Tornadic Vortex Signature (TVS) north of Lawton, OK. Max top 65,000'.

[DemoTex]

Lower-left corner of screen.



(This picture will self-update)

[uppityperson]

1. kick for OK

[DemoTex]

2. They just dropped the TVS .. but bad shit everywhere in Toto-land.

Be careful.

[kestrel91316]

3. That can't be right. The cloud tops out at 65 THOUSAND FEET?????

[DemoTex]

7. Yes. Very common now.

I guess it is better vertical measurement techniques (RADAR/GPS?). I have noticed it since finding the great WSI service in the past few months.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. Yes, convective weather can reach that height -- it can go up as far

as the tropopause (where they usually stop rising because of the temperature and dry air), and depending on latitude the tropopause starts as high as about 11 miles. It's gotta be a bad one, though.

[Aviation Pro]

12. Yes....

...severe TS (usually a squall line) can bust right through the tropopause and into the stratosphere. Unlike more common airmass TS, these monsters are fueled by a rapidly moving mass of Continental Polar Air, a moisture rich Maritime Tropical mass and a dry line that sits about mid-Texas. The vorticity created from this deadly combination and the density of the air at cloud tops causes the F3 or greater +FCs (tornadoes).

On edit, here's the latest Radar Summary chart:

[DemoTex]

17. As a pilot, would you rather have that "map" you posted .. or my radar summary chart?

I have 17,000+ hours, 1/2 of which are in the Boeing 737 series, and I hate those "map" radar summary charts. But, then again, as a long-time aviation writer, I understand the brick-walls against getting the best weather info to the airline line pilot. It has to do with the almighty dollar.

[Aviation Pro]

18. Real time radar of course.....

...coming to an MFD near you. We're currently using XM in our fleet and it's good but there's a five minute lag. Personally I hate the fax charts and the abomination of the radar summary report is useless so if Center isn't busy I always ask.

[Aviation Pro]

20. Is that a sim or the real deal in your photo?

"Set thrust!"

[DemoTex]

21. Someone's sim

I was a US Airways MD-80 captain until 9/10/2001. Got busted by the flight doc for high oil pressure. Never got a good picture, so I garnered this from the public domain.

[SheilaT]

4. I'm in Overland Park, KS,

and it's been raining on and off all day. More on than off. Thunder, lightning, maybe a little hail. Not supposed to get tornadoes here from this weather system, but I'm sure it all could change.

[GainesT1958]

5. They'e saying now...

That the F5 which KO'd Greensburg, Kansas, was 1.7 miles wide.

I cannot even picture what a tornado 1.7 miles in diameter would look like. I guess that width of swath and speed is why virtually the entire town was destroyed.

It's also hard to understand why that system has moved so little in the past 24 hours--it's almost as if it's stalled; at least the portion over Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

Meanwhile, around these parts, we've got a very late-season Nor'easter forming off of Cape Hatteras. But it's forecast to move SOUTH over the next two days, and BACK UP toward our coast while doing so. That's the most bizzare behavior for a Nor'easter I've ever seen; more like a tropical storm or a hurricane. We may have wind gusts of upwards of 50 mph over the next two days, with sustained winds of 35 mph--just 4 mph below tropical storm force.

Nice what that "hoax" of climate changes is doing to us lately, huh, Sen. Imhofe?

B-)

[uppityperson]

10. It looked like this

[rasputin1952]

13. Holy Shit!...

I don't have much in the fear aspect of life...but THAT is scary as hell...:scared:

[uppityperson]

14. I've seen plenty of funnel clouds, several tornados, but nothing like that.

[rasputin1952]

16. I've seen funnel clouds, but have missed any that have

touched down. I'm in NE Nebraska, and we just got out of a tornado warning. If I saw something like that coming at me...let's just say, if I survived, I'd definately go to the hospital w/unclean underwear!

I guess my dear old mom would be mortified...:)

[lovuian]

23. I just deleted a Repub comment on You Tube because he

started giving me crap about how Global Warming was a scam

Dude look at the freakin RADAR

these people are braindead

I'm lost for words I just delete them

[madrchsod]

6. been watching these storms all day.

they make it to eastern iowa and as soon as they hit the mississippi river along the northern illinois and iowa border they dissipate. not a drop of rain in northern illinois yet the storm tracks indicate we should getting slammed. hell i had to water some of my plants because the ground is dry...

[DemoTex]

9. The talking heads say the line will move very slowly .

The low is a creeper, evidently. Not good for the mid-west.

[whoneedstickets]

22. Drove from Omaha to Minneapolis today...

..Western Iowa is really soaked. Most of the streams passing under the highway were over their banks and nearly bridge height. Huge areas of standing water in the fields. That can't be good for the new corn crop.

[rasputin1952]

11. 65000 ft converts to 12.31 MILES!!! Holy crap!

This is wild...:crazy:

[tandot]

15. Shit. My sister lives NE of Oklahoma City.

:scared:

[Strelnikov_]

19. ...Widespread Flooding and Historic River Crests Expected...

Time to get out the waders.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/crnews/display_story.php?wfo=eax&storyid=7825&source=0

A weather pattern not observed since the Great Flood of 1993 appears to be taking shape over the Lower Missouri River Valley region today. The graphic below depicts the current weather pattern which favors a setup for a four to five day period of persistent, heavy rainfall. A strong upper level storm system will remain locked across the Southern Rockies for much of the week, allowing deep tropical moisture to stream northward. A stationary surface front, draped across southern Kansas and Missouri, will serve as the focus for repeated thunderstorm development. Several thunderstorm complexes are expected to develop from today, possibly continuing through Friday. Three to five inches of rain has already fallen since midnight Sunday across much of northwest Missouri and adjacent eastern Kansas. An additional three to five inches of rain, with locally higher amounts, is expected to fall over the course of the next several days.

With soils already saturated, and streams/creeks/rivers already swelled from recent rains, flash flooding will become and extremely dangerous and potentially life threatening situation. The excessive rainfall will lead to rapid rises along area rivers with widespread river flooding expected. In fact, current forecasts suggest that historic flood crests will occur on several rivers across northern Missouri, breaking previous high water marks set in 1993.