"Particularly Dangerous" Tornado Outbreak Underway -- Liveblog Updated 13x
Sun Jan 22, 2012 at 05:06 PM PST
"Particularly Dangerous" Tornado Outbreak Underway -- Liveblog Updated 13x
by weatherdude
The SPC has issued a "Particularly Dangerous Situation" Tornado Watch for parts of Mississippi, Arkansas, and Tennessee until midnight CST as a line of storms continues to build up and move east across Arkansas. "Particularly Dangerous Situation" is enhanced wording added to a tornado watch to indicate the higher-than-normal potential for large, destructive, long-track tornadoes in any of the stronger storms tonight.
This is an extremely dangerous situation not only because of the intensity of the tornadoes, but because this is happening overnight. 2.5x more people die in nighttime tornado outbreaks than they would if the storms were to occur during the day, because 1) most people don't get warnings if they're asleep, and 2) it's a sad fact that people try to look for tornadoes to see it for themselves before they take cover, and you can't see a tornado at night. They don't come with built-in nightlights. Keep a very close eye on the weather tonight if you live in Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi or Alabama, as these storms are forecast to grow more violent as the hours pass.
Here's a quick look at the area most at risk for these particularly dangerous tornadoes, which is shaded in red. The yellow area (slight risk for severe t'storms) is also at risk (albeit not as high of a risk) for storms tonight into tomorrow morning.
...958PM CST: I spoke too soon. Tornado warning for the City of Memphis and surrounding areas. CONFIRMED TORNADO just southwest of Memphis, moving northeast right into the city. This is a dangerous situation. It's moving at 55 MPH, so you don't have much time to hesitate if you're in the warned area...
MUCH MORE WITH UPDATES: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/22/1057417/-Particularly-Dangerous-Tornado-Outbreak-Underway-Liveblog-Updated-13x?via=siderec
RKP5637
(67,112 posts)Newsjock
(11,733 posts)... A Tornado Warning remains in effect until 1045 PM CST for western
Shelby... extreme northwestern DeSoto and central Crittenden
counties...
At 1003 PM CST... National Weather Service Doppler radar continued to
indicate a tornado. This tornado was located near Midway Corner... or
9 miles southwest of West Memphis... moving northeast at 60 mph.
Locations in the warning include but are not limited to Edmondson...
Marion... sunset... West Memphis... downtown Memphis... Frayser... Midtown
Memphis... southwest Memphis... Crittenden... Ebony... Gavin... Harvard...
Briark and Bridge Junction.
This warning also includes areas near Brandywine Lake... coronee lake
and Wapanocca Lake.
Live coverage from Memphis: http://www.wreg.com
SharonAnn
(13,778 posts)overnight and in the AM.
didn't think much more about it till I cam here and saw this thread.
FourScore
(9,704 posts)Please stay safe.
southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)candles and rosaries asking god to watch over my family and neighbors. I always get alittle scared. I won't be sleeping to well tonight. Stay safe everyone. I hope there isn't much damages or deaths. Peace be with you all.
jwirr
(39,215 posts)southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)Samantha
(9,314 posts)I ask because my stepmother lives in Seymour TN and I just saw this. I am wondering if I should call and wake her up to warn her.
Sam
FourScore
(9,704 posts)I would rather be woken by a phone call I wasn't expecting than a tornado I wasn't expecting.
southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)I live around Rock Island Tn. How did your stepmom make out. I don't know where Seymour is.
carla
(553 posts)same god that sends the tornadoes...hide in the SE corner of your basement, that is the only tangible protection for us.
southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)the morning watching a long, long movie on AMC (Kingdom of Heaven). It was pretty good. We were lucky we didn't have it to bad. Guess my prayers to god worked.
Thanks for posting this. I have family in Memphis.
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)DesertRat
(27,995 posts)dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)It is 60 degrees right now. Feels like late Feb, not late Jan.
Wind is blowing a bit.
Just heard a warning for Jackson Miss. which is where our weather comes out of, so tonight will be interesting.
Usually they hit a bit north of me, meaning the Tuscaloosa area...damn.
"Weather service meteorologists expect a line of storms that already has prompted tornado warnings in Arkansas to hit the Jackson metro area between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. and exit the state state by 4 a.m. The weather service said the storms will be capable of producing severe thunderstorms, damaging winds, tornadoes and golf-ball sized hail.
Meteorologist Anna Weber said the weather looks to be bringing a line of storms that could spawn supercells as well as 70-80 mile per hour winds. The worst of the weather is expected to hit a line from Rayville, La., to Laurel and north."
This is the kind of weather I try to stay awake for.
FourScore
(9,704 posts)Stay safe dixiegrrrrl.
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)Looks like warm air from the Gulf of Mexico is colliding with cold air from the north.
At any rate, this is unusual for Arkansas, at least, since historically the worst tornadoes in that state have occurred almost exclusively in March and April. So, the 2010 New Year's Eve tornado that occurred in Cincinnati, Arkansas (near the Oklahoma border) was a real shocker.
aquart
(69,014 posts)Hugabear
(10,340 posts)What we're seeing is perfectly normal. It's happening all over the solar system - why, just the other day, there was a massive tornado outbreak on the moon.
redqueen
(115,103 posts)But we're in the process of establishing a "new normal", so, all bets are off, really.
qanda
(10,422 posts)Stay safe DUers in these areas.
AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)There was one that happened in January, 1975 that went as far north as the bottom of Illinois and dropped an F4 tornado that killed 9 people in Southern Miss.
The Doctor.
(17,266 posts)Once every 30 years can certainly be considered 'very rare'.
AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)But it has been slightly more common than once every 3 decades, though.
There was the New Year's Eve 2010 outbreak. One in 2007 occurred on the last day of winter and the first day of spring and was the one that produced the Enterprise, Ala. twister.
And more on topic, there was a mid-winter outbreak in 1999 that spawned 100+ tornadoes and killed 16 people.
Apparently, more also occurred in 1947, 1949, 1967, 1969, and even as far back as 1929.
So yeah, they are somewhat rare, but they do happen just a tad more than some might think.
Broderick
(4,578 posts)Vanje
(9,766 posts)Batten down your hatches, or whatever .
Check in tomorrow, so we'll know how you fared.
ChairmanAgnostic
(28,017 posts)This is fucking weird weather.
frazzled
(18,402 posts)I thought: is that the washing machine, the dishwasher? (Neither was on.) Then I panicked and thought it was the furnace. Then I looked out the window and saw that all hell was breaking loose with lightning (and I guess hail, because it sounded like that). Lucky my son and daughter-in-law, who'd come to dinner, just three minutes before called to tell me they'd gotten home okay (though maybe it was already crazy on the South Side).
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)I was freaking out trying to figure out what that booming noise was!
ChairmanAgnostic
(28,017 posts)Hell, this was a full blast thunderstorm, heavy lightning, high winds, a good time to stay indoors. Even my dogs were cowering around us.
FourScore
(9,704 posts)"The lavender outlines on the radar image below represent tornado warnings, multiple ones of which have been issued all across the Memphis metro area. The most widespread threat is for straight-line winds, but the kinks and swirls in the line of thunderstorms are indicative of storm structures that are capable of spinning up localized tornadoes."
http://www.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/january-severe-weather-outbreak_2012-01-22
FourScore
(9,704 posts)murielm99
(30,761 posts)I don't want to be caught in the middle of the night by a violent storm. While I might not sleep through it, I could be sleepy and unprepared. My husband would sleep through it. He sleeps through anything.
My radio has battery back-up, too. I would recommend one of these radios for everyone.
Stay safe, people down there!
certainot
(9,090 posts)eppur_se_muova
(36,289 posts)On TV, and the sirens are going off here (safely to the NW).
Edweird
(8,570 posts)I have to show up for work at 6am. I'm going to be driving right through the worst of this shortly.
Broderick
(4,578 posts)Was a uneventful one
Edweird
(8,570 posts)I made it safe and sound, but it was rough in some spots. At times the rain was on par with a tropical system.
Broderick
(4,578 posts)Edweird
(8,570 posts)I guess that explains the torrential downpour.
Stuckinthebush
(10,847 posts)I've made that drive many times but in reverse from the University to the Gadsden Center.
Edweird
(8,570 posts)I work for a utility contractor. We are starting a new job.
Stuckinthebush
(10,847 posts)That is if you can avoid rush hour in Bham.
Edweird
(8,570 posts)We have 2 days left there, and then we are focused on Tuscaloosa for around a month... My gas guzzler would cost me an arm and a leg if I had that commute every day
Do you still make that commute?
era veteran
(4,069 posts)Blew the heavy storm shovel off my porch.
Looks like it is leaving my part of the Bluegrass right now.
Good luck everybody.
existentialist
(2,190 posts)for the warning to those in the way.
Magoo48
(4,720 posts)redqueen
(115,103 posts)2 dead in Ala. as storms pound South, Midwest
CLAY, Ala. (AP) Two people were killed in the Birmingham, Ala., area as storms pounded the South and Midwest, prompting tornado warnings in a handful of states early Monday.
At least one of the areas affected by the storms, which were part of a system that stretched from the Great Lakes down to the Gulf of Mexico, was also hit by a line of killer storms that slammed the Southeast last April.
Jefferson County sheriff's spokesman Randy Christian said a 16-year-old boy was killed in Clay and an 82-year-old man died in the community of Oak Grove.
The storm produced a possible tornado that moved across northern Jefferson County around 3:30 a.m., causing damage in Oak Grove, Graysville, Fultondale, Center Point, Clay and Trussville, Christian said. He said several homes were destroyed and numerous injuries were reported.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)Update at 7:50 a.m. ET: A WBMA reporter on the scene says a section of northeast Birmingham "looks like a war zone" with businesses levelled by the storm.
Update at 7:54 a.m. ET: WBMA TV, quoting "credible reports" says at least four people have been killed, three of them in western Jefferson County and one in the Birmingham area. The Birmingham TV station also reports "significant injuries."
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2012/01/report-loss-of-life-major-damage-from-alabama-tornado/1
I live further southwest of the area, but "got to" be up from 2 to 4 am because of the dog, who gets pretty nervous when these storms come rolling in.
redqueen
(115,103 posts)Glad your dog woke you up, just in case.
ThoughtCriminal
(14,049 posts)It seems to be a tornado magnet.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)then these bands move east, so they hit the same places every time.
Sorta like sweeping your arm at an angle across a table top.
I deliberately chose the town I am in after realizing what the storm track is "normally",
we are south of the worst of the tornado alley and north of the "usual" hurricane hits.
Best laid plans go astray, of course;tornadoes hit this street during Hurricane Ivan in 2004, which landed almost directly on our town.
We still do not have any tall straight trees.
patrice
(47,992 posts)Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)All were in the town of Fordyce. Many homes were damaged or destroyed, but no one was hurt.
http://nwahomepage.com/fulltext-news?nxd_id=301662