The Weather Thread

[FLAWDA-FELLA]

Some pretty rough storms over Central Florida today with a confirmed tornado near Tampa and many reports of high wind damage throughout the area.

[TampaMike]

All the rough weather was south, east, and north of me. lol

Still getting pounded with rain and isolated road flooding.

[QuantumX]

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drmon by Quantum2010, on Flickr

[Panteran]

Models are advertising some sort of big storm/front middle of next week. Looks to be the first 'real' severe weather outbreak for the country from the Great Plains (Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas) aka tornado alley, into the deep south. Yet another soaker!

[QuantumX]

It's supposed to start Monday according to the Weather Channel.

http://www.weather.com/outlook/video...cast-362#20215

[QuantumX]

Originally Posted by QuantumX

It's supposed to start Monday according to the Weather Channel.

http://www.weather.com/outlook/video...cast-362#20215

Whoa! Check this out! It has begun!

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us_se_9regradar_plus_usen by Quantum2010, on Flickr

[QuantumX]

I lived in Jacksonville until I was 18 years old, but never knew we could have tornadoes there.

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us_se_9regradar_plus_usen by Quantum2010, on Flickr

[QuantumX]

Originally Posted by QuantumX

image hosted on flickr
drmon by Quantum2010, on Flickr

image hosted on flickr

drmon by Quantum2010, on Flickr

[Panteran]

Looks like the southern plains is now taking the brunt of the drought and heat. Certainly won't help grain and wheat prices, given how high they already with the state of oil.

[simms3]

Originally Posted by QuantumX

I lived in Jacksonville until I was 18 years old, but never knew we could have tornadoes there.

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us_se_9regradar_plus_usen by Quantum2010, on Flickr

Atlanta got walloped by the storm. Came in around 11:30 p.m. in Midtown, and I was following the storm as I love the excitement (and they are usually way overblown 99% of the time). I'm pretty sure the Weather Channel, which is based in Atlanta in Vinings to the NW, went down because the radar showed the storm still far to the west at ~11:15. I was trying to catch up on Celebrity Apprentice in my living room, 15 floors up in North Midtown facing W/SW (corner unit) when all of a sudden my ears popped, there was a great noise, and literally a wall of white water and wind hit my building. It took me by surprise. It was literally "breezy" all day with nothing too out of the ordinary to basically microburst/tornado conditions in about 5 seconds. My windows were vibrating and shaking heavily and I saw transformers down on 14th St by the storage place exploding, shortly afterward the Atlanta skyline went from lit up to dark (VERY eerie and something I have not seen in all my 5 years in Atlanta). I heard and saw more transformers blow and then I heard hail, which appeared to be ~1 inch wide. There was lightning every couple of seconds and the wind was just out of this world. I thought the massive new light poles recently installed on the connector would come crashing down they were swaying so heavily.

Anyway, greater Atlanta and a few outlying counties saw over $50 million of insured damage, a few tornadoes/spinups, and 7 people killed. 200,000 Georgia Power customers lost power and quite a few are still without power. I saw trees and power lines down everywhere from Midtown/Piedmont Park to ALL OVER ANSLEY PARK (which is why I suspect there may have been a funnel cloud or extra microburst tracking from N Midtown through Ansley and Morningside Heights, where I saw at least one billboard ripped up, possibly over to Decatur/Emory where there was apparently a lot of damage). Two people at my work had trees crush their houses and they haven't been in the office since.

Quantum, Central and North Florida actually receive lots of tornadoes. In 1996 or 1997 a decently long track tornado hit my house in Ortega and made it all the way to Riverside/downtown. My dad worked at Haskell at the time and it took the aluminum panels on the roof. It also downed most of the trees in Memorial Park, which is why there aren't very many there today. It destroyed a gas station, took down 4 large oak trees in my yard and shingles off the neighbor's roof. My mom is from Chicago and survived a big tornado there way back when that killed around 50 people, and she carried my sister and me to the hall faster than a bolt of lightning. She was pretty concerned, which I'll never forget.

Also, I have seen at least 2 sizable water spouts in the St. Johns River, been hit by one on the Ortega River (it came ashore at one of the marinas where I was stuck in a building that nearly gave out and it took off the giant steel door to the dry storage), and my parents got hit by a water spout in a sizable boat (30 ft Grady White) coming back at night from a Jaguars game, it "threw" the boat into a nearby dock and injured my dad. Also, there was a heavily videotaped EF2 tornado just north of downtown when TS Bonnie came through. It destroyed several homes and businesses.

Just S of Orlando several *large* F3 tornadoes hit Kissimmee in 1998, killing almost 50 people, and just a few years ago there was a large tornado/supercell outbreak all throughout N Central/Northern Florida from Lake County, where ~40 people were killed in F3 tornadoes, over to Daytona Beach and up to Lake City, where a few more people were killed in tornadoes.

Here is a weather.com blog by Dr. Greg Forbes about a particularly large Jacksonville waterspout. This one I remember seeing from a bridge heading into Ortega. It was near the Florida Yacht Club. A more recent waterspout that made landfall in Riverside near St. Vincent's hospital received a TON of press and has probably 30 videos up on Youtube. I wasn't in Jax for that one.
http://www.weather.com/blog/weather/8_19758.html

Here is a whole page devoted to the 1997 Jacksonville event with a few pictures of tree and structural damage. Apparently straight line wind speed was officially clocked at NAS at 106 mph and a tornado was physically spotted in Riverside.
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jax/?n=jacksonville_downburst

This FTU story really details the storm. A tornado is mentioned frequently with reports of it picking up a motorcyclist and flinging him 25 ft on I-10 and picking up and moving entire P-3 Orions at NAS Jax. Highway billboards were blown half a block into liquid propane tanks, causing a rupture and the evacuation of 6 city blocks, etc etc. One building scheduled to be demolished was destroyed by the storm anyway. 60 residential homes were damaged heavily or destroyed. Interesting read. I'll really never forget that storm...literally like a freight train (and to think that it was really nothing compared to the monsters that obliterate towns in the Midwest and Southeast).

Florida Times Union: City Gets a Taste of Terror
Florida Times Union: Storm's Fury Evident As Cleanup Starts
Florida Times Union: Storm Cleanup Keeps Businesses Swamped

This article also about the 1997 storm mentions "the tornado that ripped through parts of the Westside, Riverside, and Avondale in February of 1996", so maybe that's the tornado that I remember. Either way, Jacksonville has had its share of severe weather and tornadoes.

Florida Times Union: Destructive Duval Storm Also Had Silver Lining

A story a month later about debris still being scattered about and not picked up.

Florida Times Union: Debris Still Decorates Lawns A Month Later

February 1996 tornado...this could have been the one I remember most as Ortega is on the west side of the river (although Ortega clearly got hit hard by both storms).

Highbeam:Tornado Hits City Tears Off Roofs and Knocks Out Power

An F2 tornado a half mile wide just a few miles from downtown Jacksonville:

News4Jax: Bonnie-Spawned Tornado Rips Through Northwest Jacksonville
Blown Up Picture Of Jacksonvill F2 Tornado



And while the storm in Atlanta was definitely a bad one, I mean bad, similarly powerful storms crop up at least a few times each summer in Florida, without warning.

[QuantumX]

Originally Posted by simms3

Quantum, Central and North Florida actually receive lots of tornadoes.

Just S of Orlando several *large* F3 tornadoes hit Kissimmee in 1998, killing almost 50 people, and just a few years ago there was a large tornado/supercell outbreak all throughout N Central/Northern Florida from Lake County, where ~40 people were killed in F3 tornadoes, over to Daytona Beach and up to Lake City, where a few more people were killed in tornadoes.

Either way, Jacksonville has had its share of severe weather and tornadoes.

And while the storm in Atlanta was definitely a bad one, I mean bad, similarly powerful storms crop up at least a few times each summer in Florida, without warning.

Of course, this I know now, but was just never exposed to it as a kid. Then, I thought it was just a central plains type of thing like in the Wizard of Oz. Actually, as far as statistics are concerned, Oklahoma gets the most violent tornados, Texas gets the most overall because of it size, but then Florida, of all places, gets the most per square mile. They are just not as damaging as many of those in Texas, Kansas, and Oklahoma, so they don't get the hype.

[FLAWDA-FELLA]

Gonna be a hot one this weekend for much of South with a few ninety degree temps in a number of places!!

[Panteran]

Originally Posted by QuantumX

Of course, this I know now, but was just never exposed to it as a kid. Then, I thought it was just a central plains type of thing like in the Wizard of Oz. Actually, as far as statistics are concerned, Oklahoma gets the most violent tornados, Texas gets the most overall because of it size, but then Florida, of all places, gets the most per square mile. They are just not as damaging as many of those in Texas, Kansas, and Oklahoma, so they don't get the hype.

I was a little surprised after reading some good information from you guys here about it, and behold, Florida does get numerous tornadoes! It seems the 'big' Ef4's and 5's tend to be in the plains (OK, TX, KS) but other places in the south can claim as well. Northern/central Alabama is also home to one of the highest concentrations of EF5s on average. The deadliest area where most people die is the Ohio valley. A lot of the attention to the plains is because there is wide expanses easy to film for tv therefore they tend to get more media attention.

[QuantumX]

This coming Monday supposedly is going to be a repeat of last Monday. If only we could just get more rain out of the system than wind.

[QuantumX]

Originally Posted by QuantumX

This coming Monday supposedly is going to be a repeat of last Monday. If only we could just get more rain out of the system than wind.

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us_se_9regradar_plus_usen by Quantum2010, on Flickr

[desertpunk]

West Texas fires have now burned nearly 400,000 acres primarily around Ft. Davis (home of the famous observatory) and nearly engulfing the hipster art mecca Marfa Texas. But not to worry: soon the Texas state legislature will raise the maximum speed limit on I-10 through that region to 85 mph so you can just speed through the fires and devastation!

[QuantumX]

Originally Posted by QuantumX

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drmon by Quantum2010, on Flickr

image hosted on flickr

drmon by Quantum2010, on Flickr

[Panteran]

Wow some exceptional drought is appearing in Texas. Haven't seen those in a few years, they desperately need the rain. Classic tornado alley outbreak going on in Oklahoma and Kansas right now with the south coming up tomorrow, though probably not as extreme regarding tornadoes compared to places further west.

[QuantumX]

Originally Posted by Panteran

Wow some exceptional drought is appearing in Texas. Haven't seen those in a few years, they desperately need the rain. Classic tornado alley outbreak going on in Oklahoma and Kansas right now with the south coming up tomorrow, though probably not as extreme regarding tornadoes compared to places further west.

And here it is!

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us_se_9regradar_plus_usen by Quantum2010, on Flickr

[desertpunk]

Ugh, terrible tornados ripped through Arkansas. 7 dead so far...