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April 14-17 Severe Prospects


Indystorm

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It is looking very likely that the midwest and great plains will see major severe weather, with the likelihood of strong long track tornado in Kansas and Oklahoma. Many of the tornado may be wedge tornado, which can stay on the ground for an hour or more and be a half mile to mile wide. As a now saturday looks to be the worst of the two days. The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) has already put a "high" for severe weather on saturday. They use the "high" risk about 5 times a year. Last time the high risk was included in a day 2 outlook there were over 90 tornado reports. This truely could be a historic April 14th, especially with the highest risk area in the most populated section of Kansas and Oklahoma

much more on the midwest at: http://midwestweathertalk.blogspot.com

post-7560-0-07915700-1334352384.jpg

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It is looking very likely that the midwest and great plains will see major severe weather, with the likelihood of strong long track tornado in Kansas and Oklahoma. Many of the tornado may be wedge tornado, which can stay on the ground for an hour or more and be a half mile to mile wide. As a now saturday looks to be the worst of the two days. The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) has already put a "high" for severe weather on saturday. They use the "high" risk about 5 times a year. Last time the high risk was included in a day 2 outlook there were over 90 tornado reports. This truely could be a historic April 14th, especially with the highest risk area in the most populated section of Kansas and Oklahoma

much more on the midwest at: http://midwestweathertalk.blogspot.com

I was going to ask what people thought about the chance of a moderate risk by Sunday, and your blog answered that. Shear tomorrow in the Plains will be pretty similar to what it will be in the S GL on Sunday, and with temps likely reaching the mid to upper 70s, instability would probably be greater than the GFS is indicating.

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MPX with an interesting little snippet...

THE AMOUNT OF LOW LEVEL

SHEAR INCREASES DURING THE EVENING WITH 0-1KM BULK SHEAR AT OR

ABOVE 40 KNOTS ON SEVERAL SOLUTIONS FOR SOUTHWEST AND SOUTH

CENTRAL MN. SEVERE WEATHER PARAMETERS ARE SUCH THAT TORNADOES

WOULD BE POSSIBLE ALONG THE WARM FRONT IN SOUTHERN MN. RECENT

RESEARCH DONE HERE BY DEVINNY AND HULTQUIST SHOW THAT THIS TYPE

OF UPPER PATTERN (SOUTHWEST FLOW ARCHETYPE) WAS THE ONLY ONE THAT

HAD STRONG NIGHTTIME TORNADOES IN OUR FORECAST AREA. MORE

DISTRESSING IS WATCHING THE CIPS WARM SEASON ANALOGS. YESTERDAY

THE NUMBER 5 ANALOG WAS MARCH 29 1998. TODAY THIS ANALOG HAS MOVED

TO NUMBER 3. HENCE...SATURDAY NIGHT IS AN INTENSE PERIOD OF

INTEREST.

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Will be leaving around 1pm tomorrow for western Iowa/eastern Nebraska. Don't like getting such a late start, but unfortunately I don't have a choice lol.

Good luck and stay safe! I think you will have better luck there than those who are traveling to OKC, and it's a shorter drive for you. The recent SREF (15z) has a small oval of 60% tor values on its tornado ingredients map that passes right through or near Omaha, I'll post it soon.

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Was just going through the NWS site for my forecast office. (KLOT)

This is from their latest AFD....

ON SUNDAY...AS THE STRONG ~990 MB SURFACE LOW LIFTS NORTHEAST...THE

CWA WILL BE ENTRENCHED IN THE WARM SECTOR WELL SOUTH OF THE WARM

FRONT OVER WISCONSIN. MODELS HAVE CONVERGED ON A FASTER TIMING OF

THE EJECTION NORTHEAST OF THE LOW...WITH THE GFS STILL THE FASTEST.

PREFER THE NAM AS A MIDDLE GROUND BETWEEN THE GFS AND ECMWF...WHICH

DID TREND FASTER FROM ITS 00Z RUN. I SUSPECT THAT THE DETERMINISTIC

GUIDANCE IS OVERDOING CONVECTION AND THUS CLOUDS IN THE WARM SECTOR

AFTER ANY EARLY MORNING SHRA/TSRA DEPARTS...ESPECIALLY THE GFS...SO

WILL HAVE A PERIOD DURING THE DAY WITH LOWER POPS AND PARTLY CLOUDY

SKIES. EVEN THIS SKY COVER MAY BE OVERDONE...AS MODELS AND MOS

GUIDANCE ARE EXHIBITING STRONG SUSTAINED WINDS...WHICH WOULD ONLY BE

POSSIBLE WITH GOOD SUNSHINE. +14C OR SO AT H85 AND AFOREMENTIONED

GOOD MIXING UP TO 850 MB WILL ALLOW TEMPERATURES TO SOAR TO THE

UPPER 70S AND LOW 80S...AND A LOWERING OF DEW POINTS FROM AROUND 60

TO THE MID AND UPPER 50S FOR A TIME IN THE AFTERNOON.

HAVE TWO MAJOR CONCERNS ON SUNDAY...THE POTENTIAL FOR SEVERE

THUNDERSTORMS AND HIGH WINDS. THE IMPRESSIVE DYNAMICS OF THIS SYSTEM

WILL FEATURE EXTREME WIND FIELDS...WITH ANOMALOUSLY STRONG 100-120

KT/80-100 KT/55-65 KT JETS PUNCHING IN FROM THE SOUTHWEST INTO THE

WARM SECTOR WITH THE APPROACH OF THE STRONG UPPER TROUGH. AS THE LOW

AND COLD FRONT NEARS LATE SUNDAY...WITH ASCENT AIDED BY DIFFLUENCE

AT THE MID AND UPPER JET LEVELS...TSRA SHOULD DEVELOP FROM THE LATE

AFTERNOON AND TRACK SOUTHEAST ACROSS THE REGION INTO THE EVENING AND

SUNDAY NIGHT AHEAD OF OR ALONG THE COLD FRONT. WITH SUCH EXTREME

WIND PROFILES ALOFT...THE LOW LEVEL AND DEEP LAYER WIND SHEAR WILL

ALSO BE EXTREME BY LATE DAY SUNDAY...OR >70 KT 0-6KM AND 40-50 KT

0-1 KM. ADDING TO THE CONCERN IS THE PLENTIFUL LOW LEVEL CAPE

PROGGED BY THE 12Z NAM TODAY...WHICH IS FAVORABLE FOR TORNADOGENEIS.

THUS WITH THE OVERALL EXPECTATION THAT OVERALL INSTABILITY HAS BEEN

SOMEWHAT UNDERDONE BY GUIDANCE ON SUNDAY...ALONG WITH THE ABOVE

MENTIONED THOUGHTS...TSRA THAT DEVELOP WOULD LIKELY BECOME STRONG

TO SEVERE. CANNOT RULE OUT SUPERCELLS AND ISOLATED TORNADOES

SHOULD CONVECTIVE MODE REMAIN DISCRETE...WITH A THREAT FOR

DAMAGING WINDS WHETHER CONVECTIVE MODE IS DISCRETE OR LINEAR.

TRACK OF LOW ON LATEST 12Z ECMWF ALSO FEATURES MORE BACKING OF

SURFACE WINDS FROM THE AFTERNOON TO THE EARLY EVENING FROM SOUTH-

SOUTHWEST TO MORE DUE SOUTH...WHICH WOULD ENHANCE LOW LEVEL

TURNING OF WINDS/WIND SHEAR. WITH OR WITHOUT BACKING...HODOGRAPHS

ACROSS THE AREA ARE ALREADY IMPRESSIVE. GREATEST TIME OF CONCERN

WOULD BE LATE SUNDAY AFTERNOON AND THE EVENING WHEN DEW POINTS

THAT MIXED OUT SHOULD CREEP BACK UP AGAIN AS MOISTURE POOLS ALONG

FRONT.

It looks like the possiblity exist for a very windy Sunday with some storms expected by early evening.

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Haha I'm staying out of Wisconsin for good after April 10th last year. I've never been so frustrated during a chase. We went in knowing the terrain would be an issue (trees/hills). I could deal with that, but the road network over southwest Wisconsin was extremely frustrating. Not many east/west/north/south roads. The road network looked like a plate of spaghetti lol.

You can thank the topography/geology for the "spaghetti" roads! Glaciers failed to make that area nice and flat like the rest of the region, lol!

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MPX with an interesting little snippet...

THE AMOUNT OF LOW LEVEL

SHEAR INCREASES DURING THE EVENING WITH 0-1KM BULK SHEAR AT OR

ABOVE 40 KNOTS ON SEVERAL SOLUTIONS FOR SOUTHWEST AND SOUTH

CENTRAL MN. SEVERE WEATHER PARAMETERS ARE SUCH THAT TORNADOES

WOULD BE POSSIBLE ALONG THE WARM FRONT IN SOUTHERN MN. RECENT

RESEARCH DONE HERE BY DEVINNY AND HULTQUIST SHOW THAT THIS TYPE

OF UPPER PATTERN (SOUTHWEST FLOW ARCHETYPE) WAS THE ONLY ONE THAT

HAD STRONG NIGHTTIME TORNADOES IN OUR FORECAST AREA. MORE

DISTRESSING IS WATCHING THE CIPS WARM SEASON ANALOGS. YESTERDAY

THE NUMBER 5 ANALOG WAS MARCH 29 1998. TODAY THIS ANALOG HAS MOVED

TO NUMBER 3. HENCE...SATURDAY NIGHT IS AN INTENSE PERIOD OF

INTEREST.

That analog storm the mentioned was the Comfrey/St Peter event

to see what happened here is the link.. http://www.crh.noaa.gov/mpx/?n=1998mar29radar

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I am also concerned about Sunday morning to early afternoon for the Twin Cities metro. Per the ECMWF dew points will raise to the 60+ range with a 200mb jet at 90-120knt out of the sw, and at 500mb around 50knts again out of the sw . There is some diffluence over the metro at this time, and this could move into west central WI during the mid afternoon hours. My best guess is that the greatest threat will be severe winds with large hail possible.

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Bow-

Schlitz will do that to you.

The roads around here are great, if you aren't chasing tornadoes. It sucks. Getting a clear view of any distance is really difficult with all the trees, hills, valleys, ravines, knolls, nobs, ridges... I personally would get up on the bluff and stay up high if you can... a lot better view if you get out of the river valleys.

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Good luck and stay safe! I think you will have better luck there than those who are traveling to OKC, and it's a shorter drive for you. The recent SREF (15z) has a small oval of 60% tor values on its tornado ingredients map that passes right through or near Omaha, I'll post it soon.

Thanks. Initiation looks a little further west on the 00z NAM and long range RUC/RAP, so we're gonna have to really haul ass to get out there before dark. Might only have an hour long window of daylight by the time we get out there but I guess it's worth a shot lol. Thinking somewhere in the Lincoln to Grand Island area now.

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Thanks. Initiation looks a little further west on the 00z NAM and long range RUC/RAP, so we're gonna have to really haul ass to get out there before dark. Might only have an hour long window of daylight by the time we get out there but I guess it's worth a shot lol. Thinking somewhere in the Lincoln to Grand Island area now.

Wow, yeah that will be difficult to arrive before dark; isn't it a 5-6 hour drive? That would mean arrival around 7, maybe only a half hour of daylight, perhaps an hour if lucky. Might be better off risking being too far ahead of the storms and setting shop in W Iowa just east of the NE/IA border. OAX is expecting two rounds of storms anyway.

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Not sure if anyone's brought this up before, but the Sunday setup reminds me a lot of the 4/10/11 setup, especially the trough placement/orientation, the screaming wind fields, and the question marks regarding whether the surface winds will be backed enough the further south you go. Much like that day, I see Wisconsin having the biggest tornado threat given the backed surface winds and higher 0-3 km CAPE.

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Not sure if anyone's brought this up before, but the Sunday setup reminds me a lot of the 4/10/11 setup, especially the trough placement/orientation, the screaming wind fields, and the question marks regarding whether the surface winds will be backed enough the further south you go.  Much like that day, I see Wisconsin having the biggest tornado threat given the backed surface winds and higher 0-3 km CAPE.

Yeah someone brought up that event earlier.

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Looks like my chase is off now. Got word a bit earlier that the power has been down since 6pm, and the backup generators have failed as well. This will put us way behind tomorrow so any prospects of escaping early are off. 2012 is not off to a good start for me to say the least. Responsibility SUCKS sometimes.

Sunday's setup still looks just okay to me. Instability is still a bit lacking in my mind. Parts of Wisconsin look a bit better, but no way I'm heading up there. Bulk/speed shear is fantastic, but directional shear is pretty marginal as well IMO. Not much turning in the lower 1-3km. I may end up sitting out on the whole weekend. Needless to say I'm not very happy right now. :axe:

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New day 2 outlook maintains a fairly small 15% area in WI/nearby. Kinda surprised by that. Even with uncertainties about storm mode/tornado potential the setup looks better than that.

Yeah I am not following the logic on this one at all. I thought for sure we'd see 30% risks and maybe even hatched areas up in WI. Even the discussion part mentions the risk as being pretty good yet only 15%.

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