Severe thunderstorm hits New Orleans

[merwin]

Severe thunderstorm hits New Orleans

KENNER, La. (AP) — A violent thunderstorm swept through neighborhoods hit hard by Hurricane Katrina, tearing off roofs, knocking down utility poles and collapsing at least one previously storm-damaged house early Thursday, authorities said.

No serious injuries were reported.

The storm ripped part of a roof off Louis Armstrong International Airport, then hit the suburb of Kenner and the hurricane-ravaged lakefront area of New Orleans where at least one house collapsed, police said.
...
The National Weather Service had yet not determined whether a tornado had hit. The thunderstorm moved at more than 50 mph across the New Orleans region around 2:30 a.m.

[oldtime dfl_er]

1. Sheesh

Is this "normal" for this time of year? Or the "new normal" (ie global warming)?

[donsu]

2. this is the new normal - expect more and worse

nt

[Maddy McCall]

5. Nothing at all new about it.

We southerners have dealt with tornadoes all our lives, as did our ancestors. It's no fun, but it's just the way it is.

[Maddy McCall]

7. .

.

[Maddy McCall]

4. Yes. It's completely normal.

It's terrible, but it's completely normal to us southerners. Tornadoes are a way of life down here.

[pitohui]

18. it is just something that happens from time to time

you can't really blame a thunderstorm and a couple of tornadoes on global warming, we've always had them, esp. in that area near the airport, i could tell a tale or two

[Tesha]

3. Tornadoes Blow Through New Orleans

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2006/02/02/national/a080327S34.DTL

Tornadoes Blow Through New Orleans

Tornadoes early Thursday tore through New Orleans neighborhoods
that were hit hard by Hurricane Katrina just five months earlier,
collapsing at least one previously damaged house and battering the
airport, authorities said.

Roofs were ripped off and utility poles came down, but no serious
injuries were reported.

"Don't ever ask the question, `What else could happen?'" said Marcia
Paul Leone, a mortgage banker who was surveying the new damage to
her Katrina-flooded home.

<snip>

Electricity was knocked out at Louis Armstrong International Airport,
grounding passenger flights and leaving travelers to wait in a dimly
lit terminal powered by generators. The storm also ripped off part of
a concourse roof, slammed one jetway into another, and flipped
motorized runway luggage carts.more coming)

<more>

[gasperc]

6. if any hurricane gets in the Gulf and water temps 90F+

I think a CAT1 could easily amp up to CAT4 or 5 and whatever gets in it's path should batten down the hatches.

Global warming isn't causing hurricanes, it's warming the Gulf water to the point of turning otherwise mild hurricanes into monster's. A simple statement that every Democrat should repeat 8 thousand times a day.

[Maddy McCall]

9. Hmm. I've never heard of a tornado leaving land and becoming a

hurricane. Have never even considered the possibility.

[gasperc]

19. I didn't mean to link the tornado with a hurricane

I was generalizing more to the severe storm situation that will likely plague the region

[Uncle Joe]

22. I have heard of tornadoes springing off of hurricanes.

If the gulf coast waters are indeed excessively warmed due to global warming, and this in turn creates more severe hurricanes, it seems logical to me that we will also have an increase in the number of tornadoes.

[Maddy McCall]

8. It's early tornado season in the South, and just about the time...

tornado season is over, hurricane season kicks off. Southerners are really concerned about next hurricane season, because it's supposed to be worse than last year's.

[phantom power]

10. Tornado occurrence bar-graph of that region

(Well, I guess that region doesn't exactly overlap New Orleans, but maybe it's still indicative)

"A distribution of tornadoes by month for area covered by the National Weather Forecast Office in Shreveport. This includes 48 counties and parishes in SW Arkansas, NW Louisiana, SE Oklahoma, and E Texas."

[LizW]

11. The cherry trees in Washington D. C. are blooming

The earliest date ever recorded, I think.

[bananas]

12. Are you serious?

I was just wondering if they would bloom early - posted this on Tuesday:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=40544&mesg_id=40587

[Tesha]

13. Serious. It was on the news last night.

It win't be long before the waves of the tidal pool are lapping at
Jefferson's feet.

Tesha

[bananas]

14. Wow - found a news story

It says they're blooming by the zoo, but not at the tidal basin yet.
4 paragraphs from the story - there's also a video at the link:

http://wusa9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=46368

...
"I didn't expect to see them in January," said Carol Scott who was visiting from New York.

Some are blooming just across from the National Zoo on Connecticut Avenue. If we were to get cold, we'd probably lose the blossoms, but the tree will be just fine.
...
Not to worry, the cherry blossoms along the Tidal Basin aren't nearly ready to come out.

So why are the trees blooming upon Connecticut Avenue and not here at the Tidal Basin? Probably a couple of factors. One is the variety of tree. Different varieties of cherry trees have different bloom times. Also, the proximity of the trees to this body of water. The water at the tidal basin keeps daytime temperatures several degrees cooler than by the zoo and that can make a huge different when it comes time for a tree to bloom.
...

[0007]

16. The trees here in West Texas budding six weeks early

[babydollhead]

15. google H.A.A.R.P.

[NickB79]

20. Google global warming

We don't need to use a conspiracy, weather-control-by-shadow-government argument to understand why the weather is so screwed up.

[dbt]

21. Google S. 517 and HR 2995

:evilgrin:

[pitohui]

17. it was god-awful

yeah, yeah, we know thunderstorms but i thought the nuclear war had started

crap!

the airport was just really starting to get back on track too