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April 12th/13th and 15-16th Severe Weather Thread


andyhb

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What's with that pink blob over Texas?

0-3 km EHI (Energy Helicity Index, which multiplies CAPE by helicity and then divides the result by 160,000) in excess of 6 (which is very high) although that area will likely remain capped tomorrow.

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Wichita had a pretty great AFD this morning:

http://www.wundergro...ityName=Wichita

I'll post it here for archiving purposes...

Area forecast discussion

National Weather Service Wichita Kansas

326 am CDT Friday Apr 13 2012

Discussion...

Main forecast concerns will be chances of severe storms this

evening/overnight across southern Kansas. Then a more significant threat of a

tornado outbreak for late Sat afternoon/evening for the entire forecast

area.

Today-tonight:

current impulse that led to the showers/storms across cen

Kansas...continues to make progress across northern Kansas this morning. As this

impulse moves northeast...expect shower chances to push east as well

as warm advection veers to the east. This impulse will also lead to

weak ridging and somewhat drier air pulling into portions of cen Kansas

early today...with the dry line actually taking more of NE to SW

look for the early portion of the day...before stalling along the Kansas

Turnpike...or possibly just northwest of the Turnpike. How far this

boundary pushes southeast is uncertain...but also critical for storm

chances for the late afternoon hours.

This dry line looks to retreat back to the northwest during the late

afternoon/evening hours...with low level moisture increasing across

portions of south central Kansas basically back northwest of the Kansas

Turnpike. A little uncertain on how convection chances will play out

for this afternoon as convergence isnt very good along the boundary

and widespread middle level forcing looks lacking. Areas SW of kict

into northern OK looks like the most likely region for convection to

develop towards 00z/Sat...as the low level jet increases over the

top of diffluent flow aloft. As this warn advection increases across

northern OK...a moderately unstable airmass will be in place...with

MLCAPE values of 1700-2000 j/kg and bulk shear values of 45 kts.

This suggests a few discrete supercells could develop along or just

south of the Kansas/OK border...and make their way east/northeast into

the southern row of counties south and southeast of kict. Main concern

with the supercells across southern Kansas appears to be large hail...as

better 0-1km storm relative helicity values for a tornado threat

remains south of the Kansas/OK border. The severe threat looks to spread

north and northeast and continue for the late evening/overnight

hours as the most unstable cape values actually increase across most

of southern and southeast Kansas into the am hours on Sat. So could see the

severe weather linger into the early morning hours on

Sat...especially for areas east of the Turnpike.

Sat:

could see some lingering showers/thunderstorms across the area for

the morning hours on Sat...as the low level jet/warm advection

continue over most of the eastern half of the forecast area. But expect

this convection to move off to the east-northeast by middle morning on

Sat.

Once the morning convection ends...focus will quickly shift to a

significant severe weather event across the forecast area for Sat

afternoon/evening as the dryline is expected to set up along a line

from khys to near kp28. A combination of moderate to high

instability is forecast just ahead of this dryline from ksln to kict

with MLCAPE values expected in the 2000 to 3000 j/kg range. Bulk

shear values of 70 kts...perpendicular to the dryline and 0-1 km

storm relative helicity values of 400-500 m2/s2 suggest large

looping hodographs...which looks ideal for supercell thunderstorms

and strong/long track tornadoes. Both the NAM and GFS are having

some trouble developing widespread convection along this boundary

until middle level lift increases towards 00z/Sat...with coverage

expected to be more scattered in nature until then. With this

said...NAM/WRF forecast sounding for kict at 03z/Sat looks like the

proverbial "loaded gun"...with supercells and a few strong tornadoes

looking very likely Sat evening from ksln to kict.

Current indications suggest that a large portion of the forecast

could see a tornado outbreak Sat evening. A large concern exists

that the tornado threat will continue into the hours after sunset

Sat evening...as MLCAPE values remain high and cin values remain low

with boundary layer moisture remaining high. This would keep the

supercell thunderstorms rooted in the boundary layer...increasing

the chance for a long track tornado continuing long after dark.

Studies have shown that tornadoes after dark significantly increase

the potential for loss of life. Storm Prediction Center coordinated with the local

offices and they have gone with a rare day2 high risk across the

area.

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Just my personal opinion but this has a bust potential written on it. Just doesn't give me much confidence that the 12z and 0z nam and gfs haven't come into better agreement over time. But since I said this I jinxed myself so plan on another epic outbreak

Might be the kind of day where the storm/tornado count is "relatively" low but you get a couple of nasty long-tracks that do quite a bit of damage and "make up" for a relatively low tornado count.

Modeling should give some pause...not on the parameter side but on storms not firing until late, late Saturday night/early Sunday morning.

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AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NORMAN OK

331 AM CDT FRI APR 13 2012

.DISCUSSION...

NEARLY ALL OF THE CHANGING WEATHER WILL OCCUR THIS WEEKEND

ALLOWING NEXT WEEK TO BE RATHER TRANQUIL AND WARM WITH LITTLE

CHANCE FOR RAIN. IN THE MEAN TIME, A SIGNIFICANT SEVERE WEATHER

EPISODE IS TAKING FORM FOR LATE SATURDAY IN WESTERN AND CENTRAL

OKLAHOMA. BEFORE THEN, MOISTURE WILL CONTINUE ITS INCREASE TODAY

AND SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS MAY OCCUR NEAR A DRYLINE WHICH IS

EXPECTED TO ENTER NORTHWEST OKLAHOMA LATE THIS AFTERNOON. ANY

STORMS WHICH FORM WILL LIKELY BECOME SUPERCELLS AND MOVE QUICKLY

NORTHEAST. THERE IS A TORNADO AND LARGE HAIL THREAT. ON SATURDAY,

AS THE LARGE-SCALE UPPER WAVE APPROACHES THE SHEAR WILL BE

STRONGER STILL AND THE DRYLINE IS EXPECTED TO BE ORIENTED MORE

NORTH-SOUTH AS IT MOVES ACROSS THE LARGER WESTERN BORDER OF

OKLAHOMA EARLY IN THE EVENING. SEVERE WEATHER INCLUDING TORNADOES

AND GIANT HAIL IS EXPECTED TO HAVE A LARGE COVERAGE FROM OKLHAOMA

CITY NORTH. COVERAGE IS EXPECTED TO BE LESS IN WESTERN AND

SOUTHERN OKLAHOMA, BUT THE SEVERE RISK REMAINS HIGH.

KOUN finally mentions tornadoes. Guess they figure many in their area turn to SPC outlooks.

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From National Weather Service Chicago: THE MAIN FEATURE OF CONCERN IS A VERY LARGE AND VERY DEEP CLOSED

UPPER LOW SPINNING JUST OFF THE CALIFORNIA/OREGON/WASHINGTON COASTS.

OF NOTE...LIGHTNING HAS OCCURRED ACROSS CENTRAL/NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

WHICH IS DISCONCERTING AS SUCH AN OCCURRENCE OFTEN PRECEDES

SIGNIFICANT/HIGH IMPACT WEATHER ACROSS THE MIDWEST.

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From National Weather Service Chicago: THE MAIN FEATURE OF CONCERN IS A VERY LARGE AND VERY DEEP CLOSED

UPPER LOW SPINNING JUST OFF THE CALIFORNIA/OREGON/WASHINGTON COASTS.

OF NOTE...LIGHTNING HAS OCCURRED ACROSS CENTRAL/NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

WHICH IS DISCONCERTING AS SUCH AN OCCURRENCE OFTEN PRECEDES

SIGNIFICANT/HIGH IMPACT WEATHER ACROSS THE MIDWEST.

I can personally verify this. This has probably been the most electrified storm I've experienced since March 9-11, 2006.

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First severe warning from this system :P

SEVERE WEATHER STATEMENT

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OXNARD CA

443 AM PDT FRI APR 13 2012

CAC079-131215-

/O.CON.KLOX.SV.W.0001.000000T0000Z-120413T1215Z/

SAN LUIS OBISPO CA-

443 AM PDT FRI APR 13 2012

...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 515 AM PDT

FOR WESTERN SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY...

AT 429 AM PDT...VANDENBERG DOPPLER RADAR CONTINUED TO INDICATE A

LINE OF THUNDERSTORMS FROM PASO ROBLES TO PISMO BEACH AND ACROSS THE

ADJACENT COASTAL WATERS. DUAL POL RADAR CONTINUED TO INDICATE SOME

ROTATING CELLS WITHIN THIS BAND. STORMS WERE MOVING EAST NORTHEAST

AT 30 MPH.

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Is there some sort of record for the significant tornado parameter? (STP) I think I saw STP=10 last year on April 27th. There definitely should be some unbelievable shear/helicity values somewhere in the middle of the risk area, with CAPE around 2000.

Off the top of my head I can't remember the 19/00z sounding from June 2009 at DVN parameter, but I know it was in excess of 20. Considering it's a calculation of CAPE, 0-1 km helicity, magnitude of 0-6 km shear, and LCL height any extreme CAPE, strong shear event will feature some massive values. This is why it is a good idea to monitor the new SPC effective parameters, especially in capped situations.

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I have been watching things closely the last several days and I will be chasing this event. Will decide in the morning but right now am thinking about chasing Eastern Nebraska on Saturday unless that area is socked in with morning precip. The dryline looks great of course but the NAM attm is indicating stuff not firing until around 7-8 pm or so. After 7 pm when the really strong 850 mb winds kick in things will go crazy over Eastern KS no question at this point. Storms over Eastern Nebraska should have a better chance of developing during the daytime hours. If I did decide to go to Eastern NE that would put me in a much better posistion for Sunday across Eastern Iowa into Northern IL and Southern WI as it appears stuff may fire during the early afternoon. This area has to be watch carefully and am thinking that SPC may be underestimating the potential on Sunday. Granted I will need some rockets strapped to my car for Sunday to keep up with the storms.

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Plan on chasing Saturday (along with a thousand others I bet) but worried that initiation will not start until after dark. Just about every run I have seen shows the "at dusk" start of the storm but several chasers I know are expecting storms (and tor watches) to start around noon.......

Either way everybody be safe out there. Im more worried about traffic jams/accidents then the storms to be honest.

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Right around Lawton, OK looks to be the sweet spot for this afternoon/evening. Although the new NAM is trying to shift things to the west.

On an aside, what is being done for tomorrow? Are we going to keep a thread in here as well as the main board? I'd like to keep the weenieism to a minimum in at least one thread.

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On an aside, what is being done for tomorrow? Are we going to keep a thread in here as well as the main board? I'd like to keep the weenieism to a minimum in at least one thread.

I'd also like to know if there will be a second thread for radar images and real-time updates and another thread for actual analysis of the event itself.

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The extremely late initiation with such a dynamic setup at 500mb to the west and the fact its only mid-April surprises me a bit...even with the surface low being way up in NE I'm not so sure we won't see development closer to 4 or 5pm in KS/OK on Saturday even though the models currently say no.

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I'd also like to know if there will be a second thread for radar images and real-time updates and another thread for actual analysis of the event itself.

Right around Lawton, OK looks to be the sweet spot for this afternoon/evening. Although the new NAM is trying to shift things to the west.

On an aside, what is being done for tomorrow? Are we going to keep a thread in here as well as the main board? I'd like to keep the weenieism to a minimum in at least one thread.

If things start to get crazy today then we should probally create a obs thread for that too and leave this for synoptic scale and model dissussion.

How many threads are there going to be? There is already 2 1/2. One in C/W, one in Wx, and GLOV counts as half, since this system will be affecting us.

I am all for separating the content, but there comes a point where you lose the discussion because no one knows where to post.

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I have been watching things closely the last several days and I will be chasing this event. Will decide in the morning but right now am thinking about chasing Eastern Nebraska on Saturday unless that area is socked in with morning precip. The dryline looks great of course but the NAM attm is indicating stuff not firing until around 7-8 pm or so. After 7 pm when the really strong 850 mb winds kick in things will go crazy over Eastern KS no question at this point. Storms over Eastern Nebraska should have a better chance of developing during the daytime hours. If I did decide to go to Eastern NE that would put me in a much better posistion for Sunday across Eastern Iowa into Northern IL and Southern WI as it appears stuff may fire during the early afternoon. This area has to be watch carefully and am thinking that SPC may be underestimating the potential on Sunday. Granted I will need some rockets strapped to my car for Sunday to keep up with the storms.

It will be interesting to see what time the dryline fires. I'm not sure that I'm buying the NAM right now on that.

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