CT Rain Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Still the 8th most damaging tornado in US history (ORH is 10th). F4... 11.3 miles long... 1400 yards wide. Most bizarre synoptic setup for a NE tornado in October of all months. http://ryanhanrahan.wordpress.com/2011/10/03/one-of-the-most-bizarre-tornadoes/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dryslot Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Still the 8th most damaging tornado in US history (ORH is 10th). F4... 11.3 miles long... 1400 yards wide. Most bizarre synoptic setup for a NE tornado in October of all months. http://ryanhanrahan.wordpress.com/2011/10/03/one-of-the-most-bizarre-tornadoes/ Got to luv those hair styles and older vehicles back then.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damage In Tolland Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 On that map it looks like there was another TOR NE of HFD..What town was that one in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT Rain Posted October 3, 2011 Author Share Posted October 3, 2011 On that map it looks like there was another TOR NE of HFD..What town was that one in? I think that may be a mistake.. there is nothing in Storm Data about another tornado. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weatherwiz Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Excellent write-up, Ryan! Still incredibly bizarre to think something as power as this could occur here in a setup like this, especially in this region. For the storm to had reach levels of 50K (at least) you know there was some serious updrafts going on in that storm. Given the setup helicity was through the roof so a storm topping out at 50,000+ is easily tapping into that. Hell, we can't even get 50K tops here during the summer I really wonder what Cape values were like that day b/c shear had to be quite strong so you needed at least a decent amount of Cape to maintain the upward motions w/o them being sheared apart by the strong winds. The sun did come out for like an hour or so (from what I've heard) in that area so that had to not only boost temps up several degrees but given the moist airmass probably was perfect for something around 1500-2000 J/KG of Cape I would guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weatherwiz Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 I think that may be a mistake.. there is nothing in Storm Data about another tornado. Yeah that was the only confirmed tornado from that afternoon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT Rain Posted October 3, 2011 Author Share Posted October 3, 2011 Excellent write-up, Ryan! Still incredibly bizarre to think something as power as this could occur here in a setup like this, especially in this region. For the storm to had reach levels of 50K (at least) you know there was some serious updrafts going on in that storm. Given the setup helicity was through the roof so a storm topping out at 50,000+ is easily tapping into that. Hell, we can't even get 50K tops here during the summer I really wonder what Cape values were like that day b/c shear had to be quite strong so you needed at least a decent amount of Cape to maintain the upward motions w/o them being sheared apart by the strong winds. The sun did come out for like an hour or so (from what I've heard) in that area so that had to not only boost temps up several degrees but given the moist airmass probably was perfect for something around 1500-2000 J/KG of Cape I would guess. The soundings from CHH and WAL are not terribly unstable... certainly nothing where F4 would jump out at you. There must have been enough solar heating, warm/moist flow off the Sound/Atlantic Ocean and enough mid level cooling in advance of the shortwave to trigger things. So yeah normally I wouldn't expect enough instability in this kind of setup to produce big severe but we had it this time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoastalWx Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 The soundings from CHH and WAL are not terribly unstable... certainly nothing where F4 would jump out at you. There must have been enough solar heating, warm/moist flow off the Sound/Atlantic Ocean and enough mid level cooling in advance of the shortwave to trigger things. So yeah normally I wouldn't expect enough instability in this kind of setup to produce big severe but we had it this time. Must have been pretty unstable aloft to really allow an F4 to form. Obviously the helicity was there, but you need the updraft to accelerate pretty dam quickly. Probably just a unique set of circumstances that came together perfectly. Kind of like the Joplin tornado that went from a barely condensed funnel to a monster wedge in abut 60 seconds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoarfrostHubb Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Ryan, your write-ups are very interesting and well done. Good mix of tech disco and real world relevance. I wish you were in the BOS market Amazing that it did $700 million in damages Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT Rain Posted October 3, 2011 Author Share Posted October 3, 2011 Must have been pretty unstable aloft to really allow an F4 to form. Obviously the helicity was there, but you need the updraft to accelerate pretty dam quickly. Probably just a unique set of circumstances that came together perfectly. Kind of like the Joplin tornado that went from a barely condensed funnel to a monster wedge in abut 60 seconds. Yeah I guess you had just enough cooling at 500mb as the cold pool moved in and a southerly moist flow to get things going. It's obviously a bizarre setup for October and I can't really think of many analogs for this region. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT Rain Posted October 3, 2011 Author Share Posted October 3, 2011 Ryan, your write-ups are very interesting and well done. Good mix of tech disco and real world relevance. I wish you were in the BOS market Amazing that it did $700 million in damages Thanks Dave A lot of the damage was done to the airport. Tossed planes are expensive lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginx snewx Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Thanks Dave A lot of the damage was done to the airport. Tossed planes are expensive lol. Nice job Ryan, I worked with a guy who restored old planes that were at the Museum, he was devastated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT Rain Posted October 3, 2011 Author Share Posted October 3, 2011 Nice job Ryan, I worked with a guy who restored old planes that were at the Museum, he was devastated. Yeah what happened at the museum was really sad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoarfrostHubb Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Any good images of the tornado? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weatherwiz Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Yeah I guess you had just enough cooling at 500mb as the cold pool moved in and a southerly moist flow to get things going. It's obviously a bizarre setup for October and I can't really think of many analogs for this region. That was another thing I was thinking as well, as the cold pool moved closer and cold air advected in aloft that helped to steepen the ML lapse rates which would certainly help with upward motion and also probably helped to destabilize things further. The s/w at 500mb was also incredibly vigorous which certainly helped as well. The other key aspect was the left mover riding up along the warm front and intersecting the triple point. You could draw that setup up another 1000 times and probably get nothing out of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weatherwiz Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Any good images of the tornado? The tornado was most certainly rain wrapped so there unfortunately no images of the actual tornado. Here are some pics of the damage though http://www.wlfd.com/mediagallery/album.php?aid=79 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Collinsville Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Most anomalous weather event in known New England history? I think it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT Rain Posted October 3, 2011 Author Share Posted October 3, 2011 Most anomalous weather event in known New England history? I think it is. It's definitely up there for one of the most bizarre. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrisrotary12 Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 In the first min or so of the clip he says "the nws says it was a small tornado......" 1400 yds wide isn't small. That's a little over 3/4 of a mile. Some small tornado. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wx4cast Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 Quite a few years back I was at a NESC in Saratoga. SPC was there with a few presentations one was an historical reanalysis of significant severe weather events and this tornado event was one of the ones shown during the presentation. I'll have to rummage through my library and CDs I am almost certain that this presentation is on it as a ppt show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT Rain Posted October 4, 2011 Author Share Posted October 4, 2011 Quite a few years back I was at a NESC in Saratoga. SPC was there with a few presentations one was an historical reanalysis of significant severe weather events and this tornado event was one of the ones shown during the presentation. I'll have to rummage through my library and CDs I am almost certain that this presentation is on it as a ppt show. Cool would love to see it. On an old floppy disk? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wx4cast Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 Cool would love to see it. On an old floppy disk? You're a tool! Blizz might be right about you after all. ;-) NO its on a CD but its a ,shw file. If you have the ability to view such a file, i'll e-mail it your way. IIRC The T.P. was very close to BDL at the time the tornado formed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT Rain Posted October 4, 2011 Author Share Posted October 4, 2011 You're a tool! Blizz might be right about you after all. ;-) NO its on a CD but its a ,shw file. If you have the ability to view such a file, i'll e-mail it your way. IIRC The T.P. was very close to BDL at the time the tornado formed Yeah was basically right over BDL. Winds were due east and then shifted to south as the tornado moved in. Shoot me an email... I may be able to open it. Thanks Andy How you feeling btw? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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