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)
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.