TornadoVideos.net

Posted At: January 31, 2008 @ 1:02 AM

Posted By: Reed Timmer

With a strong cold front passing across the Eastern U.S. on Tuesday, another storm system will soon be making news. This low is ejecting eastward from the Rockies, and phasing up with a developing surface low near the Texas Coast. This could mean severe weather for the Gulf Coast with the possibility of tornadoes. The other side of the low will likely bring snow from Oklahoma to Ohio. 
Below is the overall set up with severe weather discussion. Reed will talk more about the snow later this morning: 

Note the low in the Texas Panhandle, and the warm front in the Gulf. The warm front is moving northward! - read complete story.....

Posted At: January 30, 2008 @ 5:32 PM

Posted By: Reed Timmer

TornadoVideos.net footage will be shown on an episode of TruTV's Most Daring tonight at 8:00 pm CDT, featuring the May 3, 1999 F5 tornado that struck Moore, OK.  DO NOT SEEK SHELTER UNDER AN OVERPASS!!!!

You can watch the episode online at the URL below:

http://www.trutv.com/shows/most_daring/index.html

Posted At: January 29, 2008 @ 10:11 AM

Posted By: Reed Timmer

A powerful cold front is currently surging across the central U.S. as of Tuesday morning, with up to 40 degree temperature drops across the front in the Southern and Central Plains.   An intense low pressure system was moving slowly eastward just south of Hudson Bay, with a secondary low pressure area intensifying rapidly near Eastern IA/Northern IL.  This area of low pressure will intensify to the upper 970s as it moves towards the Great Lakes Region overnight.  A loop of the 12z WRF forecast panels for MSLP is shown below:


The front is particularly strong across Oklahoma, with temperatures near 70 in Southeast OK, plummeting to the low-mid 20s in the OK Panhandle!!  Here in Norman, we've had wind gusts over 50 mph all morning and were without power for an hour so during - read complete story.....

Posted At: January 28, 2008 @ 11:18 AM

Posted By: Reed Timmer

Near blizzard conditions pounded parts of Alberta, Canada yesterday, with winds gusting over 40 km/hr at times creating near white-out visibility in heavy snow.  Around 20 cm of snow fell across southeast Alberta, with significantly higher drifts.  For a great synopsis of the even, along with incredible pictures, check out the Boomer Photo blog below:

http://blog.boomerphoto.com/

The meteograms below show the sustained wind, wind gusts, temperature, and wind chill from Edmonton, AB during yesterday morning's winter storm (thanks to P Boomer for providing these!):


- read complete story.....

Posted At: January 27, 2008 @ 1:45 PM

Posted By: Reed Timmer

A strong cut-off low pressure system just off the West Coast is pounding the entire state of California and the Western Rocky Mountain region with insanely heavy rain and snow (generally above ~6000-8000 feet depending on location and rate of warm advection ahead of the system), as a strong low-level jet pumps Pacific moisture northeastward.   Intense orographic enhancement is also occurring along the Sierra Nevada Mountains and coastal ranges, as this strong, moist southerly flow is forced upward.  Thus, the west and south facing slopes will receive the most significant precipitation amounts from this storm.


As much as 4 inches of rain fell last night over parts of Southern California, with the highest amounts - read complete story.....

Posted At: January 25, 2008 @ 12:46 PM

Posted By: Reed Timmer

A potentially damaging ice storm is underway across extreme southeast AR, northeast LA, and central MS, as a shield of moderate freezing rain and sleet is moving through the area.  Of greater concern is an area of heavier precipitation further west into northeast TX.  As this area of heavier precipitation moves over the shallow, sub-freezing airmass at the surface across the ice storm warning area, significant ice accumulations are possible.  The winter storm warning/advisory summary is displayed below:

The regional radar loop for the ice storm zone is shown below, with green coloring indicating rain, and pink indicating mixed precipitation (freezing rain or sleet). - read complete story.....

Posted At: January 23, 2008 @ 11:00 PM

Posted By: Reed Timmer

Classic westerly-flow lake effect bands have persisted east of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario today and this evening, with 1-3 inch per hour snowfall rates likely at the heart of the snow bands.  Storm total accumulations of 1-3 feet will be likely across Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, and southern Erie Counties in western NY, and Oswego County east of Lake Ontario.  Shown below is the Lake Erie Band on Buffalo, NY radar through Wednesday evening:   


The counties favored in W-WNW-ly lake effect flow for Lakes Erie and Ontario are shaded in dark blue/green below, where lake effect snow warnings are in effect.  The bands are expected - read complete story.....

Posted At: January 21, 2008 @ 4:49 PM

Posted By: Reed Timmer

Check out this picture of a beautiful waterspout that occurred just off Dundee Beach about 50 km from Darwin, Australia this past Christmas Eve, courtesy of Leah Beames, who was on a charter fishing boat when she shot the picture.  Waterspouts are typically occur under tower cumulus clouds or young thunderstorms as the strong upward motion stretches existing rotation into a slender vortex with more rapid rotation.   The near friction-less water surface is key to their formation, as surface friction usually disrupts the formation of a similar vortex over land.  Thanks to Mike ONeill of stormscapesdarwin.com for sharing the photo.

Posted At: January 19, 2008 @ 1:44 AM

Posted By: Reed Timmer

An historic snowstorm will slam parts of the Deep South from Central Alabama through northern Georgia and Carolinas this weekend as an area of low pressure moves slowly ENE along the Gulf Coast.  4-8 inches of snow are likely in the Heavy Snow Warning areas shown in the graphic below in dark blue, with isolated higher amounts possible over the higher terrain.  Travel will be severely impacted in these areas, especially with the lack of any substantial snow removal equipment.

Shown below is a graphicast from NWS Birmingham, indicating the heaviest - read complete story.....

Posted At: January 18, 2008 @ 6:23 PM

Posted By: Reed Timmer

TornadoVideos.net is excited to present an exclusive preview of Reed and Joel's intense new storm chasing documentary. This movie goes beyond what you've seen before, and gets you closer than you ever thought possible. Enjoy!

UPDATE: 1/24/08
The trailer has been removed from this post.  A small version of the trailer has been added to the right side of the home page.

Thank you for all the kind comments about the movie!

Posted At: January 18, 2008 @ 10:47 AM

Posted By: Reed Timmer

With only a few more months left until storm season, it's time to start talking about tornado expectations for 2008!   This spring season looks like it will be characterized by a dissipating La Nina, which has been associated with large winter tornado outbreaks and springtime outbreaks in the far eastern Great Plains into the MS River Valley.  Please post your thoughts on how many tornadoes you think will happen in the U.S. this season. 


As the moderate El Nino was dissipating during early spring last year, several tornado outbreaks occurred from Late February through early May, including the Eastern KS outbreak of Feb 28, the record-breaking outbreak of Mar 28, and of course the Greensburg, KS day and the May 5 OK/KS outbreak.  Many chasers, including me, thought 2007 was going to set records for U.S. tornado reports.  However, as the storm season progressed, a western U.S. trough seemed impossible to achieve, and a tornado drought ensued (thankfully for the residents of the High Plains!).  In the end, 2007 even had fewer reports than 2006! (1085 vs 1106).  With 112 tornadoes already reported for 2008, we are on-track for a very active year, but we're only a few weeks into 2008.  As seen in the recently weekly Pacific SST anomalies from CPC, the La Nina is still going strong, especially across the central Pac near the Dateline.  However, it looks like some neutral SST anomalies may already be developing in the extreme Eastern Tropical Pacific, which could be the beginning of the La Nina demise.


The CPC precip forecast for the next three months is shown below -- with drier than normal conditions forecast across most of the Central and Southern Plains.  If this forecast verifies, could this mean fewer tornadoes at least during the early Spring 2008?  As mentioned above, please post your thoughts on 2008, and we'll see who was on track!  Given that this year is the exact opposite as last year in terms of ENSO (although teleconnections are not even close to linear), I'm thinking the early spring will be relatively in-active, with a few tornado events to the east across MO, AR, KY, TN, and MS.  However, as La Nina continues to weaken, all hell will break loose across the Plains from late May through June!

Posted At: January 17, 2008 @ 11:11 AM

Posted By: Reed Timmer

Two winter storms are currently moving through eastern North America -- One in the western Great Lakes and the other moving up the East Coast spreading heavy snow across the Mid-Atlantic including Washington DC.  4-8 inches of snow will be common across much of Wisconsin with the first storm (a weak Colorado Low), and also across northwestern VA and central MD, with higher amounts in the Appalachians.  Shown below is the Eastern U.S. radar from 1700 UTC showing both storms:


The winter watch/warning summary is displayed below, with dark blue indicating winter storm warnings, light blue indicating snow advisories, and pink winter weather advisories.  WE NEED MORE EXCITING WEATHER!

Posted At: January 16, 2008 @ 12:18 AM

Posted By: Reed Timmer

I know this happened a few days ago, but I thought I'd post the damage survey map of the January 7, 2008 tornado outbreak from the Springfield, MO NWS in case people didn't see it.  The strongest tornado, rated an EF3, was in Laclede County, MO northeast of Springfield.  It appears that this strongest tornado occurred after dark, and was associated with the same storm that produced the Monett, MO tornado earlier that evening (before sunset), which was rated an EF2 -- shown below is video of this tornado from Chris Wilburn and Bart Comstock.
 

Posted At: January 13, 2008 @ 9:23 PM

Posted By: Reed Timmer

A slow-moving surface low will rapidly intensify just off the coast of New England on Monday, with very heavy snow falling in the deformation zone from Connecticut northeastward through Coastal Maine and the Canadian Maritimes.  The WRF forecast MSLP for 00z tomorrow evening is shown below, along with the watches and warnings across the Eastern U.S.


The winter weather product statement from the NWS office in Gray, ME regarding this winter storm is displayed below.  While official NWS forecast is 4-12 inches across eastern New England, I wouldn't be surprised if there are many reports of greater than a foot of snow because of the slow-moving nature of the system.  This part of New England has been absolutely pounded this year by snow, with over 3 feet reported over most locations during December alone.  If any of the blog participants from this area capture any good photos/video of the snow, please email them to me so I can post them on the blog!

Posted At: January 11, 2008 @ 9:09 AM

Posted By: Reed Timmer

TornadoVideos.net's footage of the May 4, 2007 Ellis Co, OK tornado and the May 3, 1999 overpass incident will be used on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno this evening.  The video will be used to supplement the Twister Sister's appearance on the show, as they talk about their new television series on WeTV.  It will be interesting to see how they use the footage -- Hopefully they will at least keep the audio as is this time!  Enjoy the show tonight...

Posted At: January 10, 2008 @ 11:52 AM

Posted By: Reed Timmer

Several discrete tornadic supercells have developed over eastern Louisiana and Mississippi this morning and early afternoon, with over a dozen tornado warnings in effect around the Jackson, MS area.  These storms have exhibited very strong low-level rotation, and are likely producing tornadoes at this time.  The VAD wind profile from Jackson shows very strong low-level shear, with 40+ knots at 850 mb.  The first wind gate just above the surface shows 30 knots out of the South, with surface winds much weaker -- resulting in good speed shear in the near-surface layer.  An ENE-ly storm motion is favorable for strong tornadoes with this low-level shear.  Check out the radar loop below from Jackson, MS between 11:00 am and noon CST:

Posted At: January 10, 2008 @ 9:41 AM

Posted By: Reed Timmer

A tornado watch has already been issued early this morning for northeast Louisiana and most of Mississippi as a strong cold front plows into the region.  Surface-based convection is already occurring along the front south of Tennessee, and the mode appears to be discrete cells right now, rather than a massive squall line.  This current tornado watch (shown below) is in effect until 4:00 pm CST, but several more watches will be issued between now and then:


The Storm Prediction Center has maintained their slight risk area for this morning's convective outlook, with a 10% area, non-hatched, over Mississippi and northwest Alabama.  I wouldn't be surprised if they added a hatched-area in subsequent outlooks, because if tornadoes occur, at least a few them could be strong given the intense low-level shear in the region.  Stay tuned for more updates as this severe weather event unfolds.

Posted At: January 9, 2008 @ 11:13 PM

Posted By: Reed Timmer

Here are some damage photos and radar image from Tropical Cyclone Helen, which made landfall just southwest of Darwin, Australia on January 4-5, 2008, courtesy of Mike O'Neill of StormScapesDarwin.com
Helen made landfall as a category 2 tropical cyclone near the town of Port Keats between 11:00 pm and 1:00 am, and caused minor structural damage and downed massive trees in Darwin.  Thanks to Mike for sharing these with us...check out his website for a more detailed report about Tropical Cyclone Helen.

Posted At: January 8, 2008 @ 8:27 PM

Posted By: Reed Timmer

While not nearly as intense as yesterday, 8 tornado reports have still been received by the SPC as of 9:00 pm EST today (Tuesday).  Sadly, a tornado caused 1 fatality in Pope County of northeastern AR as a textbook supercell rolled through that region earlier today.  While the instability today in eastern AR/western TN was on par with yesterday in MO, the low-level shear was not as strong and not as optimally aligned with the storm motion, thus fewer and less violent tornadoes were the story. 

Posted At: January 8, 2008 @ 1:25 AM

Posted By: Reed Timmer

At least 35 tornadoes have been reported yesterday from Southwest Missouri to as far north Southeast Wisconsin as several long-track tornadic supercells moved rapidly northeastward at 50+ mph across the region.  Most of these tornado reports were associated with two supercells:  one that developed in northern IL and moved across extreme Southeast WI, and a second that traversed Southwest MO along the I-44 corridor.  Sadly,  two fatalities have been reported in Greene County, MO near the town of Stafford, where several homes were destroyed.


The radar loop of the Southwest MO supercells from 2300 to 0030 UTC is shown below, along with a picture of the tornado from Kevin Sligar, a resident of Monett, MO, who shot this picture with his cell phone.  Several storm chasers were also tracking this damaging tornado, including Lanny Dean and Brandon Lawson.  This was definitely an unusual day for early January, with upper 50 dewpoints surging as far north as Lower Michigan.  I ended up chasing a tornado-warned cell in Muskegon County, Michigan with snow banks remaining in spots from a series of winter storms over the Holidays.  2008 will definitely be an active here if January 7 is any sign of things to come.  Stay tuned for more information regarding yesterday's historic tornado event.

Posted At: January 7, 2008 @ 5:00 PM

Posted By: Reed Timmer

At least 8 tornadoes have been reported already today across central MO, northern IL, and southern WI, with one particularly damaging tornado in extreme southeast WI near the town of Racine, WI around 2230 UTC.  Two simultaneous tornadoes were reported 3 miles northwest of Kenosha, WI right along the western Lake Michigan Shoreline!  Other very impressive tornadic supercells were ongoing in northeast MO and southwest MO as of 2330 UTC, with the latter storm looking absolutely incredible on reflectivity and velocity.  Damaging tornadoes are likely with any of these storms as they track rapidly northeastward at over 50 mph.  Radar loops showing both of these storms are shown below:

Posted At: January 7, 2008 @ 3:20 PM

Posted By: Reed Timmer

Numerous tornado warnings have been issued for supercell thunderstorms in central MO and also for cells moving out of northeast MO into western IL.  A large unstable and uncapped airmass currently exists from Oklahoma to northern Illinois, with 0-1 km helicity values greater than 200.  Tornadoes will be likely with any of these storms if they can remain discrete for even a short period of time.  The SPC has issued two tornado watches already this afternoon for MO and IL:

Posted At: January 6, 2008 @ 11:14 PM

Posted By: Reed Timmer

There is some potential for severe weather and even isolated tornadoes tomorrow evening and overnight across Missouri, extreme eastern Oklahoma, and Arkansas as the massive trough responsible for the recent California blizzard advances slowly eastward across the western U.S..  An interesting cold front currently stretches from northern Illinois southwestward to central Kansas (front can be seen in 24-hr WRF forecast below), which also marks the southeastern boundary of the snow-pack.  This cold front was initiated entirely by a strong mesoscale anticyclone prevailing over the large snowpack of the Central and Northern Plains.  Meanwhile, unseasonably high dewpoints have been advecting northward with the low-level jet into the Southern Plains and Ozark Mountains, with near 60 dewpoints expected by tomorrow evening as far north as Illinois!  Check out the selected WRF forecast panels below for 00z tomorrow: 

The cold front mentioned above will intersect with a dryline in northeastern OK, which will advance eastward to the Arkansas Border after 00z.  CAPEs of 1000-1500 will exist across eastern OK by 00z tomorrow, with 750-1000 J/kg further north across Southeast KS and MO, with zero CIN across all of these areas.  The WRF and GFS models are forecasting convective initiation across Illinois and Missouri tomorrow afternoon (with much of this convection being elevated above a shallow stable layer from a stratus deck), and along the dryline in extreme Eastern Oklahoma after 00z.  Given 0-1 km helicity values of 150-200+ in the entire warm sector, any surface-based, discrete storms will have the potential to produce tornadoes. 


An interesting heavy rain and snow event was also unfolding across Southern California Sunday, with snowfall rates of 2+ inches per hour reported at elevations greater than 5000 feet in the Coastal Range.  Moderate snow was reported at two locations in Southern California shortly after 05z with temperature in the upper 20s to around 30.  The SPC issued a mesoscale discussion for this localized heavy snow event (see below).

Posted At: January 5, 2008 @ 4:13 PM

Posted By: Reed Timmer

Above is a video update of the blizzard in Mt. Shasta, CA from earlier today.  Dean has reported over 2 feet of snow in the city of Mt. Shasta, with over a foot of new snow since last night from the convective precipitation that has been moving through with the very cold air aloft.  Under the most intense convective cells, over 2-3 inch per hour snowfall rates have occurred at Dean's location, with even higher rates further south along the Sierra, where several cloud-to-ground lightning strokes have occurred! 

While the snow yesterday and before was due primarily to warm advection at low-levels ahead of the cold front and positive vorticity (spin) advection at upper levels ahead of the main vort max currently moving onshore in British Columbia, the snow today is due to almost entirely to cold advection at upper levels -- which is resulting in the development of intense convective cells.  There are two primary mechanisms that contribute to the development of convective instability: warm advection at low-levels and cold advection at upper levels...For deep convection, the latter is vital!  The RUC analysis below from around 2100 UTC shows that temperatures at 500 mb over northern California are colder than -30 deg C!  This cold air aloft is generating major convective instability over CA, especially over the relatively warm Pacific Ocean -- and these convective elements drop extremely heavy snow as they move over the mountainous terrain.  This process is very similar to the lake effect process over the Great Lakes, etc, but on a much larger spatial scale of course.

Below is a mesoscale discussion from the SPC from earlier this afternoon.

Posted At: January 4, 2008 @ 6:38 PM

Posted By: Reed Timmer

Here is the second video Dean uploaded from last night and early this morning in Mt. Shasta City, CA when a very heavy snow band was moving in.  The rain/snow line was a little higher than forecast today, resulting in rain/snow mix as the predominate precipitation type, so accumulations in Mt. Shasta were limited to 6-8 inches.  However, 1-3 feet are still possible at Dean's location as the vorticity maximum moves over head and snow levels lower substantially.  Thundersnow is a definite possibility as the cold air aloft moves overhead. 

Further south in the central Sierra Nevada Mountains, very heavy snow has been falling all day today, with wind gusts of over 100 mph reported at several locations.  As much as 10 feet of snow is even possible at the higher elevations before the storm is over!  The snow drifts resulting from these conditions would be incredible.  Stay tuned for more updates!

Posted At: January 4, 2008 @ 10:25 AM

Posted By: Reed Timmer

Above is the latest video update from Dean in Mt. Shasta City, CA from last night just after the first wave of precipitation.  He's currently in the process of taping another video update, as the precipitation with the main show is now moving in with two inches of slushy snow in the last hour.  Right now, northern CA is receiving intense warm advection precip ahead of the cold front, which has resulted in a temporary increase in the snow levels over the mountains.  Thus, the precip at Mt. Shasta has more recently changed over to a rain/snow mix.  This will change as the cold front moves through, and conditions will be INSANE at Dean's location.  Shown below is the radar loop from around 8-9:00 am PST as the heavy precip shield was moving in to Mt. Shasta.


Below is a link for the live webcam on top of Mt. Shasta, along with the current temperature and meteogram.  Based on the meteogram, temperatures have been remaining nearly steady if not falling slightly through the overnight hours into this morning, but a sharp decrease in temperature is expected as the cold front nears.  Stay tuned for more video updates from Dean in Mt. Shasta!

http://www.snowcrest.net/camera/

Posted At: January 3, 2008 @ 11:29 AM

Posted By: Reed Timmer

An historic blizzard will pummel parts of the Sierra Nevada and Coastal Mountain Ranges of central and northern California and Oregon over the next few days, with 3-6 FEET of snow expected and 100 mph wind gusts!  The massive trough responsible for this storm can be seen in the water vapor loop below from Thursday afternoon, with an initial jet streak already producing heavy snow over the mountains of northern California and southern Oregon. 



The blizzard warning statement for Dean's location from the NWS office in Medford, Oregon is shown below.  He should be arriving at his hotel tonight, and is currently driving from Coos Bay, OR to Mt. Shasta.  This same storm system will be moving slowly eastward across the Rockies over the next few days, and could produce a tornado outbreak Monday through Tuesday of next week as mentioned in the previous blog post.  This will be a record-setting storm, so things will definitely be exciting on the blog!

Posted At: January 2, 2008 @ 2:43 PM

Posted By: Reed Timmer

An incredible southwest U.S. trough will develop by Sunday into Monday next week, pumping spring-time moisture northward across the Plains and Mississippi River Valley and providing the ingredients for a record-breaking severe weather outbreak if this morning's long-range models verify.  Selected GFS forecast panels for Monday (left) and Tuesday (right) are shown below:


As seen below, a 50-80 knot low-level jet will develop in response to low-level cyclogenesis to the east of the massive trough.  In addition to pumping unseasonable moisture northward from the Gulf of Mexico, this LLJ will also provide incredible low-level wind shear in the warm sector with more than sufficient values for tornadoes if this morning's model runs verify! 


The GFS forecast dewpoints for Monday (left) and Tuesday (right) are hard to believe for this time of year, with 60 dewpoints as far north as eastern OK on Monday, and the Missouri Bootheel by Tuesday!!  Given the cold temperatures aloft with this winter-time system, the CAPE values associated with this kind of moisture would be insane!  Even though the GFS has shown considerable run-to-run consistency, it's still difficult to jump on the bandwagon and believe in these model forecasts...but if this verifies, we could be looking at the apocalypse...and I'll definitely be heading south to chase this one.


In closing, here is a picture of the incredible snowfall that has occurred just south of Bangor, Maine, with over 2 feet falling over the last few days, and over 3 feet on the ground!  Also included below is a video from same snowstorm further north near Montreal Quebec over New Years.  The picture is courtesy of Marc Farrar and the video is courtesy of Caro.  Enjoy!!

Posted At: January 1, 2008 @ 3:11 PM

Posted By: Reed Timmer

Nearly the entire northeastern U.S. is getting pounded by winter storm conditions this New Years Day, with very heavy lake effect and lake enhanced snow falling to the lee of the Great Lakes, and intense synoptic scale snow over New England with a strengthening coastal low.   Heavy snow showers are also falling across the higher terrain of the Appalachians from North Carolina north to Maryland with the help of orographic lift and lobes of vorticity rotating around the parent cyclone.  The regional radar composite from earlier this afternoon shows the multiple facets of this system:


As seen below, winter storm warnings and snow advisories are in effect for greater than 50% of the counties in the Northeast U.S., with 4-12+ inches expected in the warning areas, and 2-6 inches of accumulation expected in the advisory areas.  The favored snowbelt locations for NW and NNW-ly flow will be hardest hit this evening through early tomorrow in northern WI, western MI, northwest IN, northeast OH, northwest PA, and western NY, different from last week's W-SW-ly flow lake effect event.  Very interesting day for the winter weather enthusiast to say the least!


The compact, yet intense low pressure system dropped record-setting snowfall over southern and eastern Michigan last night, with 12-16 inches falling across an area from Jackson to just north of Detroit.  4 inch per hour snowfall rates with thundersnow were reported last night near the I-69/I-96 intersection, with 2 inch per hour rates over a 6 hour period!  We missed out on this snow here in the west part of the state, with only 2-4 inches of total accumulation.

MICHIGAN:
Dryden - 16.0"
Capac - 16.0"
Clarkston - 15.5"
Milford - 12.0"
White Lake - 13.2"
Jackson - 11.5"
Tekonsha - 10.0"

The long-range models are hinting at a spring-like storm system moving into the Southern Plains 6-7 days from now.  January tornadoes???