PFreak, those pictures are unreal. I've just been gawking at them for a good ten minutes. As for conditions down here, major suckage. Nastiest jog I've had in recent memory.
Perhaps a repeat something akin to that windy nor'easter last October with the upcoming pattern? Draw up some quasi-tropical entity out of the Gulf and fling it into James' back yard.
I took a drive through there just now. Todd Street is still inaccessible. The tree and wire damage in some sections is pretty extraordinary. I can only imagine how terrified my uncle was getting caught in the middle of it on Gaylord Mountain Rd.
It didn't even feel all that unstable here, quite comfortable in fact. Even mid-afternoon you could feel the marine influence on the south wind. I thought for sure the storms were just gonna fall apart as they approached.
Your discussion of how storms moving from elevations to valleys often tighten up seemed to bear fruit based on the NWS reports. Interesting small scale stuff.
Amazing storm. Sucker was moving 100mph at one point. I went out on an errand and the storm was just moving out of Pa. I came back a half hour later with the sky darkening and a tornado warning issued and Ryan highlighting those nutty velocities. That was a real wtf moment.