 to f5 range. It is uncommon for the weather center to report that this early, but it is that bad.

[GrantDawg]

Video of it passing south of Bryant-Denny:

VIDEO: Tuscaloosa Tornado Nearing Alabama's Bryant-Denny Stadium - SB Nation Atlanta

[Thomkal]

Man that's scary stuff-hope all of you in their path are safe.

[Scoobz0202]

Are you guys familiar with Jemison, AL? I have some family there. Was that in the path of the storm?

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Scoobz0202

Are you guys familiar with Jemison, AL? I have some family there. Was that in the path of the storm?

That is south of where the big one went, but there have been several others, so I couldn't say for sure.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Scoobz0202

Are you guys familiar with Jemison, AL? I have some family there. Was that in the path of the storm?

I looked it up, that appears to be south & west of nearly all the action so far. I've been watching these things roll up pretty closely most of the day honestly don't recall seeing Chilton County mentioned in any of the warnings. Not a guaranteed answer of course but hopefully some reasonable reassurance at least.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Video of it passing south of Bryant-Denny:

VIDEO: Tuscaloosa Tornado Nearing Alabama's Bryant-Denny Stadium - SB Nation Atlanta

I saw that earlier, talk about sense of scale. Very scary footage to me.

[Scoobz0202]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I looked it up, that appears to be south & west of nearly all the action so far. I've been watching these things roll up pretty closely most of the day honestly don't recall seeing Chilton County mentioned in any of the warnings. Not a guaranteed answer of course but hopefully some reasonable reassurance at least.

Thanks. I talked to my father who said while he was on the phone with him the sirens went off I believe, but I haven't seen anything on the news about that area so I think they are good. Hopefully.

[Scoobz0202]

And now our tornado sirens just went off here in Ohio. Eerie when its not hit yet. We have ten minutes. Time to hit the deck I guess.

[ntndeacon]

Some how it missed Pelham. But at least 53 dead. I am sure that number will rise. Keep all those affected in your prayers.

[CU Tiger]

Im in Auburn through the weekend....it was pretty nasty here not as bad a B'ham..but a bit windy...but has moved on now.

[JonInMiddleGA]

After about 2 hours on the phone to keep track of things, finally got my parents out of their basement north of ATL. Looks like they're almost in the clear for the rest of the night, had a Doppler-likely tornado get within about 2 minutes of them & then it hung a right and went elsewhere. That's a relief.

Now the fun round two, as Athens, GA is about an hour away from getting our first issue of the day. Heck, first rain I've seen here all day started drizzling about 15 minutes ago.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Y'know, the things the weather guys can do with radar + computers these days is truly amazing. The presence of debris balls & debris fields showing up on radar is pretty incredible if you think about it. I generally understand why it works & all that but it doesn't make me any less impressed.

[rjolley]

Jon: You're watching Stormtracker 2 as well, eh?

It is pretty impressive how they can track some of this. Hadn't seen the debris field images before. Wonder what it looks like in Kansas during their storms...

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by rjolley

Jon: You're watching Stormtracker 2 as well, eh?

I'd bet 80% or more of the Atlanta TV's in use have been with Glenn Burns most of the night

Hadn't seen the debris field images before.

I kind of got a chuckle out of the obvious delight they were getting out of those -- of being able to see them for real, in their own market -- was apparently the first time they've seen them for real since the new superduper radar was installed.

As one of my uncles pointed out, "Glenn never met a tornado he didn't like"

[JonInMiddleGA]

Okay, let's see how long my power stays on. Tornado warning now covers a stretch from Covington (GrantDawg territory) to Bishop, GA which is about 15 minutes south of me.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Killer storms ravage South, claim at least 193 lives || OnlineAthens.com

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Y'know, the things the weather guys can do with radar + computers these days is truly amazing. The presence of debris balls & debris fields showing up on radar is pretty incredible if you think about it. I generally understand why it works & all that but it doesn't make me any less impressed.

The 3D slice-through thing is pretty cool too.

[Ksyrup]

It will be really interesting to watch Storm Chasers in the fall as they document this stretch of tornadic weather. I just went to Reed's site, and it looks like they were in Clinton Mississippi yesterday. I remember from last year that they took a risk and went to MS when most of the chasers wouldn't go there - because of high population areas, trees, etc., which makes chasing very dangerous - and were in the middle of a bad one and helped some people out of destroyed houses, etc. But I doubt any of them went any further than MS. But watching the whole thing play out from their perspective, 6 months later, is going to be really interesting.

[JonInMiddleGA]

8 of the fatalities in TN were in my wife's hometown (or out in the county a few miles away).

Meanwhile one of the hardest hit parts of GA was Ringgold, where a three-story motel collapsed, every restaurant in town has been destroyed, and both their HS & MS were heavily damaged (students weren't in the bldg thankfully). That's along the route she drove home from TN yesterday, more than a close call for this husband.

There's up to 100k chickens abruptly free-ranging in the county where I grew up (somehow several chicken houses were destroyed but much of the poultry reportedly survived). Sounds funny but not the guy who had his livelihood destroyed. Nearby rescue workers finally made it into a ruined street & successfully rescued an elderly woman trapped in her home after several hours (and at least one, possibly two more storms passed over the rubble while she was still inside).

In Tuscaloosa, a former co-worker's college student son dropped his car off at the local tire shop for service. Luckily he ducked into a friend's off-campus apartment on the next block to wait out the storm. Minutes later the tire shop was leveled, still not sure where the car ended up. Another former co-worker is in Birmingham, she ducked inside a restaurant to dodge the debris raining down on the parking lot.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I'd bet 80% or more of the Atlanta TV's in use have been with Glenn Burns most of the night



I kind of got a chuckle out of the obvious delight they were getting out of those -- of being able to see them for real, in their own market -- was apparently the first time they've seen them for real since the new superduper radar was installed.

As one of my uncles pointed out, "Glenn never met a tornado he didn't like"

Glen rocks. You know, Their radar updates every minute and not every 6 minutes like conventional radar. He might mention that every 6 minutes.

We had a tornado jump us. It fell apart just before it got to us and reform on the other side of the county. Scary stuff. Pretty crazy night.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Georgia storms | Girl, sucked out of bed by tornado, survives *| ajc.com

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Georgia storms | Girl, sucked out of bed by tornado, survives *| ajc.com

I was just about to post that. That was the tornado that skipped over us.

[Ksyrup]

This is flat-out amazing:

A Facebook page was set up for users to claim photos and documents found strewn by the storms.

"House mortgage from Tuscaloosa found in Rainbow City," said the caption on one photo. The two cities are 116 miles apart.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

This is flat-out amazing:

It is. That same cell kept putting down powerfull tornadoes all the way through Alabama and North Georgia.

[JonInMiddleGA]

re: debris items -- there's about a half dozen or so pictures of things like that in a photo gallery on the WRCB-TV website. Receipts from a Trenton, GA tire store, a checkbook from Cullman, AL, a check re-order receipt from a different bank in AL ... all found in Chattanooga or as far north as Dunlap, TN. Average distance from launch to landing seemed to be about 85-90 miles.