tornado!!

They just let the sirens go. I'm not frightened, but I do not like the sirens.

Shit. Where are you? Tornadoes are one of the few things that scare hell out of me. Sirens suck too though.

are you at work ai lien? i posted this on the southern thread from a little while ago

http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/5917/tornadoesdz0.jpg

!!!

Downtown Little Rock. The sirens have stopped and we've been given the all clear -- for now. I've been told to expect this all day. I go home for lunch, so I may make a mad dash. I may not come back to work, though.

S.S., yeah, I'm @ work. Too, I'm the only one here, so I'm kinda making up policies that involve me staying at home for the rest of the day, so that if I have to go thru a storm, I will do so with my cat, the dog, oh, and Andrew.

That picture is SCARY.

Train vs. Tornado. Guess who wins!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azV5bC2br-Q

Oh my!

WOW

What a surreal piece of video.

I was in a tornado once.

I think there's a board rule that that's the kind of thing you can't post without followup details.

Specifically, I was in this one. I was on the computer and the lights when out. I walked into the kitchen and it really just looked like it was all mud in the air. My father came into the kitchen and suggested that we go sit in an interior closet, which we did. It ended up hitting our house and garage. Totally blowing the garage away and blowing the entire front wall out of the house. I suppose that it wasn't too bad, but the house did have to be rebuilt because of all the structural damage. Several cars were flipped over. Plus we found things that were in our house miles away for the next several weeks, pictures, articles of clothing, etc. Good times.

one of my coworkers grew up in oklahoma. he tells me some terrifying tornado stories like the time he crashed at a friends place and was woken by his friends mom screaming 'CMON GET UP NOW'. He looked out the window and saw a tree that had half the branches bent and blowing in one direction and the other half in the opposite direction. not cool.

Hate these fucking things

Power out, maybe for several days. No access to news but my parents said smithville, next town north of us,destroyed, many dead. Sirens all day

jesus dude, glad you and yours are alright

Yipes WmC, glad you're okay. Food and water situation for you alright?

Yeah we're set ok. TVA transmission station was in the town that got erased. Somehow these heroes are actually managing to get the power back on here and there in th county. It's back on at my parents house already.

And the local free wifi is actually being robust enough for me to check the news...wish I hadn't.

Lots of my Alabammy friends were in close proximity to tornadoes, but none of them were in their paths. Seen a lot of photos of damage, though, and it looks bad. Plus I was watching the Weather Channel when the HUGE tornado was just north of Birmingham. Shit was a mile or more wide!

Yeah I saw some pics on NYT, quite a mess :(

Biggest one I ever saw,yeah

To see what used to be smithville check nems360.com, the local papers website. Apologies for criminally bad site design.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcM4--k5c_w

This is what it looked like about a half hour or so before it got to Birmingham.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ohIVzIZLuQ

TVA is a hero for getting the power rerouted and back on at 2 a.m. here, considering the transfer station is in pieces all over NE MS.

All family and friends accounted for. My sister has a tree in her garage instead of a car.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y90DIU6tMPs&feature=player_embedded#at=49

so scary.

Federal government aid coming for Alabama(although their Republican governor will likely in a bit return to politics as usual and badmouth the federal government)

http://www.fema.gov/news/event.fema?id=14192

does ILM hate the south? i'm sure if 250 people died in NY there would be 2000 posts by now ...

This is what it looked like about a half hour or so before it got to Birmingham.

http://www.youtube.com/v/5ohIVzIZLuQ&fs=1&hl=en

― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, April 27, 2011 11:54 PM (Yesterday)

^what the fuck is wrong with this person??

does ILM hate the south?

lol dude you've been here how many years and you're asking this question?

geir got to everyone.

glad wmc is ok. this is terrible

i know i checked everybody on my facebook who lives nearby to make sure they were accounted for. i'm glad Wmc is okay. i've been following online. i dunno, maybe its disaster weariness. its definitely sad. don't know what else to say. i would never want to go through anything like that. obviously.

Um (feeling defensive), my post about the Republican governor in Alabama wasn't meant to suggest an indifference to the loss of life in the South, just addressing a different aspect of what happened.

I posted on the Chitlin Circuit soul thread a little while ago about the tornado that destroyed Malaco Records buildings in Jackson, Mississippi but thankfully resulted in no loss of life.

the person in the video johnny fever posted is literally insane

i dunno, maybe its disaster weariness.

could be -- I know I've got it!

The Krogers down the street from my sister-in-law in TN was destroyed but her place was okay.

damn!! i'm down in Tampa so i missed all of this. just talked to my dad in Batesville. no real damage over there, looks like it was mostly you guys on the NE side (and Alabama, obv). glad you're alright WmC.

Glad your Sis-in-law made it through the storms ok, Dan.

I had to get up and get busy with work at 5 this morning because I lost all of yesterday to weather crisis...now that I'm at a stopping point, I'm just now realizing how much worse Alabama got it than everybody else. Need to check on my niece and nephew in B'ham. I know they're uninjured, but I wonder about prop. damage.

thx Will, and thx everybody else who sent good vibes

I think last night was the first night in awhile where I didn't hear sirens blaring.

I haven't mentioned this publicly because maybe it's "too soon," but we had two fatalities north of us from a tornado on Monday.

They were in a mobile home, heard the tornado and sought shelter in the empty trailer of an 18-wheeler.

The tornado promptly picked it up and tossed it into a pond. No one's sure if they died from the fall or if they drowned.

Now, I know that mobile homes are pretty susceptible to tornadoes, but the empty trailer of an 18-wheeler. Ever followed one of those down the interstate and watched as it blew from one lane to another because of a sudden gust of wind? It's a traveling tent made of sheet metal.

So, I was trying to think of safer places to seek refuge from a tornado in besides the empty trailer of an 18-wheeler. Here's what I have so far:

1. Inside an inflatable children's "Moon Walk" castle.
2. Underneath a trampoline
3. Tethering yourself to a May Pole
4. Grabbing hold of a hang glider and hoping for the best.
5. A ditch! Even a fucking ditch!
6. A bicycle with a basket on the front.
7. The inside of a volcano.
8. Higher ground.
9. Lower ground.
10. The Superdome.

Any other suggestions?

11. the surface of Mercury
12. Marianas trench

13. inside of a refrigerator

Woah! (From TN)

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/229143_1650364907730_1495213667_1258930_8256131_n.jpg

jesus h, did the photographer survive that?

That's from Iowa, three years ago: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/06/mississippi_floodwaters_in_iow.html

lol that dumb fucker (someone linked it on facebook)

genuine not-guilty lols @ other places to hide from a tornado.

14) wrapping yourself w/ bubble wrap and hoping for best

It's horrible, but I can't stop imagining what that couple's last moments were like. "Well, here we are in the empty trailer of an 18-wheeler, should be safe now –– Wha?"

It must have been horrible. I imagine that when one of those things is bearing right down on you, out in the open, anything that looks like cover makes sense at the time.

I've been fortunate enough to be inside a building the two times I've been close to a tornado (my high school and a K-Mart). I honestly have no idea what I'd do if that weren't the case.

drainage ditch is the best place to be if you're caught outside iirc

15) Under a Darwin Award

In my part of Georgia, we had a long night and some crazy storms but no serious damage.

I was just talking with a friend who lives in a trailer. He and his wife had decided that in the worst case they would head outside and go to lower ground in the woods nearby. Not an attractive prospect, but more survivable than staying in the trailer.

it's like 2012 all over again.

16) in a black hole.

That is one motherfucker of a big tornado, that parking lot footage is just... wow.

would love to see one of these plough through those despicable cunts camping outside westminster abbey right now

it would just be a red blur with all the bunting and flags and stuff, would make great tv.

Author Ned Sublette writes:

Dreamland Barbeque survived the twister, though Full Moon Barbeque did not.

the person in the video johnny fever posted is literally insane

― omar little, Thursday, April 28, 2011 2:26 PM (Yesterday)

i didn't have the sound on but i assume he understood toward the end that he was about 100 feet away from dying

Yeah. This is one more place for making fun of the dying, though.

i wasn't making fun of him. dudes upthread lolling at that dead couple, that's a bad look

Smithville tornado was upgraded to EF-5 today.

oh man wmc glad you're ok

I was in nashville in 98 when the tornadoes came through, watched em tear up downtown... part of the reason I don't live in tn anymore...

I was agreeing with you, Kevin. Ditto "that's a bad look" (re dudes lolling upthread)

Tragedy is getting a paper cut. Comedy is climbing into the empty trailer of an 18-wheeler to escape a tornado.

It's right up there with the cop who shoots himself during a gun safety class or a church getting struck by lightening.

lightening up, yeah.

I'm not going to have NAGL status dictated to me by anyfuckinbody on this board. I will LOL occasionally when stupidity is fatal. :: shrug ::

Stupidity or desperation? Don't think they had many choices. bye bye.

bye bye, dow. Be careful around any open sewers.

heh i was out of town all week and didnt find out about this until yesterday... i was already thinking about 'nados tho cuz i watched Twister and Wizard of Oz on tv a few days back... wonder if that was like... thematic programming... or just a sick and crazy fuckin coincidence http://i.imgur.com/LwtAL.gif

I don't really care about people tsking at me but tsking at people who lived through these storms for engaging in gallows humor strikes me as being just NAGL as anything said on this thread.

bye bye.

― dow, Friday, April 29, 2011 4:30 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

bye bye, dow. Be careful around any open sewers.

― Pleasant Plains, Friday, April 29, 2011 4:42 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

???

glad everyone who's alright is alright

jesus that video. wtf! near the end you can hear him hyperventilating with fear

Something flies in front of his car, but why does that make that buzzing sound stop?

Anyway, nuts. Those things can change direction anytime, can't they?

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/assets_c/2011/05/ap-joplin-mo-tornado-damage-cropped-proto-custom_24.jpg

hard to imagine the amount of energy to do that. so frightening and sad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv3COQ6gv-8&feature=share

Was in St. Paul yesterday, in a maybe-200-seat concert hall, and the sirens went off during the break (there were tornadoes nearby)--we all just filed back in the hall and carried on, my dad didn't really believe I was getting accurate news from Twitter, and I'm just glad we didn't get hit.

The stationary front that's been sending these storms through the East Plains / MO / etc. the last few days has been staying a bit south of where I live, & I've been watching from afar, on hilltops, the massive storm structures blowing along, full of lightning. It's like I'm looking at Mordor. If this front moves north tomorrow then we'll be in the line of fire, but it looks ok for today.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/02/marysville-indiana-tornado-destroys-town_n_1317161.html?ref=green

"Tornadoes have left widespread damage in southern Indiana and a sheriff's official says at least one town of about 1,900 people is 'completely gone.'"

Had two storms go through town today under tornado warnings. I have such bad storm fatigue at this point...I don't bother going into the "safe room" anymore. Told wife and daughter a little while ago, "fuck it, if God wants me, he can have me. Hell with this storm shit."

Thats kind of spooky... when we had the huge bushfires down here around this time 3 years back, the one town that was "completely gone" was... Marysville.

GTFO

Some were above the tornado and had the rare opportunity to look down into the funnel.

holy shit @ this, that would be kinda awesome!

Still my favorite storm video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgwJfoZ-12c

oklahoma, good god

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/20/18375741-major-damage-as-huge-tornado-rips-through-neighborhoods-south-of-oklahoma-city?lite

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/05/20/185588779/tornado-emergency-declared-in-oklahoma-city

yeah been watching cnn this afternoon

there's at least one classroom worth of kids (75 kids) unaccounted for at plaza towers elementary, some were being pulled out while I was watching

and 100+ horses killed at stables out of town. they talked to a trainer who was living in one of the stables when the tornado hit. just devastating stuff

This timelapse of the tornado is chilling

good christ..

i have never been in or near one but goddamn they scare the shit out of me.

they're still trying to dig out the elementary school, according to the KFOR affiliate

I was in a tornado once.

― Jeff, Sunday, July 12, 2009 11:23 AM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

actually i guess i started this thread after that happened.

oklahoma wtf

oklahoma, good god

holy shit, this looks horrifying

1999 they had an hour between touchdown warning & it hitting.

Today: twelve minutes tops.

scary shit.

No words

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnniqzHHpM4&feature=youtu.be&noredirect=1

acc to someone on twitter that i can't find again, tv/radio was saying something like "if you are hearing this, you have no time"

I was working in a field 40 miles east of Moore when we heard on the radio a tornado had hit and we were finally told to leave work. Tera and I spent the next 20 minutes driving around Seminole trying to decide if we find a shelter with a basement or just leave and go back to Texas. We missed the storm, but after being in Edmond the previous day and missing a tornado by minutes and then another in Shawnee was on our tail, I'm glad I only have a month left here. I was just in Moore looking for records last weekend, I can't imagine what people are going through.

jesus. glad you guys are safe

I've never been in or near a tornado but after watching that footage, if I survived one and then someone told me tornadoes were really angry godlike giants striding across the fields, I'd be a good way to believing them.

that tornado did not look like any tornado I've seen (and I've seen two up close)

jesus fucking christ

those poor school kids. let's hope all of them make it out OK, but even the ones who made it out must be so terrified and traumitized.

they are already reporting that 20 of the 50+ dead were children :(

if it's this high now i fear for how much higher it will get in the coming days

:(

this made me cry (warning, somewhat graphic)

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2013/05/21/us/20130521_TORNADO-2.html

So, so sad. Why aren't there more storm shelters and basements here? I thought Oklahoma was filled with storm shelters, basements, cellars...

Right before the Edmond tornado on Sunday the thunder rolled across the sky and never stopped. It sounded like a motorcycle. I kept questioning if it was really thunder, it was...freakish thunder before a tornado apparently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2DGTYEYmxk

(youtube commenters rightfully got on that guy's case for being too close)

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/580214_570340356320229_197110518_n.png

:(

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50147264n

I'm hoping to stop crying about this by the weekend.

Jesus fucking christ, that NYT photo gallery. This shit makes me want to quit my job and work for the Peace Corps or a disaster relief agency or something.

That's amazing. xpost

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50147264n

I'm hoping to stop crying about this by the weekend.

― carl agatha, Tuesday, May 21, 2013 8:14 AM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm extremely sentimental about dogs. (it's not always a good trait.) that destroyed me.

God, me, too. Well, about pets in general and I am also extremely sentimental about tough, no-nonsense old ladies (especially when they have a soft spot for their little dogs) so yeah. I feel you.

Destroyed me as well. Like, "Gotta close my office door, I have a **sniff** important phone call!" (sobs)

There are pictures of concrete buildings with fence posts and other debris in them. Never thought a piece of would could do that to concrete.
No hope for a person or animal.

Some good news:

As the sun rose over the shattered community of Moore, the state medical examiner's office cut the estimated death toll by more than half.

Spokeswoman Amy Elliot said she believes some victims were counted twice in the early chaos of the storm. Downed communication lines and problems sharing information with officers exacerbated the problem, she said.

Authorities initially said as many as 51 people were dead, including 20 children.

Read more: http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/weather/weather_news/large-funnel-cloud-touches-down-near-oklahoma-city#ixzz2Tw5gIJ3f

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50147264n

I'm hoping to stop crying about this by the weekend.

― carl agatha, Tuesday, May 21, 2013 9:14 AM (1 hour ago)

oh my god

i was reading this last night, v compelling & terrifying; nature, man

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_F5_and_EF5_tornadoes

Give this dude the courage of his convictions, I guess? http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/05/21/tom-coburn-tornado-aid-must-be-offset/

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) will insist that any federal aid to deal with the tornado in his home state must be offset by budget cuts.

“He will ask his colleagues to sacrifice lower priority areas of the budget to help Oklahoma,” spokesman John Hart said. Should other Republicans join Coburn, it could set up a fight similar to the January tug-of-war over Hurricane Sandy funding. That aid package was delayed by GOP opposition and ultimately passed with mostly Democratic support.

In a statement, Coburn said that “as the ranking member of Senate committee that oversees FEMA, I can assure Oklahomans that any and all available aid will be delivered without delay.”

Coburn was against the Sandy relief package, as well as 2011 legislation to replenish the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster fund. His office has noted that the 1995 aid for victims of the Oklahoma City bombing was balanced by cuts to unspent appropriations. However, he did ask for expedited FEMA aid in 2007, when an ice storm hit his state.

killer tanktop

http://cdn3.mocksession.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/2013-May-20-21-12-12.jpg

She Wants the D(isaster relief)

This clip is insane. Dude sat in his car and filmed the funnel forming. You can tell he keeps re-orienting the car so that he can get the hell out of there:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMF22_MEMJU

I've always wondered what the breakdown of fatalities is in disasters like this one. I imagine a certain percentage, sadly, is the helpless: old people, kids. Another percentage is the unlucky, those who took shelter and got hit anyway. But some number has always got to be people who ignore warnings and fail to take precautions, dudes out on the street watching the storm. You know how they have that anti texting in the car campaign, where they print the last inconsequential text from some poor kid who died in a wreck? There must be many a final cell phone movie of approaching tornados.

That's so eerie, until it is just straight up terrifying. xp

xp - A lot of it is luck of the draw. From elementary school on, we're taught to go to an interior bathroom, but if your house or apartment takes a direct hit you're likely just fucked.

We always went out into the really long hallway that wouldn't act like a vacuum at all with the glass doors at the end. We'd crouch down next to the brick wall and place our little hands over our heads. Gotta say, I've never been killed by a tornado, so thanks Mrs. Bittle.

"Put your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye." - my jr high shop teacher

god that vid Josh posted. it's like watching a living thing, feeding and growing bigger, uuuuuuuuuuuggggh so fucking scary.

Give this dude the courage of his convictions, I guess?

except that now it is basically blackmail--cut yr entitlement programs or I won't let my state have federal relief

good thing it's not really up to him, no? more FEMA/governor. oklahoma's going to get aid whether Senator Schmuck likes it or not.

was going to write "i hope people remember this come election time" but we are talking about oklahoma, so...

where the wind ...

little surrey with a boat on top

sorry

This clip is insane. Dude sat in his car and filmed the funnel forming. You can tell he keeps re-orienting the car so that he can get the hell out of there:

idiot people who think they can outdrive a tornado? i mean, sometimes you actually can, but most of the time... no.

Actually the guy knew he was stuck and was orienting himself to retreat to a loading dock nearby for shelter if he needed it.

I think most tornado drills/sheltering are to keep you safe from flying debris. I'm sure a direct hit would take out anything.

one of the cars in that vid at one point opened their door and I was like NOOOO WHAT ARE YOU DOING

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/misc/pixel.gif

guess not. anyway, yeah, carl agatha's news story just about killed me. still a little teary.

Another dog that survived and made it. Unfortunately, it's owner didn't :-(

Oh wait, comments suggest otherwise!

Good luck, everybody.

what, me worry?

http://vortex.accuweather.com/adc2004/pub/includes/columns/newsstory/2014/650x366_04260917_hd23.jpg

Oh man... let an ILXor know you're okay if you get a chance.

Be safe folks. We're expected to miss the worst of it in Dallas but I'll be keeping an eye on the sky and an ear for alerts.

On the 3rd anniversary of this area's Big One: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_25%E2%80%9328,_2011_tornado_outbreak

http://i.imgur.com/3VtC6vC.gif

Oh and Monday, grab something solid WMC.

http://i.imgur.com/Lgomx9A.gif

Here's today's, btw.

http://i.imgur.com/m0yL7YW.gif

Pfffffffffffft.

no confirmed tornados, but shit getting real enough to preempt the nba playoffs :(

PP/SS, you guys make it through yesterday ok?

Went from about ten miles west of us to ten miles north, as the crow flies. It never even really stormed at our house.

Sirens went off, though. (Before) | (During)

Tornadoes sure are weird. We've got coverage here, for anyone interested.

I mean, my goodness. This buck got blown straight through the wall of these poor people's living room, apparently.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BmScgmkCIAAszEg.jpg

A few weeks back we drove to St. Louis, and we passed what must have been part of the aftermath of last year's huge tornado in Washington, IL. I'm not sure I've ever seen that before, just huge piles of trees that had been knocked over and barns that had been razed. You could totally see the path it took, like a giant truck just plowed through.

Glad you guys made it ok! Our drama is coming later today.

They're not kidding around.

It's a very fortunate thing, really. This play got called four days ago. National and local weather forecasters, public and commercial, they all said the same thing - cover your ass, Sunday is going to be strong.

You can't fight a tornado once it's on you, but you can sure as hell get ready for it. Though knowing it's coming isn't going to help you when you're out on your patio taking pictures like this:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BmR_mLbCQAAYeIf.jpg

Apparently Jim Cantore and a Weather Channel crew are in Tupelo, ready to stare down The Big One in a couple of hours.

Tupelo, 1936:

http://youtu.be/YevWv4LNG6g

White people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA2qhJhSHV0

I mean, for god's sake. Yeah, maybe call him back later. Listen to the cows and the dog try to tell you something.

OK, so I don't want to presume, but between the accent and what they're doing, those yokels come off like the dumbest people of all time.

Welp, here we go. This siren is so relaxing.

stay safe everybody

be safe folks.

Missed us, but it looks like Tupelo got hit hard.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BmVVq0wCUAAFvQK.jpg:large

http://i.imgur.com/XJgfBgl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/dW1f9no.jpg

fuck.

And for Eazy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTWQUy76paA

Glad your safe, William. That was meant as an exclamation about the damage in tupelo, not that it missed you.

Yessss...that's Matt Laubhan, the absolute best meteorologist I've ever seen on tv. He's been in Tupelo for 3-4 years now. Gonna be sad when his contract is up and somebody throws big money at him. This last cell was heading straight for their studio.

xps

scary clip.

Holy shit.

Tornadoes, man.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BmUeMytCQAElc8Z.jpg

Is that from the current batch?

That's from yesterday.

OK, batch #2 has passed. God I hate this shit.

My parents just built a new house last year, in an area well-known for tornado activity around Huntsville, AL and now some of the houses in the town next door have been flattened by a touchdown. Think I'll give 'em a call in a few minutes and check the situation.

Oh, great news! They've gone up the road to my uncle's house, who has like a gazillion very big trees in his yard as opposed to their house with only saplings. I worry about my parents sometimes.

are very big trees a good preventative against tornadoes?

they block other houses from flying at you face

unless the trees fly at you face

are very big trees a good preventative against tornadoes?

I was being sarcastic.

There are literally about 15-20 enormous trees that could fall down on that house if a tornado gets near (or even if they're struck by lightning or blown over by high wind). If anything, I'd be wanting to get AWAY FROM that house.

haw! I was serious. Wasn't sure if like, a tornado couldn't make it's way through a forest due to wind vectors or something. I dunno. I'm drunk. Just glad all you guys are ok.

https://scontent-a-atl.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/t1.0-9/10254008_10203605831363883_3552985025649465485_n.jpg

^^^ about five miles away. Passed over, didn't touch down.

woof. great photo though.

Crawford, MS

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BmV-Vb2IMAA8ikf.jpg:large

Source

dang!

You see some more of that blue here, from yesterday. This is how fast shit happens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOXHImsf-w0

Here's where they're at, approximately.

It's truly amazing that they could even warn people they were coming. Science is almost as awesome as nature.

New folk hero Matt Laubhan takes a call from his mom while he's on the air.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=660022404283

What an awesome dude.

Aw! He loves his mom!

The EF-4 in Louisville (MS) -- in progress:
https://scontent-a-mia.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/t1.0-9/10330370_772356186138369_6379446150568344098_n.jpg

Its path, a week later:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/t1.0-9/10309651_700024156722849_5385832576056818370_n.jpg

Damn. All galloping off into the horizon.

wow.

holy crap

My wife, who generally looks on the sunny side of life so relentlessly I want to scream, actually found something nice to say about tornadoes: after they leave, the weather is usually really beautiful for a while. It's been sunny, not-humid and not too hot here for the last week.

Tornado watch in NYC til 10pm

faaaaaaaaaaaab

Tornado Watch
New York
is in effect until 10:00 PM EDT For the following locations NY ...
How to prepare now
Watch out for dark, rotating clouds. If you see one, take shelter immediately!

My commiserations, that russian-roulette feeling fucking sucks.

Pfffft. Tornado Watch about as serious as Code Yellow on the Homeland Security chart.

tornados in aberystwyth and shropshire

shropshire's minor by big tornado standards (84 mph) but damage (trees, windows) recorded abt a mile from where mum and dad lived

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/tornadoes/?ex_cid=538twitter

i was just reading this article about this town in oklahoma that gets slammed by huge tornadoes all the time

the story here: a storm chaser attempted to get some video while he rode parallel to the El Reno Tornado on May 31, 2013, which grew in size to 2.6 miles across. He expected it to keep going east/slightly southeast and....it did not.

Why did you choose the route you did? Were you trying to get close?

I was not trying to get close. I knew from how the tornado first appeared that it would be very large, violent and dangerous. My goal was simply to remain in a good position for photography and video, which I felt would be best with the tornado backlit by the bright skies to the southwest. I wanted to be just close enough to have a high-contrast view.

My plan was to roughly parallel the tornado to its north as it moved east, while staying slightly ahead of it (to its northeast). I moved the additional mile south (closer to it) at Choctaw because of the tornado's initial rapid movement southward away from me. I expected the tornado to either continue moving east-southeast or eastward, which is why I kept going east on Reuter Road (NW 10th). I saw no reason to go north at Highway 81 because I didn't yet realize the tornado had turned.

I didn't recognize the dramatic change in its track until it was nearly upon me on Reuter west of Highway 81. This is because while the tornado was making its drastic north turn and widening at Highway 81, it was completely wrapped in heavy rain, masking from my vantage point what it was really doing. It is common for a relatively benign area of precipitation to wrap around a tornado when it becomes "rain wrapped", so the proximity of this area of rain itself was not initially a major concern. As I realized later, this area of rain *was* the tornado itself - IE, the outer boundary of tornadic wind speeds completely encompassed the rain. As the area of rain approached Reuter, I could finally begin to see how fast the rain curtains were moving and realized they were embedded in tornadic winds. This area of rain rapidly condensed into the large wedge tornado visible in my rear-facing camera once I cleared Evans Road.

Below is a map I put together that shows my path, the tornado's path, and what I *thought* the tornado was doing and was going to do in the future. As you can see, if the tornado had moved like I expected (more easterly), I would have remained at a safe viewing angle on Reuter Road. (Click on this map to view a larger version):

http://stormhighway.com/may312013/elrenotrack2015.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxgU1QcFMJM

what is not seen in the video is that there were three storm chasers trailing behind this guy going on the same road who were killed by the tornado at an intersection he passed through on this video (at Radio Rd) immediately after.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_El_Reno_tornado

damn

This was a nasty one. Missed our house by a mile or so but you could hear it and see it just to the north.

destructive tornados seem to keep moving further east over time, vv far from the traditional tornado alley.

I lived in tornado alley for like 7 years, and I always hated this time of year.

For whatever reason tornados seem to skip big cities. I think some have hypothesized it might be due to the heat they put off? Anyway, when was that last big one that hit Nashville? Late '90s?

Speaking of which, a few years ago we drove down to Nashville, and on the way we passed the site of a big downstate Illinois tornado that had touched down I want to say several months earlier. It was really remarkable, seeing what looked like a huge tear ripped into the side of the road for about a mile, like a giant bulldozer had just plowed through. Scary stuff.

You can drop the little google maps guy just about anywhere in Joplin and feel your heart break as you switch from 2007 to present day.

1998 was the last one in Nashville

Utah appears on this list twice - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_American_tornadoes_and_tornado_outbreaks - with one of them being in 1999 when an F2 hit downtown SLC, killing one and causing $172 million in damage.

⁦@ryanvaughan⁩ Raybourn road pic.twitter.com/Bt4N7lmFJW

— cade wayne greeno (@gohogs223) April 9, 2020

Good luck today, PP & Sunny, Crüt, Tipsy, everyone else in the path.

I mean, not a bad year to cancel Easter services anyway.

Temps in the low 60s vs low 80s makes me feel somewhat better but that radar is ugly.

We're fine. Wouldn't want to be in Vicksburg right now. (For many reasons.)

Gosh, Rock. After all the warnings, I guess today's weather was only soso.

Our rain suddenly stopped and the skies cleared about 8 p.m. so I thought we were out of the woods, but a massive straight line wind, the cold air following in the wake of the storm, blew through at 11:30 and took a few shingles. Surprised this morning that it wasn't worse -- it sounded like the house was trying to turn inside-out.

Not so soso for everyone -- https://apnews.com/a7b924a128d7d0847784b75d8da98db1

A lot changed after my dumb joke!

In fact, many lots. Perhaps a few townships!

Oh, I just got the joke. I'd never heard of that town before!

😬

But that's not the way to Bentonville!

https://i.imgur.com/mOAZmOP.png

The owners at the bar just gave everyone scheduled for this evening the option to stay home or come in, whichever they prefer. The bar is probably safer, but fuck going out in the weather that's predicted for 4:30. And if something happens here I'd rather know about it à la minute. Even if it's only 4 blocks away.

Debris from Mayfield Kentucky lofted almost 30k feet into the atmosphere. Just shocking right now of what that town just experienced. #kywx pic.twitter.com/0e1arvCfCW

— Bob Waszak (@nilwxreports) December 11, 2021

very much a nightmare fuel of a visual when you think people could be amongst that airborne debris field 30k up in the sky

If you can ignore all the yahoos yelling, this is the best footage I've ever seen. Animal/animist metaphors are everywhere w.r.t. tornados (it's a beast that ate this or that, etc.), but this really looks like an alien wraith

Major #tornado intercept southwest of Kimball, Nebraska! pic.twitter.com/xiJ5E8BYdm

— Reed Timmer, PhD (@ReedTimmerAccu) June 29, 2023

That's incredible.

wow

Holy shit.

Nope 2

I gather Kimball, Nebraska doesn't get a lot of thrills

I've been to Kimball (eclipse chasing, not storm chasing) and can confirm that, though they do have an adorable movie theater.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTGHQphn_Ys

Tornadoes are still something that feels like an abstract and underestimated threat, usually you see videos from afar and photos of the aftermath and hardly ever this kind of thing. I feel like this would be a good one to show in schools to get the kids into the basement shelter quick next time there's a warning.

That's insane.

a friend in Bloomington Indiana just had her house totaled by a tree today, stay safe y'all

Whoa.

Tornados are entertainment in Nebraska.

I lived on the 2nd floor of a Victorian when a funnel cloud had been spotted two miles away. I grabbed flashlight, blanket and radio & headed to the basement.

On the way down I had to pass the front porch. The neighbors were outside with coolers and lawn chairs. They asked me why I was going to the basement and offered me a beer.

NO FUCKING WAY.

My mom made us all go to the SW corner under dad's desk (we're city people). One time he went outside "to look at it" and she wailed like he wasn't going to come back down to the basement alive.

Also all the sirens went off in my town recently, which was SCARY but after the storm cleared we were treated to a very realistic DICK CLOUD: better than a total eclipse.

Hello from the basement

Sounded like southeast WI was in for it tonight

Yup, right now! Another 15 mins or so and it should pass us.

Everyone in town got their car windows busted by hail tonight (tennis to baseball sized).

Hello from the basement

― underminer of twenty years of excellent contribution to this borad (dan m), Tuesday, April 14, 2026 10:11 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

This is something I do not miss from growing up in the midwest. Do they use phone warnings now instead of air raid sirens?

We get both now

Fuckin here we are again

Stay safe folks.

Turns out it was in the far western part of the county but all the alarms go off all the same, we're back up.

The siren went off again! This is some crying wolf shit now.

on my family group text they're on a continual warning on, to the basement, warning off, upstairs, repeat cycle.