It would be just my luck, that on the day of the biggest weather story in my area of the year, I’d be out of town. I was in Sacramento on an unexpected trip to find an important and now hard to get electronic part (thanks to it being made in Japan, and now scarce due to earthquake and Tsunami related supply chain issues) when all this happened, and the best I could muster was cell phone reports to my radio station while driving and taking time out to get radar images on my cell phone. KCRA-TV had their copter up, and here is some footage of what looks to be an F1 tornado in Butte County, CA near Durham, just south of Chico.
Of course compared to what was going in in the Midwest Mississippi and Ohio valleys today, this was minor. To add to the craziness, on my way back I got word my home security system had been tripped by an internal motion sensor alarm and police were at my home.
We think it was a malfunction, possibly lightning related, but can’t be sure what actually tripped the alarm.
Glad this day is over.
We have had a lightning strike set off our house alarm. It struck 2 meters from the master bathroom and set off the motion detector. Didn’t help the tree much. Good thing we were not home or using the loo. Probably the bright flash confused the sensor and it interpreted it as motion. It didn’t set off the glass break sensors, small children running through the house popping balloons can do that. A full moon shining down through a skylight and past a moving ceiling fan can also set off the motion alarm.
Anthony,
Is your little dog by chance named ‘Toto’ ?
Just checking……
(There’s no place like home… There’s no place like home…)
Scottish Sceptic says:
May 26, 2011 at 3:24 am
Policyguy says: May 26, 2011 at 1:35 am
“Please excuse me if I misinterpreted your sarc statement. I’m not sure what is relevant at this point.”
Scottish Skeptic,
I think the relatively new word ‘sarchasm’ applies here… };>)
def.: Sarchasm:
The abyss between the creator of witticisms and the intended recipient who does not find the humor in it.
Well, this is not so good. This implies the Four Corners High may not be very strong or long lived. Note especially the mention of continued abnormally cold packages of air coming into the SW US well into Jun:
=======================================================
MODELS CONTINUE TO BRING YET ANOTHER SYSTEM DOWN NEAR OUR CWA WITH THE SOUTHERN EXTENT OF PRECIP EXPECTED TO IMPACT NORTHERN CALIFORNIA MONDAY. SOLUTIONS DISAGREE WITH HOW FAR SOUTH THE LONGWAVE TROF WILL MAKE IT BEFORE IT BEGINS TO STALL OR SLIGHTLY RETROGRADE. WILL LET EVENING CREW TAKE A LOOK AT THE NEW SOLUTIONS AND MAKE CHANGES IF NEEDED. SIMILAR TO THE SYSTEM THIS WEEKEND… EVEN IF WE DO NOT RECEIVE ANY RAINFALL…TEMPERATURES WILL CONTINUE TO BE COLDER THAN NORMAL. CPC KEEPS US RUNNING BELOW NORMAL THROUGH
JUNE 9TH.
Could have been the secondary effect of the vibration from the ensuing thunderclap … the primary effect on the system having been the approximately 1 millisecond 10,000 Ampere (or so) electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) coupled into the wiring from just yards away.
It never ceases to amaze me the number of residential (and some business) alarm calls the poh-leece department is dispatched on when a T-storm rolls through town.
.
Noted, Steve. (Noted all your postings as a matter of fact. Tnx for the info, insight)
.
All of that extremely unstable air moving over the west, coupled with normal early summertime heating, no doubt helped contribute to this.
This type of cold air instability happens and is to be expected over the west coast….even though such a twister is an anomaly.
Poltergeist weather, no doubt.
La Nina and the cold PDO at work.
Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA
Thinking is this was a “land spout” (technically speaking; weak ‘nado in any case!)
A few videos and a RADAR capture below presented to support the point.
First, an example via the folks at stormtrack.org: “Nice landspout tornado…”
http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?25071-Nice-landspout-tornado…
And, from WGN Chicago “Dear Tom (Skilling), What is a “landspout”?”
http://weblogs.wgntv.com/chicago-weather/tom-skilling-blog/2009/04/what-is-a-landspout.html
Now, a few videos of the ‘spout near Durham and Chico California on the 25th:
Funnel cloud over Durham Dayton Hwy
Raw Video – Durham Tornado
**California Tornado (Radar – GREarth) **
Cities effected: Willows, Orland, Glenn, Hamilton City, Chico, Durham, Oroville, Paradise.
Counties effected: Glenn, Butte.
Damage: Damage to house, garage, trees, crops, vehicles.
Music: Modern Warfare 2 Soundtrack by Hans Zimmer.
Notice this particular T-storm cell dies out not too long after the TVS indication (on RADAR image) is indicated, kinda paralleling the scenario Tom Skilling painted in his descriptive answer above for a landspout.
.
We’ve got another cold front in here today. Weaker than the one on Wed. But pretty cold aloft. Track is still punching into the Great Basin.