Jump to content
  • Member Statistics

    17,609
    Total Members
    7,904
    Most Online
    NH8550
    Newest Member
    NH8550
    Joined

Major Severe Weather Outbreak November 17


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 1.3k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Quite the Fall season we've had here.

 

October 4th ---> First violent tornado in October since 1979, and the only outbreak in October since modern record keeping began with multiple violent tornadoes.

 

Halloween ---> A significant number of tornadoes from an extremely dynamic storm system that had basically nothing to work with in terms of instability.

 

Today ---> One of the most impressive outbreaks in November on record, and probably one of the more impressive in the Great Lakes/OV region as well.

 

Quite a bit like 2002 (rather quiet main season, despite the sequence in the second half of May), and then the Fall season offers multiple events (including one event that leaves most Spring events in the dust).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Intense reports from Illinois...I told a friend this morning that there would likely be fatalities today from the intense storms.

The best I have to show for it was experiencing very strong wind gusts on two different occssions in NE IL. Nothing inpressive when compared to the actual tornado reports.

I was heading in for the cell near Coal City, but then it got difficult to see with a lot of trees around. Navigating was hard and then I hit traffic. It's probably better off, I was too close for comfort, considering I couldn't see the storm. I decided I had to book east, unless I wanted to forfeit on the rest of the event. It was during this mess that the winds were strong enough to rip off my driver's side windshield wiper. Wiperless for the rest of the event was rough.

It wasn't long after that encounter that I hit winds of at least 70-75 MPH. A cell/segment literally blew up right over me. Debris (small, like branches) pelted my car. The wind-blown rain actually had me fear for a moment that perhaps I was driving into a tornado, but I was not. A tractor trailer was stopped in the middle of the road, blocking it until things calmed down. The drive to the IN border featured a lot of downed trees and one building that had a portion of its roof torn off. heard somewhere on social media that area may have had 90 MPH winds, but who knows where that came from.

The rest of the day I was literally hauling east just to stay on the back fringe of the squall line. It's no surprise I didn't see anything else. 70-80mph storm movement was ugly.

I knew from the start I'd be taking a gamble if I went into IL, but knowing some of the worst storms were there, at least I tried. I may survey some damage in IN before I head back in the morning. Don't think I can pull myself to add 6-8 hours worth of driving to go back into IL.

Staying in Fort Wayne again and most of the city appears to be without power. Mostly due to winds it seems. Also saw some flash flooding around the area.

Count it as another learning experience...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So, next question is, when we get the storms making it to western NY and the PA/OH line in towards WV and eastern KY/central TN, will the next watch be severe thunderstorm or tornado? and if there is one, how far east do you take it?

 

personal thinking, probably 2 boxes, 1 north, one south. northern box, I'd think Western PA/NY/WV to the I-81 corridor in MD/northern VA north of DC. southern box, lexington/Nashville to Jackson KY/Knoxville.

 

both boxes, severe thunderstorm.

 

thoughts?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Significant damages being reported across NW Ohio and 50,000 without power currently. Buildings destroyed, mobile homes flipped and many lines down. Sounds like Wood County over to the east Suburbs of Toledo took it the worst. Hearing two dead from a tornado that went through Oregon, OH and 3 others seriously hurt in other incidents around the area

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting local chase...

 

Ended up staying relatively local and made a play on what was previously the Washington tornadic cell as it passed through Will Co. Made it to southeast of Frankfort along Rt 45 where I intercepted the storm. The tor was not visible, but wrapping rain curtains were clearly evident, along with damaging inflow winds likely in the range of 75-90MPH. At this point I bailed east, but not without encountering falling trees, and flying branches and sheet metal for a time.

 

After things settled down I headed back west to check out the damage. Widespread tree damage, along with some damage to houses and barns/out-buildings due to inflow winds. As for the tornado track, I'd estimate around 1/4mile wide and a SW/NE track from south of Manhattan (likely before that too given reports) on up to at least close to Rt 45 southeast of Frankfort. Houses, barns, out-buildings and trees were damaged. There were several wooden transmission poles that were either bent over or snapped. There were also at least 4 high tension transmission metal truss towers that were bent over to the SSE of Manhattan...one of which was collapsed about 3/4 down.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think there may have been a tornado south of me.  Significant structural damage to a couple of schools and other buildings and I notice it's listed in the prelim reports. 

 

There were numerous tornado warnings out of the QLCS that blew through and multiple strong couplets, I'd imagine there is widespread damage from those and the straight line winds across northern/western IN (especially NW and west-central sections).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My uncle lives in Paducah and just missed that Paducah/Brookport tornado this afternoon by about 2 miles. Was telling me some news sources down there reporting that the USEC/Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant took a hit from that tornado. Could be a developing story. Linked to two of the local news sources down there (WPSD Local 6 and the West Kentucky Star). 

 

http://www.wpsdlocal6.com/news/local/Paducah-plant-responds-to-weather-damage-232276691.html

 

https://www.facebook.com/WestKentuckyStar/posts/10152028783484254

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...