On a Saturday even. This is why, it is even worse than the one yesterday:
Here’s the Press Release:
Contact: Keli Pirtle, NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
405-325-6933 (office) / 405-203-4839 (cell) April 13, 2012
Chris Vaccaro, NOAA’s National Weather Service
202-536-8911
Media Advisory: NOAA’s National Weather Service to discuss central U.S. severe weather
Tornadoes and large hail will be among the severe weather threats in the central and southern Plains on Saturday. Experts with NOAA’s National Weather Service will provide a briefing to explain what’s expected and what’s causing the latest round of potentially destructive weather.
What: Media briefing on severe weather expected in the central U.S
When: Saturday, April 14; 1 p.m. CT / 2 p.m. ET
Who: Bill Bunting, chief of operations, NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center
Experts also available:
Tom Bradshaw, meteorologist, National Weather Service – Southern Region
Mike Hudson, meteorologist, National Weather Service – Central Region
[media passcode redacted for this blog post]
Severe weather online resources:
Latest severe weather watches and outlooks from NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla.: http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/
Latest warnings and forecasts issued by local National Weather Service forecast offices: www.weather.gov
Preparedness tips from FEMA’s Ready.gov:
http://www.ready.gov/natural-disasters
# # #
Mike Smith of Wichita based WeatherData writes:
Yes, this is a big deal. I’ll be chasing today. You can follow at @usweatherexpert. (Twitter)
Unlike Alabama and Mississippi, These folks in the purple danger zone are accustomed to tornado threats. I think(hope) those on OK, MO, KAN, SD have a shelter and a plan.
Time to hunker in the bunker. Good Luck Mid-West.
What, no love for the people in Nebraska like me, Rob? 😀
Stay safe out there!
They are getting super desperate new name for global warming
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120413145303.htm “Environmental Change” hahahah soon it will be ” Any Change”
Here we go again retain for osterity NH is rising again but NORSEX and CT just dont want to show it
http://arctic-roos.org/observations/satellite-data/sea-ice/ice-area-and-extent-in-arctic
Cryosphere todat etc..
see DMI ice for truth the only ones that are always up to date.
http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/icecover.uk.php
This is pattern that goes back at least 6 years since we have been monitoring it ANY return to normal in NH ice is unacceptable tp the team
NOTE NORSEX ice now delayed weeks?
CT same
I’m a bit niffed because of a bit of rain & 2 minutes’ of 1/4″ hail!
Hunker in the Bunker is right.
We had a pretty good hail squall here in north San Diego County last night. Elevation 1750′. Loud!
Here’s hoping you flatlanders make it through okay.
Sorry Doc, I love Nebraskans too. Just hit “post” too soon. Stay safe.
Perhaps it would be worthwhile to have a discussion tomorrow of what will (and did) happen versus what is being “predicted” via this post.
Besides a post analysis…
1.) What is “Science” versus “Emotion and/or “hype”?
2.) Doesn’t the issue w/r/t point 1 above apply to Weather as well as Climate Change?
3.) Maybe we make Weather too complex?
Will we ever learn or relearn from events like this.
Bill
(Atmospheric Scientist)
In north central Oklahoma we had a 3″ rain and went to the cellar at 3am with a tornado warning . I’ll need a nap this afternoon so I can stay up tonight.
Best of luck to those in the path of the storms !
Take cover.
Now, I know they wouldn’t adjust their initial count “UP” to ensure a quicker apparent demise of these sweet, innocent harmless little creatures as temperatures go up. Why, in a few years and with a minor temp adjustments from Jimmy, they might be able to get Lisa Jackson to find them endangered with the poleybear. And all you mean evil deniers out there. (oops, that’s me)
This is what happens to normal people like me when I read so much apparent bs. I’ve become cynical and have no trust in my government scientists and that ‘is’ a major loss.
Affizzyfist says:
April 14, 2012 at 7:56 am
They are getting super desperate new name for global warming
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120413145303.htm “Environmental Change” hahahah soon it will be ” Any Change”
———-
see above.
Here in OKC it’s a normal Saturday morning for us, except for the Go-Bags, the First Aid kit and the cleaned out closets. Not to mention the leather jackets and motorcycle helmets by the door of said closets. 🙂
Oh, and the toolkit and extra water. It’s fun living in Oklahoma in the Spring! 🙂
Cheers, All!
bobmark says:
April 14, 2012 at 9:05 am
In north central Oklahoma we had a 3″ rain and went to the cellar at 3am with a tornado warning . I’ll need a nap this afternoon so I can stay up tonight.
_________________
I feel your pain… storm had already moved at least 15 miles to the North, but the tornado alarm guy just couldn’t help himself, so woke up the whole town at 2:30
I just want CRU to extrapolate that out to the year 2100. I want to know if I should ‘hunker in the bunker’ (H/T to Rob Roy) in 2099, and on which days/weeks/months.
Not an endorsement, but, for those desiring a current discussion of this wx event these guys are heavy into the technical analysis of the atmosphere et al:
http://www.americanwx.com/bb/index.php/topic/33902-april-14th-2012-plains-high-risk/page__st__175
Nota Bene: May have to click on the follow-on pages as the day progresses to see the current discussion.
Jim
Have they subscribed to Piers Corbyn “Weatheraction”?:-)
Well, I’m keeping an eye out….. but I am somewhat comforted by the fact that it’s NOAA issuing the warnings…… they’re not very competent. Still, ’tis the season. The little squall from last night was just that. We’ll see how it plays out.
That Mike Smith can chase the damn things if he wants, but I’ve had enough up-close and personal encounters with them to last me a lifetime. I don’t scare easily, but when one of those bastards comes to call, its terrifying. They’re awe inspiring when watching from a distance, its surreal as one comes closer. Its a religious experience when one of them get too close.
In the mean time, there’s another storm brewing across the pond…… http://suyts.wordpress.com/2012/04/14/theres-a-storm-brewing-and-it-isnt-just-these-tornadoes/
What if you forecast a disaster and nature doesn’t comply?
@RobRoy, The folks in Alabama are very much accustomed to Tornadoes and severe weather, just as much as those that live in tornado alley. I hope that everyone stays safe today, but to say that the Alabama outbreak was due to not be accustomed or to not knowing what to do or what was going on is just plain wrong, they had information out many DAYS in advance, just like the outbreak that is expected for today, neither of these events should be a surprise.
If you want the raw data here are the csv files used to construct the new four cycle maps soon to be plotted onto my site;
CSV files for the composite map data from February through July 2012;
http://www.aerology.com/Feb2012-Jul31.rar
The software is still being tweeked at this time will release when done and site on line.
David Fischer, I’m a Floridian. So I speak from what I see on the news. With the tornadoes this past winter, In Alabama,There were people inside their homes, not cellars.This gave me the impression of them not being accustomed (being prepared). I certainly don’t “know’. I just think. You are correct sir . I was generalizing. But I still think, generally, the people in tornado alley are better prepared.,
Hit the Snooze button.
Like, Rotational Climate Change events are something new for those of us living in the Whirlwind Global Warming Alley, and have experienced being hit (technically grazed) by an Al Gore Spinner. 😉
Snore…
Sitting in my den, waiting for one of my entertainment programs to finish updating, watching the trees sway in the wind while the sky get progressively darker and wondering at what point will these “scientists” realize that using such charged words can be far more detrimental. To heck with it, I’ll worry about it if the sirens go off since there isn’t a whole lot I can do about the situation except react. It’s not like we caused this or anything…. Well, according to those who aren’t apart of the new religion.
pkatt says:
April 14, 2012 at 10:54 am
What if you forecast a disaster and nature doesn’t comply?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You get skeptical blogs and websites such as WUWT! 🙂
But, in the micro…. wind is kicking up a bit here. But, so far the nastiness has missed me…..
From the AP:
NEW WARNING LANGUAGE: The weather service is now testing words such as “mass devastation,” “unsurvivable” and “catastrophic” aimed at getting more people to take heed. The warnings are being experimented with in Kansas and Missouri. The “life-threatening” warning for this round of storms, despite the dire language, was not part of that effort but just the most accurate way to describe what was expected, a weather service spokeswoman said.
________________________________________________________
Looks like the CAGW folks have worn out the language of doom, a little like the boy who cried wolf. Now they are “testing” words on us, like “mass devastation,” “unsurvivable” and “catastrophic”. Soon we will be hearing about “meteorological holocaust”! And all this from a government funded computer model!
We in the mid-west do take our weather seriously, but it is hard to see how this kind of scare language will help. I still get my best information from watching real time satellite coverage on the Internet, and watching the sky and the wind out my window.
very sweet interactive map with links to weather chasers and much more. WELL worth a look, thx to Aceofspades and one of his commenters.
http://www.news9.com/category/118562/weather-radar-page?nav=menu681_3_2&redirected=true
and a bit.ly link of the same if the full link gets broken: http://bit.ly/HGLthn
James Sexton says:
April 14, 2012 at 10:23 am
Well, I’m keeping an eye out….. but I am somewhat comforted by the fact that it’s NOAA issuing the warnings…… they’re not very competent. Still, ’tis the season. The little squall from last night was just that. We’ll see how it plays out.
That Mike Smith can chase the damn things if he wants, but I’ve had enough up-close and personal encounters with them to last me a lifetime. I don’t scare easily, but when one of those bastards comes to call, its terrifying. They’re awe inspiring when watching from a distance, its surreal as one comes closer. Its a religious experience when one of them get too close.
_______________________
Well done, Sir.
That just about covers it.
So now it starts. two tornado warnings in the NW part of the state. It’s building a line back into Texas, which, if history is any guide, means that they will be here in about two or three hours. Yak. Sky is grey and it’s very windy.
Snowing hard here in South Colorado. Is it April 14th?
I keep a lawn recliner chair in the basement so I can catch some sleep if the sirens blow in the middle of the night. OH looks clear for tonight (just rain), but maybe later in the week…
Snow in southern CO on April 14th is about as normal as 89F and partly cloudy in Miami at 12pm on a Monday in June. In other word’s Alexander Feht, snow in southern CO on April 14th is perfectly normal, average, statistically expected or whatever you want to call it.
I am keepin my eye on this closely. Looks like quite a few warnings west of Salina that will be headed my way here in Omaha later. I have a feeling there will be flash flood problems today since there was a decent puddle of standing water on the interstate when I was on my way in to work earlier. The local weather guy, Jim Flowers, was warning about the possibilities of an EF-3 to 5 tonight after 7, though this is the same guy that didn’t think my neighborhood in Millard was hit by a tornado a few years back, so his recent track record with tornadoes is less than stellar in my opinion
“3.) Maybe we make Weather too complex?”
I remember a hot and humid July day in my early teens in northern Minnesota when the big fronts started tearing by overhead, every hour or so, with their gray-black rolling waves followed by leaden gray lowhangers and a near-constant rumbling and crashing , over and over. We checked the local radio station, and the weather guy just said “yep, well, we need the rain.”
Then, about five o’clock, our dwelling and our car and all of our huge pine trees blew away. Actually, “away” is probably the wrong word, since we barely got out of the dwelling (a large structure built on piers on the side of a hill, if you’re thinking “stay in the house!”), and into the car just in time to go WITH the dwelling and the car and the trees. From our vantage point, they didn’t go “away.” The land went “away.” Really, really fast, too. But, I suppose if anyone had been left on our property, all those things did technically go “away.”
So excuse me if I’ve spent the last several decades wishing weatherpeople would be a great deal more complex about the weather. “We need the rain” – sheesh.
(Here’s the Rule for people who have seen ten or more tornados up close and personal: When the sky switches from dark, dark gray to grayish green, fall in holes. But I’ve always wondered – what causes the green tint?)
All this messy weather… time for a new tag for CAGW…
global warming-no
climate change-no
climate disruption-no
ENVIRONMENT CONFUSION-yes
That should cover it.
As the earth heats up these extreme events will be common place. So common that tornado season will likely extend from January to December across the entire continent. The stage after that will be super cyclones that will vacuum the earth straight into orbit. These are all the natural and expected consequences of global warming.
Garbage in ….
Here in Ne., the 2nd wave has moved through and although it may not be over yet, this has been overhyped.
Here’s an idea for NOAA. Repurpose some TOW missiles by replacing the warhead with an explosively disbursed package of precision dimension pieces of metal foil. Whatfor? It’s easier to gauge wind speeds via radar when there are objects to track of a known size and mass. Pop a couple of TOW missiles with such a “package” into a tornado and get the most precise wind map ever obtained of one.
The load could also include a few “live” devices with pressure, temperature and humidity sensors. Another possibility, though more expensive, would be an all live load of devices forming a mesh network to transmit their readings. Combine that with radar tracking to get the position and velocity of the devices. That would take three doppler radars aimed at the same tornado at the same time for triangulation.
And of course the fun factor. Who wouldn’t want to fire missiles at a tornado? Something about all enemies, foreign and domestic? Would a tornado qualify as a domestic enemy?
Climate Change yes but Global Cooling. Without Dr. James Hansen (and co) ,cooling the past and warming the present we would have known the truth.
http://www.real-science.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Iceland.gif
http://www.real-science.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Brisbane.gif
http://www.real-science.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/LaPaz.gif
http://www.real-science.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/AliceSprings.gif
http://www.real-science.com/poor-science-at-nasa
Piers Corbyn has predicted a Tornado Swarm for the Mid West Lower Mid West on 22nd-24th April.
[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPNT0t1_bW0. ]
Looks like we dodged the bullet on this one. It has been cloudy all day and was foggy earlier in the day, so we didn’t get the heating that would have created some monsters. As it was, central Kansas got quite a few tornado warnings, and west of us, in central Nebraska, are getting tornado warnings. But here in the Omaha-Lincoln area it’s just heavy rain.
Seems strange not being in the middle of it today. The worst looks to be north of us here in Oklahoma City. And to RobRoy, many of shelters. Nearly all have plans. Fraidy holes are less common than one might expect, but common enough. Still, most know what to do. Staying alert and tuned in are key. Of course, we here in central Oklahoma still have several hours before we can relax. We do have 20-30 mph winds right now.
http://www.wunderground.com/radar/radblast.asp?ID=VNX
Looks like storm track O5 could be headed my way.
scroll down.
Now it’s track R5
http://www.wunderground.com/radar/radblast.asp?ID=VNX.
oh–ohh,
They’ve labeled it a mesocyclone.
http://www.wunderground.com/radar/radblast.asp?ID=VNX
Not good.
Already had the BBQ. Getting close to basement bar time.
Tom says:
April 14, 2012 at 2:35 pm
Snow in southern CO on April 14th is about as normal as 89F and partly cloudy in Miami at 12pm on a Monday in June. In other word’s Alexander Feht, snow in southern CO on April 14th is perfectly normal, average, statistically expected or whatever you want to call it.
Tom, whatever your real name is:
I live in South Colorado for more than 20 years, and this year was the first one in my memory, when snow cover was around on the ground, uninterrupted, from the end of October to the beginning of April. Yes, there were years when it was freezing cold or snowing even in May or June for a while, in the mountains. But it never was that consistently cold.
No, it is not “perfectly normal, average, statistically expected or whatever you want to call it.” In other words, next time you feel an itch to lecture someone, find another target.
Building fast–tornado vortex signature. 50 miles SW. Coming from 227 SW. Time to do some sky watching,
http://www.wunderground.com/radar/radblast.asp?ID=VNX
Allright, now we have track R-5 and O-5 both showing tornado vortex signature, both headed directly toward me. Folks, I spend a lot of time here in Wichita watching things like this.
http://www.wunderground.com/radar/radblast.asp?ID=VNX
bobby b said in part, April 14, 2012 at 2:41 pm:
>Here’s the Rule for people who have seen ten or more tornados up close and
>personal: When the sky switches from dark, dark gray to grayish green, fall in
>holes. But I’ve always wondered – what causes the green tint?
I have an idea: Tornadoes form most frequently from the updraft base of a
“classic supercell”. Sometimes, maybe often, the updraft base receives some
light from nearby sunlit ground, and little gets through the dense cloud from
above.
Important: The green sky coloration is not reliable, and does not occur in
every area that gets tornadoes. For example, if my hypothesis is correct,
the green color can fail to occur with high precipitation supercells, storms
other than supercells or where there is no greenish land in the area. It may
also fail to occur if a tornado gets sorrounded by rain in an aging
mesocyclone. The green coloration may not occur near or after sunset. If
time of day is unusual or the storm sturcture or wind pattern is unusual, the
green color may fail to occur. If the storm is surrounded by cloudy skies, the
green may not occur. A yellowish or brownish color may form instead of a
greenish color, depending on the color of the land. Yellowish and brownish
colors may form for other reasons, and do not necessarily mean supercell
updraft bases or other severe situations.
On the other hand, the updraft base of a classic supercell does not always
produce a tornado, even if it has a greenish tint. However, there is the risk
of large hail.
One more thing: Greenish cloud base is unlikely to be visible through a few
miles of sunlit air. Dark cloud bases viewed through sunlit air tend to appear
bluish, even if the land is green.
Right now, it quite, too quite…I expect quite a show this evening when the dry line pushes in about 2AM CDT. Hope my roof stays on….
Statistically speaking, everything is always “normal” about the weather if you take a long enough period of time and a wide enough area of observation. On the scale of hundreds of thousands of years, everything that happens to the weather these days (including the ubiquitous “climate change”) is trivial.
Locally and on the time-scale of one or two generations, however, cyclical changes of weather are distinct.
When we moved to South Colorado 21 years ago, winters here were cold and snowy. Our little town of Pagosa Springs even boasted a board on the side of the road, declaring it to be the place of “The most snow in Colorado.”
As years passed, the weather was becoming warmer and drier in our end of the woods. UV radiation also intensified. The peak of this “local climate change” was in the end of 1990s, especially in 1997-1998. Local government quietly removed the snow-boasting sign.
Since then, droughts abated, and winters were becoming gradually wetter and colder.
The last winter (2011-2012) was the first one in 20 years when the old pattern of 1970s returned; snow cover did not disappear for 5 months. And I am pretty sure it is going to be colder in the years to come, since climatology spongers cannot place a control in the heart of the Sun.
Tornado warning = Harper county. Still headed my way!
Headed to the basement. Got a “monster wedge” 1/2 mile big one coming. see ya.
[Moderator’s Reply: Good Luck. -REP]
Big update from CNN. It looks like a hospital got hit in Iowa. Not good at all. Best wishes to all in the path.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/14/us/midwest-storms/?hpt=hp_t3
Like they way they count the “number” of tornadoes. Apparently the “same” tornado on a directional track is counted when down then not when up and then again when down. Interesting way to get the numbers up. Using this methodology we have now had 80 tornadoes in OK and 70 in Kansas (10:15 PM).
What they do is the real time count is the total of all reports received then as it gets sorted out the next day as the ground teams report back in is weed out the extras, connect the tracks that stayed on the ground and renumber the total it may take weeks in an two or three day long out break to get the data filtered and finalized.
They went to this method because the insurance claims are tied to the initial report for validation, so now all reports go onto the record and the final filtered data goes into the records, but the original reports are still available to the public for insurance purposes. In the past they had problems with long delays and multiple return phone calls from both claimants and ins carriers, so this is how they fixed the problem.
@ Richard Holle:
Ah. Adjusting the data. Haven’t we been there before? Often?
@ Richard Holle:
A little confused about insurance and the need to “confirm” tornado damage. Isn’t damage still damage regardless of wind, hail other. And why would this cause “delays”?
You can see the class of the wind directions here…
http://hint.fm/wind/index.html
@ Richard Holle: Aha. That explains the crazy business about “alleged tornados” and “suspected tornados” that has infested the news media in the last few years. I wondered if tornados had acquired defense attorneys, or some kind of National Association for the Advancement of Cyclonic Persons.
So it is a lawyer thing after all, but not quite the way I imagined!
Donald L. Klipstein says:
April 14, 2012 at 5:28 pm “Greenish Tint”
As an Okie, I’ve always understood that green skies preceded hail.
Missed my house by about 4 miles to the south. Fell asleep downstairs and just got up. Going to tour the damage shortly. The paper states only minor injuries with a potential heart attack. Wichita got lucky by this much.
Okie says:
April 14, 2012 at 8:25 pm
Like they way they count the “number” of tornadoes. Apparently the “same” tornado on a directional track is counted when down then not when up and then again when down. Interesting way to get the numbers up. Using this methodology we have now had 80 tornadoes in OK and 70 in Kansas (10:15 PM).
That’s probably because they are different tornadoes. It’s common for the mesocyclone that generated the tornado to become occluded as the parent storm cycles. The inflow to the meso gets cut off, the tornado ropes out, and a new meso forms, spawning a new tornado. You can see it in the damage track maps, where the tornado track looks like a dashed line. There’s no conspiracy here to somehow pad the numbers…when the damage track stops, the tornado is done.
I’m happy to say that our house fell into one of the gaps in the dotted line last night. We had reports of a larger multi-vortex heading our way, but it fell apart about a mile south of our place. It reformed about 10 miles to our NE and went through southern- and southeast-Wichita. I’ll find out tomorrow if I have a place to go to work.
Talk about irony. I spent the day chasing storms, only to return home and hide in the basement.
re post by: RobRoy says: April 14, 2012 at 11:22 am
I’m fairly sure that most homes in Alabama don’t have cellars or basements. Helps to know these sorts of things before using them as justification for various assumptions.
re post by: RobRoy says: April 14, 2012 at 11:22 am
I’m fairly sure that the majority of homes in Alabama don’t have cellars or basements. Helps to know these sorts of things before making such assumptions. I’d bet the majority of homes in Florida don’t have them either.
re post by: RobRoy says: April 14, 2012 at 11:22 am
I’m fairly sure that the majority of homes in Alabama don’t have cellars or basements. Helps to know these sorts of things before making such assumptions. I’d bet the majority of homes in Florida don’t have them either.
Gotta say also, I REALLY despise this logging in crap from wordpress. Lately I not only enter a comment only to have it go to the ‘login required’ page causing me to lose my comment, but then AFTER I log in, and try to post, frequently it takes me to the login page AGAIN, even tho I am already logged in. I’m also now getting the thing a few others have reported where the comment area size goes to about two lines, with no way to scroll or move down to double check what I’ve written.
Frankly, Anthony and mods, it may be time to start looking at other blog site options to move WUWT to and get off of wordpress. I’m commenting a lot less because of this crap, and I’d bet that’s true of a lot of others also. WordPress is eliminating much of what made them popular before, and becoming a real pain in the rear.
[Reply: WordPress has become a real problem lately. You can expand the comment box by hitting Enter, or by putting the cursor into the few lines you can see, then using the up/down arrows to open the comment box. ~dbs, mod.]
Just great /sarc
Apologies for the essentially duplicate posts – thank the
miraculous and oh-so-useful (/sarc)buggy, irritating, time-wasting, and sometimes comment eating wordpress login process.re: Moderator Reply
THANK YOU for the reply and suggestions. I’d already tried using cursor in the few lines visible then using arrow keys, and that didn’t work at all (firefox 9 & windows 7). Will try hitting enter to see if that works. YEP, that worked! just have to back out the added return from it, but at least then the comment box is re-expanded so I can see and edit the post.
Thanks again!
No tornadoes in Alabama, Hah, I’ve seen 3 tornadoes there, actually at the same time (those 3 were all “un-official”), the 4th was one I didn’t see, it was the F3 the roared through Marshal Space Flight Center, Redstone Arsenal and Huntsville on April 3, 1974, well i did see it on the TV weather radar giving about three steps warning. If it hadn’t taken a lucky skip going over Monte Sano, I likely would have been seriously injured or killed.
@ Rational Db8:
I quit trying to work with the comment box, too much to remember and too cranky. I type it all up in Windows WordPad, then copy and paste. Easy and I don’t lose it, plus I have an automatic copy if I want it.
@ JimBob:
“The inflow to the meso gets cut off, the tornado ropes out, and a new meso forms, spawning a new tornado. You can see it in the damage track maps, where the tornado track looks like a dashed line.”
Still, if it’s the same storm cell on the same straight track and the tornado just hops and skips, then to me it’s just a technicality that it’s a “new” tornado because that’s what a lot of tornadoes do. One of the cells in Oklahoma had around 40 dashes in it on the same straight track. I can see that if the tornado completely dies in the same cell, moves on, then reforms from the same cell and track, I could (kinda) see that as being a new tornado provided it didn’t overlay the old one.
Since the rules are never explained, I’m sure that the common belief is that when hearing that there are “100 tornadoes” that the things are flying around all over the place and not on just one or a few tracks from one or a few cells.
Regarding the 6 fatalities in Woodward due to middle-of-the-night tornadoes over the weekend — as I understand it, the first set of tornadoes happened while most of the residents were still awake. After the tornadoes went through (damaging siren transmitters while they passed), the next set of tornadoes came through after midnight. Many people did not hear the sirens the second time and were no longer watching the radar. One commentator said that the sirens are meant to notify people who are outdoors. If you are not outdoors, he said, you need to keep up with conditions using 2-3 methods (e.g., radio, TV, computer).
I believe another complication with that area is the difficulty in maintaining cell phone contact. Many of the storm chasers were unable to report in because of that.
I happened to spend a day in that part of the state last month, and while there, I was unable to maintain my cell phone’s charge, as well as contact with the system (my carrier is not AT&T). The lack of carrier did not surprise me, but the failure of my battery that day did surprise me. I had fully charged it overnight before leaving on my trip. It normally maintains its charge for 2-3 days. After I got back home, I had no further problems with my cell phone’s battery. FWIW, I wondered if the Ames magnetic anomaly in Major County had anything to do with it.