Tornado Outbreak Escalated Wednesday On Annivesary Of Epic, Tragic Joplin Tornado

A lightning flash illuminates a huge tornado going through
Jefferson City, Missouri last night. Photo via Twitter by Jaclyn Morrow.

Monday was the anniversary of the 2013 Moore, Oklahoma tornado that killed 24 people and caused $2 billion in damage. That area was on high alert for a repeat: There was a high risk of more big tornadoes on Monday.  

That didn't fully pan out, luckily, as the tornadoes weren't as strong or as numerous as expected.

Luck ran out Wednesday elsewhere, though. On the ninth anniversary of an even worse tornado disaster, this one that destroyed much of Joplin, Missouri and killed 161 people, another giant twister touched down on the outskirts of Joplin Wednesday evening.

The good news is Wednesday night's tornado did not slam through the city of Joplin, sparing its surely freaked out residents. The bad news is the tornado hit other towns just north of Joplin,  killing at least three people. The parent supercell thunderstorm kept marauding northeastward from there, dropping more big tornadoes.

Those included a devastating one that hit Missouri's capital of Jefferson City. So far, we have reports of 20 injuries there and lots of damage. Houses have collapsed, roofs are gone from schools and other buildings in Jefferson City.

On top of all that, the Missouri River in Jefferson City is expected to crest at its highest level in 24 years,  which will flood some downtown streets.

Wednesday night's tornadoes are part of an ongoing series of severe weather that I talked about yesterday. There's no rest of the weary. Some more tornadoes are forecast in various locations in the middle of the nation daily through at least next Tuesday.

I imagine flooding in the middle of the country, already very bad, will worsen, too, with moderate to high risks of new flooding from heavy rain ongoing at least today through Saturday.  This is a long running disaster, with no signs of quitting.

Occasionally, this awful weather extends its tentacles outside the Midwest. Today, the Northeast is under the gun with the threat of severe weather, and even maybe a few tornadoes in Pennsylvania and New York, and parts of surrounding states.

Some of those storms that get going in New York could hold together by the time they reach western Vermont later today.  That means a couple places could see strong, gusty thunderstorm winds and maybe some small hail.

The severe threat in Vermont isn't nearly as high as it is in New York and Pennsylvania, but it's something to be watched. If you get any kind of severe thunderstorm warning later today, get inside a sturdy building and wait it out. The storms will be moving fast, so it won't last long.

Another dose of severe thunderstorms is likely Saturday, though those storms will go south of Vermont. We'll just get rain and maybe some rumbles of thunder.

Snowy, Fatal Missouri Highway Pileup Illustrates Danger Of Speeding In Snow

Part of a fatal pileup Friday on Interstate 70 in Missouri. Big part of the
problem was people driving too fast for the conditions

This is really a pet peeve every time we get winter weather.

Why, oh why do people insist on driving as fast as possible when the road is icy or snowy? Why do people who've lived through dozens of winters not understand that ice is slippery?

As a result, there was another awful, tragic highway pileup in a snowstorm. This time in Missouri.

It was cold and snowing along Interstate 70 near Oak Grove, Missouri Friday when 47 cars and trucks piled up on the icy highway. Graphic video from a truck driver caught in the wreck showed vehicle after vehicle bashing into the already wrecked cars.

Sadly, one person died in this crash and several others were hurt.

In the video at the bottom of the post, you can see cars driving too fast for the conditions slamming into each other.

The truck driver who shot video of the crash can be seen trying to seek help for a person in a badly crushed car. I believe the person in that car is the one who passed away. If only the speed demons on highways during winter storms could understand the pain they are causing maybe they would slow down.

Or maybe they don't care.

True, visibility was poor and the weather was too cold for salt to work effectively on the highway, which is all the more reason why people should have been driving more slowly, or if possible, not at all.

It's certainly possible the chain reaction crash started when somebody who was driving slowly enough for the conditions still lost control and hit a guardrail or something. This can happen to the best drivers. But the carnage was certainly compounded by speeding motorists, as is the case in most if not all of these pileups.

This wasn't the only crash in Missouri in what was really not the biggest winter storm ever. Only three to six inches of snow fell. But during the day the Missouri State Highway Patrol said there were no fewer than 125 crashes with 19 injuries and that one death in the Interstate 70 pileup, says the Weather Channel. 

Please, when driving in the winter, remember this cliche or adage or whatever you want to call it: "It's better to drive slowly and wish you were going faster than to be driving fast and wish you were going more slowly.

Here's the video. Again, a warning: It's quite graphic, especially after the truck driver gets out of his rig. But I hope the video scares people into taking it easy on the highways during winter.

Odd Midwest Tornado Outbreak Creates Havoc, Damage

Massive tornado approaching Taylerville, Illinois
Saturday evening. Photo by Robert Wolfe.

UPDATE: DECEMBER 4:

This proved to be the largest December Illinois on record. So far, they've counted 26 tornadoes in Illinois on December 1, beating the previous December record of 21 set in 1957. Shout out to Mike Bettes at the Weather Channel for pointing this out.

The National Weather Service in Springfield, Illinois said Saturday's outbreak was the third largest tornado outbreak for any month of the year.

Tornadoes in Illinois are much more of a springtime type of event. The largest Illinois tornado outbreak had 39 of them on April 16, 1996. There were 32 twisters in Illinois on April 2, 2006.

The worst tornado, the one I describe in my pre-updated post, below, was an EF3 with winds of up to 155 mph. It was up to a half mile wide and stay on the ground for nearly 13 miles.

It thankfully killed nobody, but left 22 injured, destroyed 34 homes, left 66 homes too damaged to inhabit, and left another 406 homes damaged but inhabitable. says the Springfield NWS.  

On Sunday, the severe weather continued, this time in the Southeast. One twister tore through King's Bay Naval Base in Georgia, causing relatively minor injuries to five people and leaving a trail of damage.

It surprisingly hasn't been a particularly busy end of year tornado period. There were 42 tornado reports in November in the United States, which isn't far from average. We're up to about 30 so far in this young December month. If we don't get many more twisters before the end of the year, December, too, will come out pretty close to normal in the tornado department.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

Over the past two days, a rather out of season tornado outbreak has been causing big trouble from Oklahoma to Illinois to Georgia.

A strong, sprawling storm in the middle of the country is to blame.

Friday, the first day of the tornadoes wasn't much of a surprise. Forecasters had alerted people days in advance that eastern Oklahoma, Arkansas and southern Missouri were under the gun. And these regions indeed got hit Friday.

One person died Friday night in a Missouri tornado, and another twister that might have tracked for as long as 60 miles through eastern Oklahoma caused a lot of damage, especially around Lake Tenkiller.

Saturday was more of a surprise. We knew there was the risk of severe storms and possible tornadoes in Illinois on Saturday. but things got out of control beyond what most people imagined.

So far there have been 22 reports of tornadoes in Illinois. Most of those tornadoes came from three or four supercell thunderstorms that kept dropping twister.

An especially strong one smashed the Illinois town of Taylorville, population approximately 11,000. Meteorologists watched in horror as radar indicated a strong tornado heading toward that town for as much as an hour before hitting. Everyone hoped it would weaken, but it didn't.

At least Taylorville residents got plenty of warning. The National Weather Service in Lincoln, Illinois  issued a tornado warning for the Taylorville area 42 minutes before the twister struck.

Another tornado spinning in Illinois yesterday.

Despite extensive damage to more than 100 homes, there were no deaths reported. About thirty people were injured.

Not necessarily fun fact: The high school sports teams in this town are the Taylorville Tornadoes.

The supercell responsible for this tornado lasted a long time, starting east of St. Louis and ending east of Bloomington, Illinois, a distance of 140 miles. As noted, this storm kept spitting out tornadoes along its path.

This morning, tornado warnings went up in parts of southern Georgia.

Tornado outbreaks do happen from time to time this time of year, if there's a strong enough parent storm system, as there was over the past couple of days.  It's a pretty odd to have such powerful tornadoes go as far north as central Illinois in early December, but it's not completely unprecedented.

Tornadoes have touched down as far north as Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts in past Decembers. However most twisters in the final month of the year are confined to near the Gulf Coast and lower Mississippi Valley.

One ingredient for tornadoes is warm, humid air, which is something of a rarity during the first month of winter.

Tornadoes are especially dangerous this time of year because people tend not to expect them. Plus, they're more likely to happen in darkness, since days are so short. People might not be aware of a twister approaching under cover of darkness.

After today, tornadoes seem unlikely in the United States until at least next Saturday, when a new storm along the Gulf Coast might create some Deep South severe weather.

No, The Tragic Missouri Duck Boat Storm Did NOT "Come Out Of Nowhere"

Duck boat sinking in a severe Missouri thunderstorm on
Thursday, killing 17 people.

Investigations are just starting on what led to the disaster near Branson, Missouri in which a duck boat sank in a severe thunderstorm, killing 17 people.

But there has been one very, very nagging question.  What was that rickety thing doing out there in such a bad storm?

Ripley Entertainment, owns Ride the Ducks company in Branson. Jim Pattison Jr, president of Ripley, told CBS News he'd been told that it was "an almost micro storm event.....It was a fast-moving storm that basically came out of nowhere...The storm was moving at a higher rate of speed than expected."

Sorry, Jim. I think what you're doing is trying to create a new reality to possibly influence a jury during the inevitable lawsuits that will come out of this tragedy. Meteorologists will talk about what really happened during the litigation, but I have to wonder if Pattison was trying to plant a seed of doubt into whoever will make rulings and decisions in the likely lawsuits.

Pattison did say that given the conditions, the boat should not have been in the water.

Still, as many in the media reported: No, the severe thunderstorm did NOT "come out of nowhere." It was moving fast, but meteorologists were tracking it and had a good handle on the timing of when it would hit. It was not a "micro storm." It was a pretty big and nasty thunderstorm complex.

Also, as the Kansas City Star reported, there were lots of warnings about the oncoming storm rushing in from the northwest.

A severe thunderstorm watch has been posted as of 11:30 a.m. Thursday, more than seven hours before the storm hit. A watch means keep an eye to the sky, as there's a good possibility of severe thunderstorms somewhere in the area. That means think twice about launching rickety duck boats, folks.

The complex of storms formed in Kansas, and reports of wind damage began coming in from eastern Kansas more than nine hours before the storm hit Table Rock Lake. National Weather Service meterologists closely tracked this thunderstorm complext during its entire lifespan.

Roughly an hour before the storms hit the Branson area, Springfield, Missouri, to the north, reported a wind gust of 74 mph.

The National Weather Service office in Springfield, Missouri issued a severe thunderstorm warning at 6:32 p.m for an area including Branson and Table Rock Lake, where the duck boat was.
The warning mentioned likely wind gusts in the 70 mph range were on their way.

It's still unclear exactly what time the duck boat departed from shore. It was scheduled to leave at around 5:30 p.m., according to a Weather Channel time line, but might have left as late as 6:45 p.m., says the Kansas City Star.

A severe thunderstorm warning was issued for an area just northwest of, but not including Table Rock Lake at 5:45 p.m., according to the Weather Channel time line.

Even if the duck boat left shore before the severe thunderstorm warning was issued, the operators should have known bad storms were looming to the north and northwest, Reports say the duck boat left the dock for the lake excursion as late as  around 6:45 p.m. Was anybody watching the weather? The sky? Did anyone associated with Ride the Ducks review weather radar or check for storm warnings?

They should have, that's for sure.  A lot of attention went to a tweet and Forbes article from Marshall Shepherd, the Director of the Atmospheric Sciences Program at the University of Georgia that stated what should have been the obvious:

"It is 2018, not 1901. The meteorological community has advanced weather satellites, weather radar and models. Storms like this do not 'come out of nowhere.'"

Shepherd, ever the polite, competent scientist, isn't nearly as nasty and rude as I am, but his Forbes article should be required reading for anyone planning on doing anything outside. At any time.

Shepherd also highlighted guidance developed by NOAA and the National Safe Boating Council. The guidance, again,  should be obvious to everyone, including people who conduct duck boat tours:

"Before going boating, fishing, diving or enjoying other water sports, check the forecast from weather.gov or your favorite weather source...If severe weather is predicted, stay home or go earlier than normal. Be prepared to head to shore quickly."

The guidance says you should have a NOAA weather radio with you which would sent immediate alerts if a storm warning is issued.

Shepherd, a former president of the American Meteorological Society, also highlighted a report from that organization in his Forbes article that basically says organizers of outdoor events and attractions don't really have an excuse when bad weather causes tragedies. Although the AMS puts it in much more sober terms than I am doing. Members of the AMS are a bunch of serious scientists, after all.

According to the AMS report:

"A common theme in the after-action reports and service assessments for these disasters is that the weather plan was inadequate to deal with a comprehensive portfolio of weather risk, or a weather plan didn't exist. In many instances, organizers simply 'hoped that we wouldn't get hit.'

Reducing the weather risk to life and property at venues and public gatherings is a priority for the weather enterprise and the American Meteorological Society (AMS). Knowledge of, and investment in, pre-event planning and mitigation serves the nation economically as well as socially."

In other words, my admittedly blunt, sarcastic words, careless event organizers really need to pay attention to weather hazards and stop killing people because they don't. It's not all about making money, you know.

Not all the facts are out yet in the Missouri Duck Boat tragedy, so it's hard to draw exact conclusions as to who is at fault and to what extent. But I believe there was a big time screwup, with awful results.

This is especially true given the vessel: Duck boats need calm water, and the canopies overhead tend to trap people when the vessels sink. That's probably what happened in Missouri.

The lesson learned: Always be cognizant of the weather if you're organizing an outdoor event. And if you plan on going to an outdoor concert, a duck boat excursion or anything else outside, bring along a weather radio. Adjust your plans if there are weather alerts.

And if your gut tells you the weather is too iffy to do what you planned to do, definitely trust your gut.  

Developing Odd Weather Pattern Creates Tragedy In Midwest

Tornado destruction in Marshalltown, Iowa Thursday. 

A key ingredient to an odd weather pattern that seems destined to bring flooding rains to the East Coast has already caused tragedy and destruction in the Midwest.

An unusually sharp trough of low pressure for this time of year touched off tornadoes and severe storms, especially in Iowa and Missouri.

As you probably saw on the news already, one of the severe storms swamped a so-called tourist "duck boat" on a Missouri resort lake, killing at least 11 people. Five are still missing.

A severe thunderstorm warning was issued about a half hour before the boat sank. Winds in the area gusted to 63 mph.

In Iowa, a swarm of tornadoes caused extensive damage, especially in and around the towns of Marshalltown and Pella. Ten people were injured in Marshalltown, which had widespread, extensive damage to homes and businesses. Video showed the tornado ripping the steeple off an iconic courthouse there.

Two tornadoes spin simultaneously near each
other in Iowa Thursday.

Seven people were injured in Pella.

Parts of South Dakota were swamped by heavy rain and flash flooding. More than eight inches of rain fell in Brookings in just a few hours.

Some videos are at the bottom of this post.

This storm will bring a threat of more tornadoes and severe thunderstorms today, especially in an area including Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and northern Alabama.

A map of the risk area resembles something you'd see in during the spring tornado season, not July, when severe storms are usually more isolated and sporadic.

The trough to the west will inspire what will amount to be a way out of season nor'easter Sunday, which will bring gusty winds and heavy rain to parts of the Northeast.

Even here in Vermont, they're talking about fairly strong downslope winds on the west slopes of the Green Mountains, something that's common in winter, but almost unheard of in July.

The low pressure to the west, and the Bermuda High strengthening to the east will result in a stalled weather pattern over the East most of next week. This pattern is still expected to bring boatloads of tropical moisture through the East with the risk of flooding rains.

It's still too soon to say which areas are most at risk for flooding.

Here's a video of the duck boat in Missouri being swamped by the severe storm as onlookers in a restaurant look on with increasing worry and horror:



A compilation of tornadoes destroying houses in Iowa:



Two simultaneous tornadoes near and in Bondurant, Iowa:



Tornado wrecking a courthouse in Marshalltown, Iowa:

Freezing Rain + Trampoline = Cool Video

They had a bit of freezing rain in Missouri a few days ago. The ice coated everything, including a backyard trampoline owned by the McNew family.

So, Dylan McNew, 14, had a buddy film a slo-mo version of him leaping on to the ice-covered trampoline. The results are awesome. Watch:

Pics, Video From Saturday's Severe Weather

Ominous storm in Edgar Springs, Missouri Saturday. 

As expected, a wide swath of the nation from Texas to Virginia were blasted by severe weather Saturday.

This  including a few tornadoes (though fortunately not that many), but the day especially featured strong winds, giant hail and flash floods.

There was an incredibly 386 reports of strong, damaging winds and nearly 300 reports of large hail, according to NOAA's Storm Prediction Center. 

Hail a little bit bigger than softballs pummeled Adrian, Missouri.

Hail bigger than baseballs in Adrian, Missouri Saturday.

The severe weather went as far east as near Richmond, Virginia, where hail as big as hens eggs punched through car windows and damaged homes in the area.

Severe weather is still expected in a stripe from Texas to Mississippi, and in much of the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic states, though it might not be quite as widespread as Saturday.

As bad as Saturday was, it could have been worse, given the extreme instability in the atmosphere across parts of Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas.

The instability - the potential for explosive severe storms, was pretty much near record territory.

By the way, a few thunderstorms will probably break out in our neck of the woods in Vermont Tuersday, and a couple of them might be strong. However, I don't expecdt a super big widespread severe outbreak in the Green Mountain State.

Here's a video of some big hail pummeling cars amid some sunshine in Glen Allen, Virginia on Saturday:

VERY Bad Severe Weather Outbreak Today In Southern Plains, Mississippi Valley

Areas in orange and especially in red are at definite risk of
very severe thunderstorms and tornadoes today. 

Forecasters with NOAA's Storm Prediction Center are very worried today about the likelihood of an outbreak of very serious severe weather today from Oklahoma and Texas into the Tennessee Valley.

The atmosphere down there is as extremely unstable as it can possibly get, so tornadoes, some of them strong, widespread hurricane-force wind gusts and hail that could become the size of baseballs, softballs or even grapefruit are all good bets today.

The Storm Prediction Center says the instability in the atmosphere in parts of Oklahoma and Arkansas are at near record levels, so that's ominious.

In Arkansas and surrounding areas, thunderstorms will likely develop explosively today. I don't think people will have much time to react to thunderstorms that start as a tiny shower, and within minutes, become dangerously severe or tornadic thunderstorms.

In addition, forecasters say that along northeast side of where the thunderstorms develop, probably in northern Arkansas, and the southern half of Missouri, a dangerous derecho might develop.

Derechos are long-lasting, intense lines of thunderstorms that hit wide areas with damaging straight line winds. Wind speeds vary within the path of a derecho, but some spots that are hit can have wind gusts of 100 mph or more in the stronger derechos.

Forecasters say today's possible derecho would probably be strong, with winds like that. There might be embedded tornadoes with today's derecho as well.

Especially a bit to the west and south of this derecho, in eastern Oklahoma, far southwestern Missouri, maybe the southeast corner of Kansas and parts of northern Texas, strong tornadoes and gigantic hailstones are quite possible today.

Some of this activity is going to hit some pretty populated areas, such as Tulsa, and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri, Little Rock, Arkansas, Wichita, Kansas, and Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee.

Yet Another Over-Performing Tornado Outbreak Last Night

Severe tornado damage in Oak Grove, Missouri
Photo from television station KCTV 

Yet another outbreak of tornadoes and severe storms hit the nation yesterday and last night, with about 30 preliminary reports of tornadoes from Kansas and Missouri to Minnesota.

So far, I haven't heard of any deaths associated with the tornadoes, which is a good thing, but there were injuries, and lots of destruction.  

That there were no deaths is largely due to timely and accurate warnings from National Weather Service offices, alerts from storm chasers and local media who stayed on top of the situation.

Kudos to all of those folks, for sure!

That said, there's a lot of damage to sort through today.

It appears the hardest hit town was Oak Grove, east of Kansas City, Missouri, which was hit by a powerful nighttime tornado after dark last evening.

I was watching my Twitter feed as the tornado got going, and the good news is Oak Grove residents got plenty of advance warning from local media to hide in their basements as the tornado approached.

That's fortunate, since this is what ended up happening in Oak Grove, according to ABC News:

"Chief Carl Scarborough of the Sni Valley Fire Protection District in Oak Grove, Missouri told ABC News Monday night that between 100 and 200 people had been displaced from their homes, but that figure may increase.

He added that 'dozens and dozens' of homes have sustained moderate to severe damage in Oak Grove, with a significant number of additional sustaining light to minimal damage.

Scarbourough said he is aweare of 12 people who were treated for injuries, three of whom were transported to the hospital. None of the injuries were life-threatening. "

Video from a KCTV chopper this morning showed dozens of smashed and roofless houses in Oak Grove.

The video is one of a few at the bottom of this post.

Elsewhere, several tornadoes caused damage in Iowa.

National Weather Service investigators will check out an area of damage in Minnesota where a tornado is believed to have touched down. If the damage is proven to have been caused by a tornado, it will be the earliest in the season that state has been hit by a twister.

This has been a season of early season tornadoes unusually far north in the United States. Tornadoes struck Pennsylvania and Massachusetts on February 25,

Three tornadoes touched down in Michigan on February 28. The only other time Michigan had a tornado was a single twister on February 28, 1974.

The year 1974, by the way, went on to become a particularly terrible tornado year for the United States. An outbreak of 148 tornadoes, many of them deadly, struck the nation on April 3-4, 1974. That was the most extensive tornado out break in the United States on record until April 26-28, 2011, which was even worse.

WHY ALL THESE TORNADOES?

There's no guarantee 2017 will end up being an especially bad tornado year. The trend we've had this year of more twisters than usual could sputter.

However, one of many ingredients needed for tornadoes is stronger than ever before.

Generally speaking, storms that produce batches of tornadoes need lots of warm, humid air from the Gulf of Mexico. Storm systems this winter have taken paths that easily draw on this warmth and humidity. And a lot of these storms have tracked further to the north than they usually do this time of year.

If the Gulf of Mexico waters are unusually warm, it can provide more toasty and wet air than usual to the middle of the country.

Water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico have been and still are at all time record highs this winter, so that's feeding additional amounts of fuel to tornado-producing storm systems.

Of course, as noted, that doesn't necessarily mean the United States will keep getting extra tornadoes, and extra strong tornadoes the rest of the spring.

In addition to the warm, humid Gulf of Mexico air, storm systems have to cross over the middle of the nation at just the right locations and directions to create tornado outbreaks.

There also needs to be the proper "spin" in the atmosphere, and it helps to have intrusions of very dry air from the west, and cold air from the north to create tornado outbreaks.

If any one of these critical ingredients is missing, you won't get many tornadoes. That's why the severe weather outlook for the rest of the spring and summer is  so iffy. Still, the warm Gulf of Mexico remains an ominous factor. 

THE IMMEDIATE OUTLOOK

There won't be nearly as much severe weather today in the nation. There could be severe storms, and possibly a brief tornado in and around Mississippi today.

But even without the twisters the weather pattern is very active, and in some spots, potentially dangerous in parts of the nation today and on through the weekend.

There were some terrible wildfires yesterday in places like Colorado and Kansas Monday, and the risk has spread eastward.

A large area in the middle of the nation, including storm-racked Missouri, is at risk of brush and wildfires today.

You'd think the rain from last night's storms would keep things damp, but strong winds, and very, very dry air moving in from the west will raise the fire risk by this afternoon.

A strong blast of cold air coming into much of the nation will suppress the risk of severe weather through this weekend, though the icy air will hit areas that have had an early spring, raising the risk of crop damage in too-early blooming plants and trees.

VIDEOS

Here's why you shouldn't stay outside in lightning, as a guy filmed a tornado-warned storm with lots of lightning in Minnesota. Nobody got hurt in this incident:



Here's the KCTV aerial footage of severe tornado damage in Oak Grove, Missouri:

Tornado/Severe Weather Threat Growing Today In Parts Of The Midwest

The areas of the country in yellow and orange-especially the orange
areas, are at risk for tornadoes, strong thunderstorm winds and
large hail later today and tonight.

The chances of some tornadoes and severe thunderstorms is definitely growing for later this afternoon into tonight for parts of the Midwest, especially in Iowa, Missouri and the Ozarks.
Forecasters have been watching this area for the past few days, and things were definitely coming together as of early afternoon to produce some tornadoes, big hail and strong winds.

As always with severe weather outbreaks, it's hard to tell even a few hours in advance exactly how serious and widespread any tornadoes get.

But suffice it to say, look out if you live anywhere near this area. There is definitely a chance of tornadoes around there. Some of the tornadoes could be rather significant, as in on the stronger side with longer than average tracks.

As I wrote this early Monday afternoon, NOAA's Storm Prediction Center was poised to issue a tornado watch for most of Iowa.

I imagine tornado watches might be issues later for much of Missouri, northern Arkansas and western Illinois. In fact, there might end up being a slightly higher tornado risk in Missouri than in Iowa tonight. We'll see.

Some of these areas, especially in eastern Missouri and Illinois, dealt with some destructive tornadoes last week.

To the west of the severe storm risk area, a huge area of the Plains, from southern North Dakota all the way down to northern Texas and eastern New Mexico is under high wind warnings today.

Gusts could reach 70 mph, there's already reports of a lot of blowing dust and tractor trailers have been blown over in some areas. There's a high wildfire risk in parts of these areas.

No rest for the weary, I guess.

Severe Weather Ongoing In Eastern Half Of The Nation

Large tornado near Washburn, Illinois Tuesday

Just a quick update to sum up the ongoing outbreak of severe weather in the eastern third of the nation today.

A very, very strong squall line has been going through the Ohio and Tennessee valleys this morning, with numerous reports of very damaging winds. 

There are a number of reports of roofs blown off homes in Kentucky and Tennesee.

They'll have to investigate whether any of these are tornadoes, but most of damage reports look like they come from straight line winds from very intense thunderstorms.

Winds reportedly gusted to 79 mph in Carrollton, Kentucky and 76 mph in Paducah, Kentucky this morning.

Super strong thunderstorms can be as dangerous as tornadoes, so Kentucky and Tennesee this morning prove the point.

Today's bad storms come after an even worse day Tuesday.

Several tornadoes touched down, mostly in Illinois,  At least three people have died in Tuesday's tornadoes, the Weather Channel reported.  There were nearly two dozen reports of tornadoes Tuesday.

In what must have been a terrifying case, a very strong tornado crossed Interstate 55 near Perryville, Missouri after dark, hurling cars quite a distance and mangling them. Police there reported one dead and 10 injured.

Tornadoes, even big ones, are usually very hard to see at night. During the day, if you're traveling down a highway, you can often see a tornado getting ready to cross the road ahead of you.

Tornado damage inside an Illinois nursing
home on Tuesday

So you stop and let it by, or turn around and go the other way if necessary.

At night, motorists blindly drive right into the tornadoes. It had to be so terrifying to suddenly be in the midst of such a strong tornado.

To make matters worse, the tornado also blew tons of debris from a nearby salvage yard onto Interstate 55 as the trapped motorists got caught up in the twister, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Another large tornado in Ottawa, Illinois smacked into a nursing home. Some residents were injured, but none severely.

For the remainder of today, the threat of severe thunderstorms and possibly a few more tornadoes continues from northern Alabama to around the New York City area. The greatest threat for the most intense storms and tornadoes runs from the Gulf Coast states to southern Pennsylvania. 

Probably the greatest threat of tornadoes today will be over northern Alabama and Mississippi.

All the severe storms will have swept off the coast tonight, and forecasters don't anticipate more severe weather for the next few days after today.

The parent storm's strong cold front will cross the eastern seaboard tonight, ending another spate of record warmth.

In New England, it will actually turn briefly bitterly cold Friday and Saturday.

I'll have a review of Vermont and New England's extreme winter weather in a post later today.

Joplin, Missouri Doing Amazingly Well Five Years After Tornado Blew It Away

When a terrible tornado hit Joplin Missouri in May, 2011
it seemed like the city would never recover from scenes
like this. But it did, big time. 

Five years ago this coming May 22, one of the worst tornadoes in American history destroyed a pretty big chunk of Joplin, a city of 50,000 people or so in southwestern Missouri.

The storm killed 161 people. Plus, with about 7.500 homes were damaged or destroyed, and at least 500 businesses were wiped off the face of the Earth.

 It seemed Joplin would never fully recover.

But it did. 

At least pretty much. And rapidly. Five years after the tornado, the city's population is even higher than it was the day before the tornado, reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The city has more businesses than before the tornado.  

Joplin's population unsurprisingly dropped by 1.3 percent within a year of the tornado. The Post-Dispatch said many people predicted the population drain would continue indefinitely.

By 2014, three years after the tornado, 90 percent of the homes destroyed in Joplin had been rebuilt, television station KYTV reported that year.

One iconic image after the storm was the wreckage of Mercy Hospital, the major health care center in Joplin. The structure still stood, but its windows were blown out, and its interior turned to mincemeat.

It was destroyed.

Mercy Hospital was rebuilt in another location at a cost of $465 million. It's built to withstand winds of 250 mph. The tornado had winds of "only" 200 mph.

The remains of the Home Depot store in Joplin, Missouri
after the May 22, 2011 tornado. 

Also, a main commercial strip in Joplin, Range Line Road, was wrecked, most of the fast food outlets, big box stores, gas stations, honky tonks and small businesses shredded into unrecognizable pieces.

Now, it's almost totally back in business.

Some companies, like Heartland Pet Food Manufacturing, the parent company of Blue Buffalo dog food were so impressed by Joplin's resolve to come back from the tornado that they located new facilities in Joplin.

Heartland's move added 150 jobs to the Joplin economy.  I normally feed my two dogs Blue Buffalo, and Heartland's move to help Joplin's recovery inspires me to really continue buying Blue Buffalo food for Jackson and Tonks.

Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences is going to build a new campus in Joplin, took, in order to ease a doctor shortage in rural communities near Joplin, says the Post-Dispatch.

There have been bumps in Joplin's recovery, which is inevitable.  Joplin city officials hired a Texas-based developer, Wallace Bajjali, to lead the recovery effort, but that firm pretty much didn't do anything, says the St. Louis Post Dispatch. 

Grand opening of the rebuilt Home Depot in Joplin,
Missouri just seven momths after the tornaod. 

A judge orderd that firm to pay Joplin $1.5 million, after if failed to responded to Joplin's subsequent lawsuit. Wallace Bajjali has gone out of business, and they want the judgement against them set aside.

We'll see.

Still, everything is being replaced. The Arbor Day Foundation has helped replace no fewer than 26,000 trees blown away in the tornado, so as they grow, the city will once again have nice, tree-lined neighborhoods.

I'm sure deep scars remain in Joplin. The families of those 161 who died in the storm must still be feeling the losses acutely.

Joplin is in the heart of tornado alley, and a sense of deep dread must overcome the city every time a tornado watch or severe storm warning is issued.

Yet, the spirit of Joplin is incredibly healthy.

Well played, Joplin!

Images Of The Missouri Floods Look Pretty Scarty

A forlorn flooded McDonald's in Union, Missouri. 

Missouri is closing out 2015 and beginning 2016 with one of the state's worst disasters on record.

Flooding, especially along the Mississippi River and its tributaries, continues to worsen, as I noted the other day.

So far, 20 people have died in the floods since they began last weekend. At least 14 of those have been in Missouri.

Five of those who died Saturday were international soldiers attending officers' training at Fort Leonard Wood, AccuWeather said.

The five were in a car that got caught in flash flooding at a low water crossing.

Major roads like Interstates 44 and 55 were closed by high water. In one town, 20,000 people or so are without drinking water because a pumping station was overwhelmed by the water.

WPXI reported harrowing tales of a house floating down a river, and at another house a man and his dog rescued from the eaves of his flooded house after the two spent the night there.

Videos coming out of Missouri look pretty devastating. Here's a few:

Here are some houses in Branson, Missouri submerged in water, video from Live Storms Media:






Here's what the town of Union, Missouri looked like, via the Associated Press/KTVI



As this video shows, nobody is getting on Interstate 44 in a good chunk of Missouri anytime soon:

Watch A Tornado Touch Down In A Built Up Area From Several Angles.

Aerial view of yesterday's Lee's Summit, MO tornado.  

I swear everyone has a video camera these days, and the television stations all manage to get live shots of everything lately.

So when a tornado touched down in Lee's Summit, Missouri, right near Kansas City on Wednesday, the cameras were rolling.

It was interesting that the tornado was caught simultaneously from at least three different angles during one fascinating moment. All three videos are at the bottom of this post for your viewing pleasure..

The tornado was relatively weak, which is good because as you can see it was in a heavily developed neighborhood.

As is often the case, you don't see the actual funnel reaching the ground, but the tornado sure did. Not all tornadoes have funnels that extend all the way to the ground, so this isn't so unusual.

At the moment you'll see in the three videos, a suction vortice appears in the tornado.

Suction vortices are tornadoes within tornadoes, and are often responsible for the pockets of heavy damage in a tornado path in which the destruction otherwise isn't all that great.

It's why you get images of one house that's totally destroyed - hit by a suction vortice,- while the house next door is just slightly battered, because the suction vortice missed that one.

Channel 41 Action News caught the suction vortice flailing like a madman from their vantage point in a nearby parking lot:




Somebody in one of those buildings got another perspective of the tornado.  In it, you can see that same suction vortice damaging a roof of a nearby building, then zapping through some power lines. The people taking the video probably should have been inside.

Even though it was a fairly weak tornado, they could have been hurt by flying debris. Watch:



Meanwhile Action 41 news had a chopper in the air, and you can the suction vortice damaging that same   roof and those same power lines.

Why Are These Truckers Driving Into A Tornado?

Two tractor trailers drive into a tornado
near Eolio, Missouri Sunday. Photo by Kholby Martin.  

Yesterday, there were severe thunderstorms and tornados in and around the St. Louis metro area.

Storm chaser Kholby Martin captured one of the tornados crossing a highway near Eolio, Missouri.

Granted, it wasn't the strongest and most visible tornado in the world, but to anyone traveling along the highway, you can tell there was trouble ahead.  

So in the video you see below, why did two tractor trailor drivers keep going down the road right into the tornado instead of stopping and letting it cross?

One of the trucks went off the road because of the tornado, and the other came THIS CLOSE to tipping over.

Somebody really could have gotten hurt, and it would have taken only a minute to stop and let the tornado cross. Another video I saw of the same tornado taken from the opposite side showed cars stopping to let the twister pass.

Anyway, here's the video:

Tornado Slams Missouri: Heavy Damage In Town of Orrick

Storm chasers caught a tornado causing damage in the town of Orrick, Missouri Saturday.

From @basehunters via Twitter: A tornado rips roofs
from buildings Saturday in Orrick, Mo. (Click on the image
to make it bigger and easier to see.)

As of late evening, potentially tornadic storms continued to roam the area.

This tornado also proves you don't have to see a funnel that reaches all the way to the ground to get a twister that causes serious damage.

Watch:

Photos, Videos Starting To Come From Severe Weather Outbreak

So far, the tornado and severe weather outbreak in the nation's midsection has produced a handfull of tornadoes and a many reports of huge, damaging hailstones, ranging in size from golf balls to softballs.

 

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As of 9 p.m. Wednesday, tornado warnings continued in parts of Texas and Arkansas, and the hreat of twisters continues into tonight.

Photos and videos of the mayhem have been streaming in since Monday evening.

You can see some examples in this post.

Monday evening, there was a dramatic supercell thunderstorm near Throckmorton, Texas that can THIS CLOSE, but not quite, to producing a tornado. There was baseball sized hail, however.

Check out the clouds in this sucker:

 


There was a LOT of hail in Fulton, Missouri Tuesday morning.





From near Mulvane, Kansas, we have this damaging dramatic hailstorm from Wednesday evening. Video by StormChasingVideo.com: