Just Can't Get Enough Of Those Storm Videos

Maybe this is becoming too much of a habit, but I've got more videos to share.

The first is the most dramatic. It shows people frantically trying to get off a boat in a severe storm. Suddenly the entire marina next to them goes flying as an apparent tornado hits. It looks like the debris somehow missed the people in this surveillance video:



The first part of this video is pretty impressive. It shows a supercell thunderstorm moving into Charleston, West Virginia on Monday. That wall of rain and wind is impressive. This storm did produce at least one tornado.



I'm sure the store manager in this video is having a bad day. A storm and flood caused roof damage at a Tesco Supermarket in Scotland a few days ago. Here's the scene inside the store:



Finally, lots more drama. Dash cam video from a guy in a car caught in a tornado that hit the Dayton, Ohio area a couple weeks ago. Surprised he wasn't hurt, with the trees flying and the roof of the nearby house appearing to disintegrate:

Flooding Worries Throughout Northeast. And Snow Again! (Don't Worry, Not in Vermont)

Areas in yellow might get enough rain to cause flooding today
and tonight. Any flooding in Vermont is likely to be
localized and not extreme. Still, don't drive through
flooded roads!

UPDATE 1 PM THURSDAY

The special weather statement from this morning that told us Vermont could end up dealing with a little flooding today has been upgraded to a flash flood watch.

The watch means that rapidly developing floods have the potential to occur this afternoon and evening.

Rainfall is even heavier than anticipated, with a large zone of heavy rain over central and northern Vermont as of 1 p.m.

We have several hours at least of occasionally heavy rain to get to. Some places in the North Country have already gotten nearly an inch of rain, and another one to three inches is on the way.

Where the heaviest downpours set up, flash flooding could easily occur. In the general area of moderate to heavy rain coming through, there are pockets of torrential downpours that could lead to flash flooding just about anywhere, especially north of Route 4.

Local flash flood warnings, meaning flooding is already happening or imminent, have been issued in parts of New York, with these warnings popping up further and further east as the rain continues in that direction.

Not far from the Vermont border, a flash flood warning is up for areas around Lake George and Bolton Landing, New York.

Don't drive into flooded roadways and seek higher ground if you get a flash flood warning or see water rising quickly.

Not everybody will get a flood out of this and it's not another Hurricane Irene, but still, take it very seriously.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION:

The wet, wet year of 2019 continues on pace today, with a widespread zone stretching from Ohio and West Virginia on up through most of New England under the gun with a flood threat today and tonight.

Here in Vermont, where it's been a little drier lately than surrounding areas, the flooding, if it occurs, won't be as widespread or deep as elsewhere.

The larger rivers like the Winooski and Lamoille will probably rise sharply, but not go over their banks.

Since there will likely be locally heavy rain, there might be some flooding of small streams and creeks and in fields. Of biggest concern to most of us will be the risk of water ponding on roads and local urban sreet flooding.

And there's the risk that, as is so often the case with heavy rain in Vermont, sewage treatment plants will be overwhelmed, sending pollution into the rivers and ultimately Lake Champlain. Too many sewage treatment plants take waste from both buildings and storm sewers. When gushes of water go into street drains in heavy rains, that's where the trouble starts. Pretty icky, huh?

Generally speaking, most of us will get one to two inches of rain and most of that will come down between noon and midnight. The reason that there might be some local flooding is that in some places, there might be a torrential downpour thrown in that would dump a lot of rain in an hour or two.

It will dry out pretty quickly Friday, with just scattered light showers amid (temporarily) cooler conditions.

FLOODING WORSE ELSEWHERE

Many areas outside of Vermont, especially to our south and west, stand a greater chance of flooding than we do. And that flooding in many cases would be much worse than the minor stuff we expect here.

Vermont, especially the north, have been far enough away from a stalled weather front this week to avoid much rain. But that front has been stalled to our south, dumping heavy rain in the Mid-Atlantic States and westward into Ohio and Indiana.

Flooding is already taking place this morning in parts of Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Many of these areas are at risk for more heavy rain today. Not good.

Already this morning, there has been flooding in and around Philadelphia and adjacent New Jersey, with people stranded on at least one highway because of flooding. I-295 in Bellmawr, New Jersey was blocked by flooding, backing up traffic for miles.

During the course of the week, the relentless rains will continue in places like Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas, where it has been basically pouring since March. The rain won't be as extreme as it was earlier this spring, but it will be enough to worsen or cause new flooding in some spots in that region.

SNOW AGAIN!?!?!

OK, the Summer Solstice is tomorrow, but somebody didn't get the memo in the northern Rockies.

Winter weather advisories, of all things, are up some high elevations above 5,000 feet in Idaho and Montana. Roads through mountain passes might get two to six inches of snow tonight, with six to 13 inches higher up in the mountains. Yikes!

Dayton, Ohio Latest City To Be Blasted By A Tornado

UPDATE 3:30 PM TUESDAY

Areas in the red circles are at particular risk of tornadoes
and severe thunderstorms today. 

There is now one confirmed death in Ohio from yesterday and last night's tornado outbreak. There are also numerous injuries.

As noted in the previous discussion, though, that's a remarkably low toll considering the strength and long tracks o the tornadoes, and the fact they occurred mostly at night in Ohio.

Nighttime tornadoes are dangerous because people are less likely to be aware of warnings, and they don't see the bad weather coming.

Some of the tornadoes were indeed quite strong. At least two of the tornadoes in the suburbs of Dayton were catagorized as EF-3, with winds of at least 140 mph.

I've added an ABC news report of the tornadoes to the bottom of this post. It gives you a good sense of how terrifying and devastating this was.

Today is proving to be a dangerous day as well. A string of tornado and severe thunderstorm watches extends from Kansas to Pennsylvania and New Jersey. 

As of 3:45 p.m., at least three tornado warnings - meaning a tornado has been spotted or radar indicates a tornado - were up in Pennsylvania and there will surely be more.

The Kansas City, Missouri, area is bracing for possibly strong tornadoes later today. Torrential rains this afternoon are worsening flooding in Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and Oklahoma.

For those of us in Vermont who are wondering, we are far removed from any threat of severe storms. We are on the cold side of the storm, so we're just experiencing another cold, drenching rain. Burlington, Vermont had picked up another 0.38 inches of rain as of 3 p.m., contributing to what is turning into a very wet, but not record wet May.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

Details are emerging this morning of widespread damage around Dayton, Ohio after a large tornado stayed on the ground, apparently for miles through a populated area in and around Dayton, Ohio.

Last night's Dayton disaster was part of one of the largest tornado outbreaks of the year so far in 2019. There were 60 preliminary reports of tornadoes Monday in an area stretching from Colorado to Ohio.

Hard to see at night but you can
make out the tornado hitting
the Dayton, Ohio area
last night in this photo

So far, there are miraculously no reports of deaths, which is probably because the large and dangerous tornado was well-warned by the National Weather Service and local media outlets.

However,  early indications are that many homes, apartments and businesses were destroyed in Ohio.  About 5 million people in the state had no electricity.  Snowplows were called out to remove tornado debris blocking Interstate 75 around Dayton.

The Dayton tornado was part of a series of storms in the past week that produced destructive tornadoes after dark.  They're especially dangerous at night, because people might be in bed sleeping and not hear tornado warnings.

Nightime tornados also caused two deaths and a lot of damage in El Reno, Oklahoma two days ago, and tons of damage in Jefferson City, Missouri last week.

As an aside, the El Reno tornado was weird because it had a very  narrow path for a tornado of that strength. It was an EF3, which means it had winds of between 136 to 165 mph, but its width was only about 75 yards wide.

That might be a record for the narrowest strong tornado on record. Ironically, El Reno, Oklahoma is where the nation's widest tornado on record hit. That tornado in 2013 was 2.6 miles wide.

The tornado threat continues today, with twisters a fairly good bet in parts of Kansas, Missouri and Iowa, with maybe a couple more tornadoes in Pennsylvania. There might be a few more tornadoes tomorrow, especially around eastern Oklahoma and Arkansas.

The weather pattern that has brought numerous tornadoes to the middle of the nation is expected to settle down later this week. Although there might be pockets of severe weather after midweek, they won't be as extensive and persistent as they have in recent days.

Tuesday Evening Update: "Almost" Full Fledged Winter Storm Coming To Vermont

The National Weather Service office in South Burlington has this
snowfall prediction through Thursday evening in the North Country.
Areas in yellow and orange can expect at least six
inches of snow. 

There was a break of sorts in the weather this afternoon here in Vermont. The wind died down, and almost all the precipitation ended. Many areas west of the Green Mountains had temperatures poking just above freezing. It remained overcast and dark, but oh well.

I hope you enjoyed it, because, as I noted this morning, the weather is going to get challenging, starting tonight.

We talked this morning that the weather systems coming in from the west are pretty dynamic. Nothing demonstrated that more that an EF-1 tornado, packing winds of up to 100 mph, that touched down in Cortland, Ohio.

That's incredibly far north for a tornado this time of year. A tornado warning went up for awhile in western Pennsylvania, and hail up to an inch in diameter was reported. (Video of this is at the bottom of this post.)

Rest assured we are not going to see any kind of severe thunderstorms in Vermont. It's just going to be a return to wintry weather.

I'd plan on heading out to work or school much earlier than usual tomorrow morning. This evening, a mix of rain and snow and freezing rain and sleet is going to move in. From the Green Mountains eastward, this looks like it will be almost exclusively frozen precipitation, so up to a tenth of an inch of ice will accumulate on everything outdoors.

Needless to say, roads will be quite nasty and dangerous tonight in those areas. Those roads will stay pretty much lousy all day Wednesday.

As a storm passes by just to our south tomorrow morning, mixed precipitation will change to snow area wide. It'll snow all day, and accumulations look to be even a little more substantial than I was thinking this morning.

A very rare January tornado in Ohio today. 

Snow and snow showers will keep going through the day Thursday all though they will be slowly tapering off in the valleys Thursday.

Generally speaking, this how forecasters, at the moment anyway, are thinking total accumulations will amount to by Thursday evening.  

Connecticut River Valley from about White River Junction South: 1-3 inches

Low elevations of southwestern Vermont, the Champlain Valley from about Burlington south, and the Northeast Kingdom close to the Connecticut River: 2-6 inches.

Central and northern Vermont, the northern  Champlain Valley, and the Northeast Kingdom: 4-8 inches.

Western slopes and summits of the Green Mountains, the Andirondacks, higher elevations of the Northeast Kingdom: 6-12 inches, with possible spot reports of more than that.

Temperatures will fall all day Wednesday, and keep getting colder and colder Wednesday night and Thursday.

Friday and Saturday still look like they will be bitterly cold, with highs in the single numbers and lows well below zero. Welcome to January, folks!

Here's the Ohio tornado in action today. Note: strong language. But I love how the guys keep calling the tornado "a nader."

Tornado Outbreak Blasts Indiana, Ohio, And Still Watching the Tropics

Large tornado near Defiance, Ohio Wednesday
Photo by Jaycee Riley.  

We're past the time in the spring and early summer when we get those terrible Midwest tornado outbreaks, but as yesterday proved, you can get these tornado swarms any time of year.

Wednesday, numerous tornadoes touched down in Indiana and Ohio, and some of them were quite large, and as you'd expect, there was a LOT of property damage.

Surprisingly and happily, there are no reports of any serious injuries. About 15 to 20 people did receive relatively minor injuries caused by flying debris.

It didn't hurt that the National Weather Service kept issuing timely warnings, so people were able to take cover ahead of the twisters.

Such was the case in hard-hit Kokomo, Indiana, where a Starbucks restaurant manager hustled patrons into a rest room just before the tornado hit, flattening the building.

The stronger interior walls of restrooms held, so everybody in there was fine. It wouldn't have been the case had they been out in the main area of the Starbucks. There's dramatic video of the Starbucks blowing over from a worker inside a nearby Chile's restaurant, which stayed intact during the tornado.

The Kokomo Tribune reported roughly 500 people displaced from their tornado-damaged homes. The tornado there was considered a quite strong EF3 with winds of 165 mph or so.

Electricity is still out in parts of Kokomo and schools are closed today. Wednesday's tornado took a path similar to another destructive tornado that damaged some of the same neighborhoods in November, 2013.

The supercells that scattered the tornadoes in Indiana continued on into Ohio, where there were more large ones, mainly over rural areas.

That region is not out of the woods. Indiana and especially Ohio are at risk for tornadoes and severe storms today, but the threat of tornadoes is lower today than it was yesterday.

TROPICAL TROUBLES

Forecasters are still watching a big patch of showers and storms entering the Caribbean Sea today for signs that it could develop into Tropical Storm Hermine.

The thing is still totally disorganized, but is producing enough huge thunderstorms to raise the risk of severe flash flooding and mudslides in Puerto Rico, Haiti and the Dominican Republic today.

Forecasts are pretty consistent that this thing will eventually head toward the Bahamas and Florida, but what will this "thing" be?

Heat content in the ocean water east of Florida is at record highs, and that would tend to help a tropical storm or hurricane develop.

But that's not the only ingredient. If upper level winds are wrong, it won't develop. Still, Florida, the Bahamas and possibly eventually the Gulf of Mexico coastline should watch and see what this thing does.

Here's the view from inside a Chili's Restaurant in Kokomo, Indiana as a tornado blew over the Starbucks next door on Wednesday:

Tornadoes, Some Expected, Some Not.

The tornado that was pretty much unexpected
sweeps across an Ohio field Monday.  

As is often the case as we approach spring, there's been a few tornadoes over the past couple of days in the nation.

There were a few in Arkansas Sunday, and these were remarkably well forecasted. As many as two days before they touched down, forecasts focused right on Arkansas as ground zero for the risk of severe storms.

And that's where almost all of the severe weather occurred. You can see a very eerily lit, striking tornado in Arkansas Sunday at the bottom of this post.

Today, at least one tornado touched down in Ohio. While meteorologists issued a timely warning when it became apparent there was strong rotation indicating a tornado, twisters were considered to be highly unlikely at most in Ohio today.

Sure, forecasters knew there would probably be thunderstorms in Ohio today, tornadoes seemed almost completely out of the realm of possibility.

But there you go. Just because tornadoes are unlikely in any given place when there's thunderstorms, they're not impossible. Scientists know a lot about how tornadoes form, why they form and when they form.

However, they don't know everything about what leads to tornadoes. Ohio today was your proof.

By the way, there's a possibility of a tornado or two today in far eastern Iowa, northern Illinois and perhaps far southern Wisconsin.

You'll see a video of the Ohio tornado, below the video of the Arkansas twister. It was filmed near Star City, Arkanas by Live Storms Media:



Next, we have a fairly close range of the narrow EF1 tornado in Ohio that damaged at least one house and several other buildings. Here it dances ominously and seductively across a field: