Major Severe Weather Outbreak November 17

[MidwestChaser]

Did they issue a final survey for washington? Or is that still going on?

[andyhb]

Here's the count I have so far...

 

Note: Totals from IND are not included due to the lack of survey info at this time. 12 potential tors to be added from that CWA though.

 

EF-0: 9

EF-1: 15

EF-2: 11

EF-3: 4

EF-4: 2

Total: 41

 

21 significant tornadoes out of 51 total on the wiki page.

[andyhb]

Another video of the Washington tornado...Darwin award candidate.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2b-rYpamNU

[Ensō]

Another video of the Washington tornado...Darwin award candidate.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2b-rYpamNU

 

It's unbelievable how little sense people have.

 

"I thought it was going to curve, and it didn't."

 

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/11/illinois-tornado-survivor-i-really-dont-know-where-to-go-from-here/

[andyhb]

That's one of the reasons I can't believe more people didn't perish in that, obviously in addition to its strength.

[tornadotony]

The dashboard cam tornado has been rated EF3.

 

000
NOUS43 KILX 200211
PNSILX
ILZ027>031-036>038-040>057-061>063-066>068-071>073-201415-

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LINCOLN IL
811 PM CST Tue Nov 19 2013

...PRELIMINARY NWS DAMAGE SURVEY FOR 11/17/13 TORNADO EVENT...

.GARRETT TORNADO...

RATING: EF-1
ESTIMATED PEAK WIND: 110 MPH
PATH LENGTH /STATUTE/: 7.5 MILES
PATH WIDTH /MAXIMUM/: QUARTER MILE
FATALITIES: 0
INJURIES: 0

START TIME: 1232 PM CST
START LOCATION: 5.4 MILES WEST-SOUTHWEST OF ATWOOD

END TIME: 1240 PM CST
END LOCATION: 2 MILES EAST OF ATWOOD


.VILLA GROVE TORNADO...

RATING: EF-3
ESTIMATED PEAK WIND: 140 MPH
PATH LENGTH /STATUTE/: 15 MILES
PATH WIDTH /MAXIMUM/: QUARTER MILE
FATALITIES: 0
INJURIES: 0

START TIME: 1246 PM CST
START LOCATION: 6.4 MILES WEST OF VILLA GROVE

END TIME: 1258 PM CST
END LOCATION: 2.5 MILES NORTHWEST OF BROADLAND


.WESTVILLE TORNADO...

RATING: EF-2
ESTIMATED PEAK WIND: 130 MPH
PATH LENGTH /STATUTE/: 18 MILES
PATH WIDTH /MAXIMUM/: QUARTER MILE
FATALITIES: 0
INJURIES: 1

START TIME: 105 PM CST
START LOCATION: 4 MILES NORTHWEST OF SIDELL

END TIME: 119 PM CST
END LOCATION: 4.5 MILES NORTHEAST OF WESTVILLE

EF SCALE: THE ENHANCED FUJITA SCALE CLASSIFIES
TORNADOES INTO THE FOLLOWING CATEGORIES.

EF0...WEAK......65 TO 85 MPH
EF1...WEAK......86 TO 110 MPH
EF2...STRONG....111 TO 135 MPH
EF3...STRONG....136 TO 165 MPH
EF4...VIOLENT...166 TO 200 MPH
EF5...VIOLENT...>200 MPH

NOTE:
THE INFORMATION IN THIS STATEMENT IS PRELIMINARY AND SUBJECT TO
CHANGE PENDING FINAL REVIEW OF THE EVENTS AND PUBLICATION IN
NWS STORM DATA.

$

AUTEN/SCHAFFER/HANSING/PARR

[Gilbertfly]

That's one of the reasons I can't believe more people didn't perish in that, obviously in addition to its strength.

 

two things come to mind....

 

1) I know most of the met knowledgeable peeps understood the speed at which these storms were coming....but i don't know if casual citizens truly grasped it (not an excuse, but just a thought)

 

2) From the last 2 videos posted here....just the simple concept of "if it's not moving left or right in your field of vision it's either coming straight at you or straight away from you" ... could have aided quite much

 

Going back to point one....looking at all of the timestamps and lengths on these tornados....man were they hauling...I know this was known as the event was unfolding...and was even known to likely be the case even in the days leading up to the event.  But I have seen everything from 45 to nearly 70 mph via the different preliminary write-ups done.  Such a dangerous setup.

[hm8]

Can't verify that this is legit, but it's on the front page of reddit...

 

Roof lifted up, sucked curtain out, and fell back down...trapping the curtain.

 

[Hoosier]

Tornado widths were reported as average width until relatively recently (1980s?), so they're likely underreported. Several of the Palm Sunday tornadoes come to mind in particular. Still, 1.7 miles is incredible.

 

To that point, from 1950-2012, a quick search using Severeplot 3.0 shows there were 9 tornadoes in the US with a path width of at least 3000 yards with 7 of the 9 occurring just since 2004. 

 

I went back and looked at the Palm Sunday report by Fujita, et al  and the report states that one that started in extreme northern Indiana and crossed into Michigan widened to 2 miles in Michigan (though the official database is less than that).  There are a number of tornadoes in the database from 1950-2012 with path widths of 1/2 mile to mile in Indiana.  Given changes in reporting it's not really possible to know for sure but I'd be fairly comfortable that 1.7 mi is about the widest tornado in the state in the modern era and maybe even farther back.

[tornadotony]

So far, I've got a count of 57 tornadoes for Sunday (including IND tornadoes and splitting the GRR events):

 

12 EF0

19 EF1

17 EF2

6 EF3

2 EF4

1 EF?

Total: 57

[Hoosier]

    If that tornado would have went through Lafayette, it would have been truly scary. It is likely a number of structures would have been completely leveled and probably numerous casualties.

 

 

Well the good thing is that it missed even the northern fringes of town by quite a bit.  I located a pic that I happened to take some years ago and it shows the general lay of the land in that area.  I remember exactly where I was when I took this pic...4-5 miles slightly south of due east of the intersection point of Benton/White/Tippecanoe counties.  Given the initial almost due east motion of the tornado, the outer part of the circulation would've passed just north of if not over where this pic was taken (depending how wide it was right then). 

 

 

[kab2791]

 

IWX surveyed a couple more tornadoes, one of which moved in from LOT.  Note the path width.

..TORNADO /WHITE COUNTY IN/    RATING: EF-2  MAXIMUM ESTIMATED WIND SPEED: 125 MPH  MAXIMUM ESTIMATED PATH WIDTH: 3000 YARDSPATH LENGTH: 10.52 MILES (LONGER IF YOU INCLUDE BENTON COUNTY   SECTION)  START TIME: ESTIMATED AROUND 246PM EST  END TIME: ESTIMATED AROUND 256PM EST   LOCATION: ENTERED WHITE COUNTY NEAR BENTON/WHITE/TIPPECANOE COUNTY   BORDER. LIFTED APPROXIMATELY 2 MILES WNW OF BROOKSTON.  DESCRIPTION: CONTINUED FROM BENTON COUNTY. VERY WIDE CIRCULATION   WITH EMBEDDED VORTICIES. 20 TO 25 BARNS DESTROYED WITH DEBRIS THROWN   UP TO 2 MILES AWAY. 10 TWO FOOT DIAMETER WOODEN ELECTRICITY POLES   SNAPPED AT THE BASE. SMALL HOME HAD ITS ROOF COMPLETELY REMOVED WITH   THE DEBRIS THROWN UP TO HALF A MILE NORTHEAST. SECTIONS OF THE ROOF   WERE STUCK IN THE GROUND LIKE PROJECTILES.   

Me and a couple friends were intercepted by this tornado unintentionally. We were parked off Indiana 18 just west of I65 to ride out the developing QLCS. Before we could take much action, the couplet was already nearly on top of us on KIND radar. We were on the outer range of the radar so we did not noticed a couplet until the storm was already overhead. So we just decided to ride it out where we were. We experienced a 5 minute period of sustained gusty winds, followed by a wind shift. Our ears popped in our vehicle. There was a brief lull in the strong winds before the winds picked up dramatically and the visibility dropped to zero. We heard what sounded like a freight train faintly behind the heavy rain whipping at the car. Then me and my friend saw a body of rotation cross the road right in front of us. It was obviously rain-wrapped. At this point, sheet metal debris was flying in front of our car and behind our car. We were lucky no debris hit our vehicle. After it settled down a bit,I opened the window and was able to hear the freight train sound in this distance. The tornado was moving very rapidly so I had no visual on it after it passed in front of us. We were ducking down in the car in case debris would hit our windows. After everything settled down, we assessed the damage outside. There were semis flipped over on I65, numerous road sides bent or taken out from the ground. We drove past a barn that collapsed, a flipped over tractor trailer, and the house that completely lost its roof. It was my first actual storm chasing experience, and believe me, great caution must be taken in dynamic situations like this where the storm motion is very fast. Developing QLCS's can be very dangerous, dropping unexpected mesovortices. Seeing that it was 3000 yards wide and affected a wider area then we noticed at the time, it is sobering to think we made it out of the storm okay.

[LocoAko]

Can't verify that this is legit, but it's on the front page of reddit...

 

Roof lifted up, sucked curtain out, and fell back down...trapping the curtain.

 

 

I believe it. While volunteering at the NWC's Weatherfest a few weeks ago, I had a guy show me pictures he took on his cell phone I think from Moore of almost the exact same thing except with a cloth curtain. It was remarkable. 

[Ensō]

 

I believe it. While volunteering at the NWC's Weatherfest a few weeks ago, I had a guy show me pictures he took on his cell phone I think from Moore of almost the exact same thing except with a cloth curtain. It was remarkable. 

 

Yeah, it's surreal to see but weird things like that aren't particularly uncommon in tornadoes. I remember seeing a photo a year or two ago where the same thing happened with a shower curtain.

[Hoosier]

Me and a couple friends were intercepted by this tornado unintentionally. We were parked off Indiana 18 just west of I65 to ride out the developing QLCS. Before we could take much action, the couplet was already nearly on top of us on KIND radar. We were on the outer range of the radar so we did not noticed a couplet until the storm was already overhead. So we just decided to ride it out where we were. We experienced a 5 minute period of sustained gusty winds, followed by a wind shift. Our ears popped in our vehicle. There was a brief lull in the strong winds before the winds picked up dramatically and the visibility dropped to zero. We heard what sounded like a freight train faintly behind the heavy rain whipping at the car. Then me and my friend saw a body of rotation cross the road right in front of us. It was obviously rain-wrapped. At this point, sheet metal debris was flying in front of our car and behind our car. We were lucky no debris hit our vehicle. After it settled down a bit,I opened the window and was able to hear the freight train sound in this distance. The tornado was moving very rapidly so I had no visual on it after it passed in front of us. We were ducking down in the car in case debris would hit our windows. After everything settled down, we assessed the damage outside. There were semis flipped over on I65, numerous road sides bent or taken out from the ground. We drove past a barn that collapsed, a flipped over tractor trailer, and the house that completely lost its roof. It was my first actual storm chasing experience, and believe me, great caution must be taken in dynamic situations like this where the storm motion is very fast. Developing QLCS's can be very dangerous, dropping unexpected mesovortices. Seeing that it was 3000 yards wide and affected a wider area then we noticed at the time, it is sobering to think we made it out of the storm okay.

 

 

Thanks for your account.  Glad things turned out ok.

[Stebo]

Me and a couple friends were intercepted by this tornado unintentionally. We were parked off Indiana 18 just west of I65 to ride out the developing QLCS. Before we could take much action, the couplet was already nearly on top of us on KIND radar. We were on the outer range of the radar so we did not noticed a couplet until the storm was already overhead. So we just decided to ride it out where we were. We experienced a 5 minute period of sustained gusty winds, followed by a wind shift. Our ears popped in our vehicle. There was a brief lull in the strong winds before the winds picked up dramatically and the visibility dropped to zero. We heard what sounded like a freight train faintly behind the heavy rain whipping at the car. Then me and my friend saw a body of rotation cross the road right in front of us. It was obviously rain-wrapped. At this point, sheet metal debris was flying in front of our car and behind our car. We were lucky no debris hit our vehicle. After it settled down a bit,I opened the window and was able to hear the freight train sound in this distance. The tornado was moving very rapidly so I had no visual on it after it passed in front of us. We were ducking down in the car in case debris would hit our windows. After everything settled down, we assessed the damage outside. There were semis flipped over on I65, numerous road sides bent or taken out from the ground. We drove past a barn that collapsed, a flipped over tractor trailer, and the house that completely lost its roof. It was my first actual storm chasing experience, and believe me, great caution must be taken in dynamic situations like this where the storm motion is very fast. Developing QLCS's can be very dangerous, dropping unexpected mesovortices. Seeing that it was 3000 yards wide and affected a wider area then we noticed at the time, it is sobering to think we made it out of the storm okay.

 

Wow, good thing you are okay after that close call.

[SchaumburgStormer]

Spent the day yesterday walking the damage area performing total loss assessments for a major insurance company. Began at the south western area of the damage path in Washington, around Elgin St. Worked our way on foot to the Northwest area of the damage path, around Westminster Dr. Damage is as catatrophic as you can imagine, and I think that the national media has shown enough photos, so I wont clutter the thread with any more.

 

I was able to chat with numerous folks, and figure I will share some of the stories I heard:

 

Everyone I spoke with felt that they had short, but adequate warning. Major props to ILX and Tazewell counties for getting the warning out early enough to save lives.

 

Houses where fatalities should have/could have occured were empty. Slabs with nothing left, homes with cars in basement, etc. Many people were at church, and this likely saved many lives. Same tornado a few hours earlier or later, and I feel the fatality numbers may have been far higher.

 

Spoke with a man who was watching the storm approach from his front porch. Saw the tornado coming, and at the same time saw his neighbor attempting to enter his vehicle to flee. This man began shouting at him to take cover, and eventually had to take cover himself without knowing if his neighbor made it. After escaping the storm, he found that his neighbor had gotten into his "mud room" and survived the storm.

 

Another individual I spoke with was trapped in the basement after the tornado, with a gas line leaking and filling the basement with gas. The neighbors were able to pull them out.

 

Also spoke with a young woman who hid in the lowest level of her duplex, which happened to be a garage. The two levels above her were leveled, and the garage door was blown out. She survived with minor injuries.

 

All things considered, for the severity of the damage and the strength of the tornado, a bullet was dodged.

[Chaser25973]

How does the survey team measure the damage these tornadoes caused compared to tornadoes that are moving at least half the speed these were going? I'm sure there incredibly fast speed had something to do with the amount of damage they caused.

[Ensō]

How does the survey team measure the damage these tornadoes caused compared to tornadoes that are moving at least half the speed these were going? I'm sure there incredibly fast speed had something to do with the amount of damage they caused.

 

Tornadoes with slower forward speeds tend to cause more damage because a given structure is exposed to intense winds for longer (see Jarrell for the most extreme example of this). Faster forward speed would give the wind less time to produce damage, though it would increase the wind speed to some extent on the eastern side of the path.

[L.B. LaForce]

Me and a couple friends were intercepted by this tornado unintentionally. We were parked off Indiana 18 just west of I65 to ride out the developing QLCS. Before we could take much action, the couplet was already nearly on top of us on KIND radar. We were on the outer range of the radar so we did not noticed a couplet until the storm was already overhead. So we just decided to ride it out where we were. We experienced a 5 minute period of sustained gusty winds, followed by a wind shift. Our ears popped in our vehicle. There was a brief lull in the strong winds before the winds picked up dramatically and the visibility dropped to zero. We heard what sounded like a freight train faintly behind the heavy rain whipping at the car. Then me and my friend saw a body of rotation cross the road right in front of us. It was obviously rain-wrapped. At this point, sheet metal debris was flying in front of our car and behind our car. We were lucky no debris hit our vehicle. After it settled down a bit,I opened the window and was able to hear the freight train sound in this distance. The tornado was moving very rapidly so I had no visual on it after it passed in front of us. We were ducking down in the car in case debris would hit our windows. After everything settled down, we assessed the damage outside. There were semis flipped over on I65, numerous road sides bent or taken out from the ground. We drove past a barn that collapsed, a flipped over tractor trailer, and the house that completely lost its roof. It was my first actual storm chasing experience, and believe me, great caution must be taken in dynamic situations like this where the storm motion is very fast. Developing QLCS's can be very dangerous, dropping unexpected mesovortices. Seeing that it was 3000 yards wide and affected a wider area then we noticed at the time, it is sobering to think we made it out of the storm okay.

For sure Kevin! Luckily it sounds like the tornado was dissipating at the time, but still scary.

[Hoosier]

So far, I've got a count of 57 tornadoes for Sunday (including IND tornadoes and splitting the GRR events):

 

12 EF0

19 EF1

17 EF2

6 EF3

2 EF4

1 EF?

Total: 57

 

I'm not sure whether to make anything out of IND taking a while to release more info on the Mellott and Lafayette area tornadoes.  If you draw a line from the Mellott area northeastward toward the building that sustained EF3 damage S/SE of LAF and the area around the Subaru plant which was damaged on the far east side of LAF, they all basically connect.  I'm wondering if it's possible that it was all one tornado.

[IWXwx]

I'm not sure whether to make anything out of IND taking a while to release more info on the Mellott and Lafayette area tornadoes.  If you draw a line from the Mellott area northeastward toward the building that sustained EF3 damage S/SE of LAF and the area around the Subaru plant which was damaged on the far east side of LAF, they all basically connect.  I'm wondering if it's possible that it was all one tornado.

It may have been what I call a skipper and they are trying to determine whether it was one or multiple.

[eyewall]

It's unbelievable how little sense people have.

 

"I thought it was going to curve, and it didn't."

 

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/11/illinois-tornado-survivor-i-really-dont-know-where-to-go-from-here/

 

I wonder if he stopped recording there or that was the extent of footage put online. He was definitely not very bright moving into a glass room with that thing coming at him. I kind of want to see what happens after the clip stops though.

[Hoosier]

It may have been what I call a skipper and they are trying to determine whether it was one or multiple.

 

Yeah and actually there were reports of damage/tornadoes beyond that in Clinton/Carroll counties which line up reasonably well.  Will be interesting to see whether it's a long tracker or perhaps a tornado family.

[Hoosier]

Updated statement from IWX shows that they reduced the path width of the 3000 yard wide tornado to 1400 yards.  Still large but a huge change.

[Chinook]

I have a specific request for my own personal interest. I would like a reflectivity/velocity image from Level 2 data on the tornadoes in Wood and Lucas Counties, OH, if you can find the vortex(vortices). This was at 2238z. I used to live in two places near where the EF2 tornado hit in Wood/Lucas county. I captured the radar on GRLevel3, but the velocity data didn't show me much. I didn't even think it was a tornado.

 

An EF-2 tornado traveled a 12 mile long path through part of Wood and Lucas Counties on Sunday evening, the National Weather Service confirms.

[isohume]

Thank God for AccuWeather. 

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mike-smith-the-invisible-successes-of-meteorology/2013/11/19/42520ad4-5142-11e3-9e2c-e1d01116fd98_story.html

[HM]

 

Thank God for AccuWeather. 

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mike-smith-the-invisible-successes-of-meteorology/2013/11/19/42520ad4-5142-11e3-9e2c-e1d01116fd98_story.html

LOL...that is like the Koch brothers putting out a statement on how much they've done to help bolster the lower-middle class. What a joke.

[tornadotony]

And another EF3 tornado from PAH's CWA:

 

000
NOUS43 KPAH 201932 CCA
PNSPAH
ILZ075>078-080>094-INZ081-082-085>088-KYZ001>022-MOZ076-086-087-
100-107>112-114-211900-

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PADUCAH KY
131 PM CST WED NOV 20 2013

...DAMAGE SURVEY RESULTS FOR SCOTT COUNTY MISSOURI...

* EVENT TYPE.........EF3 TORNADO

* EVENT DATE.........SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2013

* EVENT TIME.........107 PM (ESTIMATED FROM RADAR)

* EVENT LOCATION.....3.5 MILES NORTHWEST OF VANDUSER TO 4.5 MILES
NORTHEAST OF BLODGETT.

* PEAK WIND..........140 MPH

* MAX PATH WIDTH.....600 YARDS

* PATH LENGTH........19 MILES

* INJURIES...........0

* FATALITIES.........0

* DAMAGE DETAIL......TWO STICK BUILT HOMES DESTROYED: ONE OF THESE
HOMES HAD COMPLETE ROOF LOSS AS WELL AS MOST EXTERIOR WALLS AND SOME
INTERIOR WALLS BLOWN OUT. A VEHICLE WAS ALSO BLOWN OUT OF THE
GARAGE. THE OTHER HOME HAD A LARGE PORTION OF THE ROOF BLOWN OFF AND
SOME EXTERIOR WALLS BLOWN OUT. THREE EMPTY RAILROAD CARS OVERTURNED.
A 60X80 BUILDING BLOWN AWAY. THREE MOBILE HOMES COMPLETELY DESTROYED
WITH NUMEROUS OTHERS WITH MODERATE TO MAJOR DAMAGE. SEVERAL
IRRIGATION SYSTEMS BLOWN AROUND. MANY DOZEN LARGE OR VERY LARGE
TREES SNAPPED. NINE POWER POLES SNAPPED.

$

SHANKLIN

[Hoosier]

Scientific advancements and better awareness no doubt saved a lot of lives, but it's pretty insulting to say that this outbreak was similar to Palm Sunday.  There's a reason that EF4/EF5 tornadoes produce a disproportionately high number of fatalities.  Palm Sunday had 18 F4s.  Another outbreak with anything remotely close to that with tornadoes tracking through populated areas might not produce a death toll like 1965 but it's a virtual guarantee that it would've been much higher than what happened this past Sunday.