SpartyOn Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 A brutal day for areas from OK through SeMi. Just going over some of the OBS data shows what looked like some major shear and fuel. Must have been a solid loaded gun. That particular day featured some 66 tornadoes nation wide with 3 being fatal. The West Bloomfeild Tornado struck around 7:15 pm and raced at an alarming speed. 115 feet wide and 3 miles long. 1 death and 55 injured. Damage was estimated in the 50 million range. This area is located just NW of the city of Detroit and is considered an outer ring suburb. old school radar grab For more info http://www.crh.noaa.gov/dtx/wbtor.php www.tornadohistoryproject.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hm8 Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 This tornado passed within 2 miles of where my house is today and literally within a few hundred meters of where my dad lived when he was a kid, accodring to that track map. Pretty much goes right over his house (where my grandparent still live today). Scary to think about it... AS he tells the story, his buddy called him and said that there was a tornado really close by. So he did exactly what they teach you to do....run upstairs and look out his window to see it. If I recall correctly, a bell tire at orchard and maple (where my dad lived) was completely demolished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpartyOn Posted February 7, 2012 Author Share Posted February 7, 2012 Classic F4 damage patterns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyhb Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 Have thought for awhile that the Detroit/SEMI/Windsor area in general is overdue for a significant tornado event at some point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weatherpsycho Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 I remember this storm. I was just a kid. We were in the path of the storm but east of the tornado living near the Macomb/Oakland county boarder. It is the only time I remember my parents taking us to the basement. We went before the storm arrived and came up a like a hour later. I never got to see the t-storm. I remember being so mad I missed the storm. Of course when you're like 6 years old you do have much say in the matter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Powerball Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 Have thought for awhile that the Detroit/SEMI/Windsor area in general is overdue for a significant tornado event at some point. Detroit's overdue for a lot of significant weather events if you really want to get down to it. The last significant tornado event was 1997, the last significant ice storm was 2003, and the last crippling snowstorm was 1974. Then again, the world is also thousands of years overdue for a magnetic pole shift. But yeah, it's a pretty good city to live in if you don't want to worry everyday about mother nature devastating you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyhb Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 Sfc map from the day: 500 mb at 00z: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpartyOn Posted February 7, 2012 Author Share Posted February 7, 2012 Sfc map from the day: 500 mb at 00z: Couldn't ask for a better set-up. That lps in the arrowhead of MN sometimes means danger for this area. 1997 had a similar placement of a feature in the arrowhead also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stebo Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 The cost of damage and potential loss of life if this occurred now would be pretty catastrophic. That area has exploded in population since 1976 and there are a ton of large expensive mansions in that part of the county now. 1970 population was 28k now 66k. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmichweather Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 Just a bit further east same strength, strongest tornado to ever hit in Macomb Mi. was the May 8th 1964 that moved right over where I used to live at 21 and Gratiot. http://www.crh.noaa.gov/dtx/torstats/county.php?co=mac http://www3.gendisasters.com/michigan/11222/mount-clemens-new-baltimore-mi-tornado-may-1964?page=1 someone can post maps if they want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmichweather Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 Damage pics from the tornado I mentioned, pretty impressive.... http://picasaweb.google.com/cheslib/TornadoDamageFrom581964?feat=directlink# Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stebo Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 Damage pics from the tornado I mentioned, pretty impressive.... http://picasaweb.goo...eat=directlink# Yeah that is pretty damn impressive and once again Chesterfield if hit now would have pretty significant damage costs and loss of life. Really interesting how large tornadoes before 1977 danced around the metro area both North and South while missing the city for the most part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoosier Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 I made a thread last year about the 3/20/76 West Lafayette tornado http://www.americanwx.com/bb/index.php/topic/15741-march-20-1976-west-lafayette-in-tornado/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoosier Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 Nice EML on that Flint sounding above, especially by March standards for Michigan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpartyOn Posted February 7, 2012 Author Share Posted February 7, 2012 The cost of damage and potential loss of life if this occurred now would be pretty catastrophic. That area has exploded in population since 1976 and there are a ton of large expensive mansions in that part of the county now. 1970 population was 28k now 66k. I think it would be a safe bet to consider damage totals well exceeding 100 million dollars if it happened today. That particular area also features many high density apartment complexes. With massive urban sprawl the target area of many mid west cites has greatly increased in size. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
on_wx Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 Have thought for awhile that the Detroit/SEMI/Windsor area in general is overdue for a significant tornado event at some point. I feel like there has been two "undetected" instances of F3/F4 tornadoes in this area since 2009. Well...over SWON and real close to SEMI. 1. August 24, 2011 southern Lake Huron supercell. We all saw the radar max out over the water. 2. August 20, 2009 Craigleith, ON - Georgian Bay supercell. The tornado grew into a massive violent wedge over the bay after producing low end F2 damage at a country club. Craighleith: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHM Supercell Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 The Georgian Bay Tornado was produced by the same supercell thunderstorm that spawned the Durham tornado which was a strong F-2 tornado. Damage in Durham was likely low end F-3 however it was never confirmed to be that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpartyOn Posted February 7, 2012 Author Share Posted February 7, 2012 Aug 24th was one heck of a day. We had a loaded gun all afternoon with wicked wind profiles. Once the cap finnally broke it got nasty. The initiation un zipped from Port Sanilac to points south. The most beautiful Supercells exploded directly over the heart of SeMi. Picture perfect anvils and nasty cloud top to ground lightning strikes. It's not often you see Supercells explode in clear skies with not many other obstructing clouds( this is rare in Semi). But your right that line wound up over the Lake and that bottom cell on the lake line just got bigger an bigger. I really think Semi dogded a major bullet. Those cells could have dropped serious twisters. I think the one ingredient we lacked was better 1k shear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyhb Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 I feel like there has been two "undetected" instances of F3/F4 tornadoes in this area since 2009. Well...over SWON and real close to SEMI. 1. August 24, 2011 southern Lake Huron supercell. We all saw the radar max out over the water. 2. August 20, 2009 Craigleith, ON - Georgian Bay supercell. The tornado grew into a massive violent wedge over the bay after producing low end F2 damage at a country club. Craighleith: That would have done some serious damage on land, you can just see the violence of the low level circulation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpartyOn Posted February 8, 2012 Author Share Posted February 8, 2012 Some old footage of an IL tornado from the same outbreak. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJA6Nu2lniw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHM Supercell Posted February 9, 2012 Share Posted February 9, 2012 August 24th could have been a much more serious day for SEMI and SON had storms not gone linear so quickly. The supercells that initiated over Lake Huron were very textbook with strong rotation indicated on doppler radar. All the parameters were there for a significant severe weather/tornado outbreak however the storms went linear very quick limiting the tornado potential. Still a few tornadoes on the day and one within 10-15 km of me in Hamilton Ontario. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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