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US Weather (General)

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Re: US Weather (General)

Post by apocalypse »

The widest tornado on record is claimed to be the Hallam tornado in 2004, which was 2.5m miles wide in some places. Could this Pocahontas tornado be larger?

http://iowastorms.com/weather/index.php ... :newsflash" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...SURVEY FOR POCAHONTAS COUNTY, IOWA...

THE FOLLOWING IS A PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT FOR THE DAMAGE THAT
OCCURRED OVER POCAHONTAS COUNTY ON APRIL 10, 2011.

* EVENT DATE: APRIL 10, 2011

* TORNADO NUMBER 1

* ESTIMATED START TIME: UNKNOWN

* EVENT TYPE: (EF2) TORNADO

* EVENT LOCATION: TORNADO BEGAN 4 SW OF VARINA AND CROSSED THE
COUNTY LINE AND ENDED 4 NW OF POCAHONTAS NEAR WARE

* PEAK WIND: 125 MPH

* AVERAGE PATH WIDTH: 2-3 MILES WIDE

* PATH LENGTH: 16 MILES LONG

* INJURIES: UNKNOWN

* FATALITIES: NONE KNOWN

* DISCUSSION/DAMAGE: IN VARINA A CHURCH GYMNASIUM COLLAPSED.
AN OLDER HOUSE COLLAPSED AND WAS MOVED OFF OF ITS FOUNDATION.

* TORNADO NUMBER 2

* ESTIMATED START TIME: UNKNOWN

* EVENT TYPE: (EF3) TORNADO

* EVENT LOCATION: TORNADO 7 NORTHWEST OF POCAHONTAS AND TRAVELED 2-3
MILES EAST-SOUTHEAST AND MERGED WITH NUMBER 1 OF POCAHONTAS COUNTY.

* PEAK WIND: 165 MPH

* AVERAGE PATH WIDTH: 300-400 YARDS

* PATH LENGTH: 2-3 MILES LONG

* INJURIES: UNKNOWN

* FATALITIES: NONE KNOWN

* DISCUSSION/DAMAGE: A MANUFACTURED WICK HOME WAS COMPLETELY
REMOVED. A COMBINE WAS BLOWN INTO A FIELD AND ROLLED OVER
SEVERAL TIMES.
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Re: US Weather (General)

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Extract from http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/p.php? ... S43-PNSMKX" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT...CORRECTED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MILWAUKEE/SULLIVAN WI
1022 PM CDT MON APR 11 2011

...BIGGEST APRIL TORNADO OUTBREAK IN WISCONSIN HISTORY...

APRIL 10 2011 WILL GO DOWN AS ONE OF THE BIGGER TORNADO OUTBREAKS IN
WISCONSIN HISTORY. IT IS TIED FOR THE BIGGEST TORNADO OUTBREAK IN
TERMS OF NUMBERS OF TORNADOES IN ONE DAY IN THE MONTH OF APRIL
(APRIL 27 1984-WALES F4 IN WAUKESHA COUNTY)


SO FAR...AT LEAST 10 TORNADOES HAVE BEEN CONFIRMED AS THREE NWS
OFFICES ARE COMPLETING STORM SURVEYS.

HERE ARE THE TORNADO TOTALS SO FAR:

NWS GREEN BAY AREA: 7*
NWS LA CROSSE AREA: 2
NWS TWIN CITIES AREA: 2

THE TOTAL SO FAR IS 10* TORNADOES. ONE OF THE TORNADOES CROSSED
FROM ADAMS INTO WAUSHARA COUNTY...WHICH CROSSES FROM NWS LA CROSSE
TO GREEN BAY (THUS ONLY 10 TORNADOES...NOT 11 AS THE MATH ABOVE
WOULD SUGGEST).

ACCORDING TO NWS GREEN BAY...THIS NUMBER OF 7 TIES FOR THE BIGGEST
TORNADO OUTBREAK EVER IN NORTHEAST AND CENTRAL WISCONSIN...THEIR
AREA OF WARNING RESPONSIBILITY. ADDITIONAL SURVEYS AND INVESTIGATION
COULD LEAD TO ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTED TORNADOES IN THE COMING DAYS.
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Re: US Weather (General)

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Extract from http://www.wkbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=14420937" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
UPDATE: NWS says 12th tornado near Necedah breaks April record

Posted: Apr 11, 2011 11:05 PM
Updated: Apr 15, 2011 2:58 AM

LA CROSSE, Wis. -- The National Weather Service has identified another tornado from Sunday's violent storm outbreak, which breaks the single-day record for April.

The weather service says teams did an additional storm survey and found an EFO to EF1 tornado touched down southwest of Necedah at the intersection of Paradise Lane and 25th Street West.

The tornado had winds in excess of 95 miles per hour and was on the ground for about four and a half miles, damaging a mobile home and trees before it ended near the Wisconsin River. Click here to read more.

National Weather Service officials says this tornado was just behind the EF2 tornado that touched down in Adams County. That tornado had a top speed of 125 mph and did more than $3.5 million in damage.

12 tornados touched down in Wisconsin Sunday, breaking the record of 11 set April 27, 1984. The 1984 tornado outbreak left three people dead and 42 others injured.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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Re: US Weather (General)

Post by Ken »

It's been going off in that area over the last several hours with half a dozen tornado-warned supercells in OK/KS earlier this morning our time and a remarkable number of clear hook echoes appearing on radar.

Here's a bit of a nice rundown of the setup from the local Little Rock, Arkansas NWS office:
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/graphicast.php?site=lzk&gc=4

Special non-routine balloon flight sounding launched at Little Rock, Arkansas around 1pm AEST showing a tornado-favourable strong veering with height wind structure and some loose matches with past similar soundings that have produced tornadoes (bottom right hand corner of image) albeit without much CAPE now:
Image

Mesoscale analysis at 1pm AEST with the SPC's tornado ingredient parameter (values > around 2 are typical of tornado-favourable conditions) and mixed layer convective-inhibition (shaded) overlaid on radar:
Image
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Re: US Weather (General)

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http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/news/s ... rip-ac.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Deadly Storms, Tornadoes Rip Across Southern Plains
By Bill Deger, Meteorologist

Apr 15, 2011; 3:50 AM ET

At least four people are dead in the wake of powerful thunderstorms and tornadoes that tore through the southern Plains and lower Mississippi Valley Thursday night.

The tiny town of Tushka, Okla., was among the hardest hit locations, struck head-on by a tornado Thursday evening that killed two people and injured more than two dozen others. Displaced residents say the town of 350 was devastated by the twister.

Around the same time, multiple tornadoes were reported from eastern Kansas south through Oklahoma. Touchdowns were reported near Atlanta and Chautauqua in Kansas, as well as Madill and Milburn in Oklahoma.

The damage persisted farther east well after dark and into the predawn hours.

Overnight in Crystal Springs, Ark., two more people were killed when a large tree crushed a mobile home during a thunderstorm. Residents were awakened to tornado sirens and strong winds in Little Rock less than an hour later as the same thunderstorm blasted through.

Wind gusts from some of the stronger storms were estimated between 60 and 80 mph.

Hail up to the size of softballs (4.25 inches in diameter) was also reported from the storms. In some locations, hailstones completely covered the ground for a time.

The powerful storms and tornadoes were in association with a large storm system that is bringing a plowable snow to the northern Plains. This system threatens to bring more violent storms and tornadoes farther east today across the Southeast.

Tushka tornado pic captured by Brandon Sullivan and Donovan Gruner of Wicked Wind Media
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Re: US Weather (General)

Post by Meso »

Yeah, crazy stuff. We all marvel how awesome these things are, but it highlights just how dangerous it is to actually live in that part of the world. Would be a bit of a lottery every year wondering whether you're going to get smashed by a storm/tornado.
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Re: US Weather (General)

Post by Ken »

The next 24 hours also look to be interesting with the strongest dynamics moving east associated with a low level jet under the exit region of an upper jet, strong shear and favourably curved hodographs. Below is a forecast sounding generated from the Short Range Ensemble Forecast model for Evergreen Middleton Field in Arkansas (I chose this location because it falls into the Storm Prediction Centre's moderate risk area - http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/day1otlk.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) for 03z tomorrow arvo - it shows some very impressive numbers: close to 60kt of 0-1km shear(!), 70kt of 0-3km shear, 361 m^2/s^2 of helicity in the 0-1km layer, 400J/kg in the nominal hail growth zone and good veering with height wind structure. The green lines in the sounding represent the spread of dew point traces among the ensemble members, light blue are the wet bulb traces, red is dry bulb and yellow is potential temperature of rising air parcels (and the ensemble members in the hodograph on the left hand side):

http://ken.bsch.au.com/gallery2/d/2621- ... ng_001.png
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Re: US Weather (General)

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" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: US Weather (General)

Post by Ken »

A series of tornado warnings are still ongoing into the night at this time. Some of them are available on the Birmingham, Alabama NOAA weather radio transmitter at:
http://audioplayer.wunderground.com/bul ... er.mp3.m3u
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Re: US Weather (General)

Post by Ken »

Ken wrote:A series of tornado warnings are still ongoing into the night at this time. Some of them are available on the Birmingham, Alabama NOAA weather radio transmitter at:
http://audioplayer.wunderground.com/bul ... er.mp3.m3u
EDIT: Numerous fatalities and injuries mounting for this outbreak. Solid cluster of tornado reports at: http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/today.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Some of the extracts:
1557 CLINTON HINDS MS 3234 9033 *** 10 INJ *** UPDATE ... EXTENSIVE TORNADO DAMAGE ... NUMEROUS BUSINESSES AND HOMES WITH SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE ... CARS FLIPPED ... TREES AND POWERLINES DOWN ... EMERGENCY MANAGEME (JAN)

0355 6 NW PRATTVILLE AUTAUGA AL 3252 8652 *** 3 INJ *** CR 40 SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE. 3 HOMES DESTROYED, 3 CRITICAL INJURIES, 3 PEOPLE MISSING. EMA REPORTS SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE IN THE ENTIRE AREA

EDIT 2: As at 20z, the SPC now has parts of the mid-Atlantic states under High risk. Tornado warnings are still ongoing in this area. Reported death toll up to 19 with further deaths and injuries, and more than 100 tornadoes reported according to CNN (haven't bothered to count the individual reports in the SPC storm report list). Storm-relative helicity values have been up in the 600-700m2/s2 range in some parts. Many of the tornadic storms have been concentrated near the warm front extending out from the low. Certainly one of the more significant spring tornado outbreaks.
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Re: US Weather (General)

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Check this out from earlier in the month. Beautiful supercell!

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: US Weather (General)

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Toll rises as flooding, twisters strike central US
Thursday April 28, 2011 - 06:43 EST
A massive spring storm that has swamped much of the central United States with days of heavy rain and deadly twisters has threatened more destruction as the death toll rose to 20, officials said.

The National Weather Service warned severe weather could strike 21 states from the Great Lakes down to the Gulf Coast and across to the Atlantic.

It also issued a rare high-risk warning of tornadoes, hail, flash flooding and dangerous lightning for parts of Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi.

More than 50 tornadoes were reported alone yesterday and there have been hundreds of reports of wind damage.

Dramatic rescues were caught on camera as crews braved rushing waters to pluck people stranded by flash flooding.

Hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes in Missouri after levees failed to hold back swollen rivers.

"I'm just glad my family is safe," said Chris Pigg, who spent the night at a shelter with his wife and daughter and was not sure if he would have a home to return to after the Black River breached the levee in Poplar Bluff, Missouri.

The skies are not expected to clear until late Thursday or Friday.

There will be little time to mop up, as another major storm system is forecast to bring heavy rain and high winds on Saturday.

The storm comes after a wet spring and a winter of heavy snowfall, which means the ground is saturated and rivers were already quite high.

Officials were considering deliberately destroying levees in some areas to ease pressure on swollen rivers, some of which are so high that barges have become trapped under bridges.

As much as 45 centimetres of rain had fallen from Saturday through to Tuesday night in some areas.

"It's producing major to record flooding in a lot of those river basins," said Jim Keeney, deputy chief of the weather service's central region.

Arkansas has been among the hardest hit as it deals with flash flooding and a series of tornado strikes that have killed 11 people.

"It looks like a tornado came through the area because that's what happened," said Renee Preslar, a spokeswoman for the Arkansas department of emergency management.

"There's trees down, the power's down, you've got homes that are damaged ... as well as a lot of flooding going on."

Five deaths were reported in Mississippi, while two were reported in Alabama overnight and two more were killed by floodwaters in Missouri, officials said.

- AFP

- ABC

© ABC 2011
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Re: US Weather (General)

Post by apocalypse »

Doesn't look very good for this afternoon/evening over there (which is around now our time).

EDIT: 74 tornado reports as of 2225Z (8:25 am AEST)
EDIT: 88 tornado reports as of 2325Z (9:25 am AEST)
EDIT: 101 tornado reports as of 2355Z (9:55 am AEST)
EDIT: 138 tornado reports as of 0410Z (2:10 pm AEST)
Extract from Mesoscale Discussion 629
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/md/md0629.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION /PDS/ TORNADO WATCHES 232/235
CONTINUE UNTIL 00Z/03Z RESPECTIVELY. THIS INCLUDES THE POTENTIAL FOR
LONG-TRACK STRONG/PERHAPS VIOLENT TORNADOES INTO THIS EVENING AS A
SEVERE WEATHER OUTBREAK ONLY INCREASES IN MAGNITUDE/RISK.


AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS/LIFE-THREATENING SITUATION CONTINUES TO
UNFOLD THIS AFTERNOON ACROSS A LARGE PART OF MS/AL...WITH ADJACENT
PORTIONS OF TN/NORTHWEST GA ALSO EXPECTED TO BECOME A CONCERN LATE
THIS AFTERNOON/EVENING.
CURRENT OBSERVATIONAL TRENDS...REASONABLY
SUPPORTED BY EXPERIMENTAL HRRR GUIDANCE...IMPLY THAT SCATTERED
SUPERCELLS WILL CONTINUE TO FORM IN BROKEN NNE-SSW ORIENTED
CORRIDORS OF SUBTLE CONFLUENCE AHEAD /EAST/ OF MORE
STORMS/SUPERCELLS THAT ARE DEVELOPING ALONG A PRE-COLD FRONTAL
TROUGH/DRYLINE GENERALLY NEARING I-55 IN MS.

THE WARM SECTOR AIRMASS HAS AGGRESSIVELY DESTABILIZED THIS AFTERNOON
AMID NEAR 70F/LOWER 70S F SURFACE DEWPOINTS...REFERENCE SPECIAL 18Z
OBSERVED RAOBS FROM JACKSON MS/BIRMINGHAM AL...WITH A WIDE/HIGHLY
SHEARED MOIST SECTOR IN PLACE ALONG/SOUTH OF A MODIFYING WEST-EAST
OUTFLOW BOUNDARY /NOW AN EFFECTIVE WARM FRONT/ ACROSS FAR NORTHERN
PORTIONS OF AL/MS. EXTREME LOW LEVEL SHEAR...VIA LONG/CURVING LOW
LEVEL HODOGRAPHS...WILL REMAIN HIGHLY CONDUCIVE FOR SUPERCELLS
CAPABLE OF LONG-TRACK STRONG/VIOLENT TORNADOES INTO THIS EVENING
AMID 0-1 KM SRH OF 300-500 M2/S2 OR GREATER /ESPECIALLY NEAR THE
AFOREMENTIONED NORTHERN MS AND AL BOUNDARY/.
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Re: US Weather (General)

Post by apocalypse »

You can see the high shear/high cape environment in this Jackson Thompson Fld sounding.

Image

GOES water vapour image at 2245Z shows a very defined line of supercellular storms along the boundary of a marked dryline.

Image
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Re: US Weather (General)

Post by Ken »

For those who hadn't seen this yet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGtumnBe ... e=youtu.be

Some latest stuff from the SPC/NWS:

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/today.html

For anyone wantings to listen live to the PDS's and other warnings on NOAA weather radio: http://www.weather.gov/nwr/streamaudio.htm

There were classic hook echoes everywhere on the Birmingham, Alabama radar when I checked before.
Extremely potent setup with a 70kt low level jet, 100kt mid level jet, a vigorous shortwave trough and intensifying surface low.
There are reports of up to 32 dead just in the town of Tuscaloosa alone with catastrophic damage.

http://www.accuweather.com/video/655578 ... lantic.asp


A DANGEROUS OUTBREAK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORM AND TORNADOES APPEARS
UNDERWAY...AND CONFIDENCE IS INCREASING THAT THIS WILL EXPAND
NORTHWARD FROM THE GULF STATES THROUGH MUCH OF THE OHIO VALLEY LATE
THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING...

...TN VALLEY/SRN APPALACHIAN MTNS AND SRN OH VALLEY...
A VIGOROUS UPPER-LEVEL TROUGH WILL MOVE INTO THE OZARKS TODAY AS A
POWERFUL MID-LEVEL JET ROUNDS THE BASE OF THE TROUGH AND NOSES INTO
THE OH AND TN VALLEYS. AT THE SFC... A LOW WILL MOVE QUICKLY NEWD
ACROSS THE MID-MS VALLEY AS LOW-LEVEL MOISTURE IS TRANSPORTED NNEWD
ACROSS THE OH AND TN VALLEYS THIS AFTERNOON. MODERATE
DESTABILIZATION IS ALREADY IN PLACE ACROSS THE LOWER MS VALLEY AND
THIS AIR MASS SHOULD MOVE NEWD INTO THE MODERATE AND HIGH RISK AREAS
BY LATE THIS AFTERNOON. THE WARM AND MOIST AIR MASS ALONG WITH
STRONG SHEAR PROFILES IN THE LOW TO MID-LEVELS WILL BE VERY
FAVORABLE FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS AND TORNADOES THIS AFTERNOON AND
EVENING. THIS SYSTEM IS VERY ORGANIZED AND CONFIDENCE IS HIGH
REGARDING THE POTENTIAL FOR A MAJOR TORNADO OUTBREAK THIS AFTERNOON
AND EVENING ACROSS THE CNTRL GULF COAST STATES AND TN VALLEY
EXTENDING NWD INTO THE SRN OH VALLEY.


Extreme tornado probabilities:
Image
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Re: US Weather (General)

Post by apocalypse »

Now up to 147 tornado reports as at 0710Z (5:10 pm AEST)!! :o

There is some very grave news coming from some of the towns in the states of Alabama and Mississippi, particularly from the cities of Tuscaloosa and Birmingham.

Extract from http://www.npr.org/2011/04/27/135758810 ... raight-day" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Dozens Killed In Southern Storms; Alabama Battered
by NPR STAFF AND WIRES

April 27, 2011
A wave of tornado-spawning storms strafed the South on Wednesday, splintering buildings across hard-hit Alabama and killing 72 people in four states.

At least 58 people died in Alabama alone, including 15 or more when a massive tornado devastated Tuscaloosa. The city's mayor said sections of the city that's home to the University of Alabama have been destroyed and the city's infrastructure is devastated.

Eleven deaths were reported in Mississippi, two in Georgia and one in Tennessee.

News footage showed paramedics lifting a child out of a flattened Tuscaloosa home, with many neighboring buildings in the city of more than 83,000 also reduced to rubble. A hospital there said its emergency room had admitted at least 100 people.

"What we faced today was massive damage on a scale we have not seen in Tuscaloosa in quite some time," Mayor Walter Maddox told reporters, adding that he expected his city's death toll to rise.

NPR's Russell Lewis, who was in the town of Pleasant Grove, Ala., told Melissa Block that he could see debris on the road.

"The devastation here is really immense from what I've seen: houses just flattened," he said.

The storm system spread destruction Tuesday night and Wednesday from Texas to Georgia, and it was forecast to hit the Carolinas next and then move further northeast.

Around Tuscaloosa, traffic was snarled Wednesday night by downed trees and power lines, and some drivers abandoned their cars in medians. University officials said there didn't appear to be significant damage on campus, and it was using its student recreation center as a shelter.

Maddox said authorities were having trouble communicating, and 1,400 National Guard soldiers were being deployed around the state.

Brian Sanders, the manager of an oil change shop, brought his daughters to DCH Regional Medical Center because he felt they'd be safe there. He said his business had been leveled.

"I can't believe we walked away," he said.

NPR's Lewis said it may not be until Thursday morning that officials get a clear idea of how bad the damage was.

Storms struck Birmingham earlier in the day, felling numerous trees that impeded emergency responders and those trying to leave hard-hit areas. Surrounding Jefferson County reported 11 deaths by late Wednesday; another hard-hit area was Walker County with eight deaths. The rest of the deaths were scattered around the state, emergency officials said.

Austin Ransdell and a friend had to hike out of their neighborhood south of Birmingham after the house where he was living was crushed by four trees. No one was hurt.

As he walked away from the wreckage, trees and power lines crisscrossed residential streets, and police cars and utility trucks blocked a main highway.

"The house was destroyed. We couldn't stay in it. Water pipes broke; it was flooding the basement," he said. "We had people coming in telling us another storm was coming in about four or five hours, so we just packed up."

Not far away, Craig Branch was stunned by the damage.

"Every street to get into our general subdivision was blocked off. Power lines are down; trees are all over the road. I've never seen anything like that before," he said.
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Re: US Weather (General)

Post by daviescr »

Pretty good clip from the Tuscaloosa F4 yesterday. This guy has some nerves of steel, my heart was racing just watching it, esp. around 4:30 when it gets real close...
Don't think I have ever seen such a devastating day before. Latest I hear there are over 170 dead.

[youtube]5ohIVzIZLuQ[/youtube]

And the aftermath on the BBC Pictures section here
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Re: US Weather (General)

Post by Rivergirl »

Horrifying news. My thoughts are with the people affected. Also hope Jane and Clyve are OK. Here is the latest news

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
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Re: US Weather (General)

Post by Lily »

OMG he was crazily close! Those poor people, news isn't good at all from what I've been hearing this morning :(

28storms' Facebook page has some good info, and their Home Page has video, etc.
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Re: US Weather (General)

Post by Rivergirl »

This map shows real-time reports of tornadoes, high winds and hail from April 23 through April 27, from the National Weather Service.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42803576/ns/weather/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Amazing footage Chris!
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