Re: OT: Now I know what it's like to be in a hurricane..

Sycho wrote:
Today Rev Turd Fredericks <turdfred2@xxxxxxxxxxxx> in alt.2600 on Wed,
17 Sep 2008 20:15:43 -0700 thought that it would be fun to share with
the rest of the class this little ditty..

Sycho wrote:
Today Rev Turd Fredericks <turdfred2@xxxxxxxxxxxx> in alt.2600 on Tue,
16 Sep 2008 23:06:18 -0700 thought that it would be fun to share with
the rest of the class this little ditty..

Sycho wrote:
Today Rev Turd Fredericks <turdfred2@xxxxxxxxxxxx> in alt.2600 on Tue,
16 Sep 2008 20:02:54 -0700 thought that it would be fun to share with
the rest of the class this little ditty..

Sycho wrote:
Today Rev Turd Fredericks <turdfred2@xxxxxxxxxxxx> in alt.2600 on Mon,
15 Sep 2008 20:20:12 -0700 thought that it would be fun to share with
the rest of the class this little ditty..

Sycho wrote:
Yesterday afternoon a large part of Ohio was under a high wind warning
for sustained gusts from 55 to 60 MPH as a result of the remnants of
hurricane Ike.

Large poorly rooted trees were ripped from the ground, homes and
buildings damaged or destroyed, power lines downed and cars damaged or
destroyed.

Both today and tomorrow (quite possible much of the week), the largest
school district in Columbus (Columbus City Schools) had to close its
doors because fifty percent of them are without power.

AEP (American Electric Power) says it's possible that power will be
fully restored by the end of the week, due largely to the fact that
some of the individual powerlines needs to be replaced.

Sadly, there have been a few fatalities as a result of the high winds.
Either trees falling on occupied cars or people out and about during
the peak of the very strong winds.

Much of the surrounding counties, including Franklin experienced a
peak measured gust of 75 MPH, which, as many of you know is equal to
that of a category one hurricane or an E F0 tornado.

My home was spared by the powerful winds and the only damage on my
property was to a large maple tree in my backyard. Anywhere between 3
and 8 inch diameter branches were ripped out of the tree, although I'm
happy to say the tree itself stood tall. I can't say that about other
trees throughout the neighborhood though. The new privacy fence that
was put up several months ago survived the winds, thankfully.

During the peak of the wind storm I literally saw a house about a
block down my street have its aluminum siding torn from the home
exposing insolation. And yes, during this event I was in constant
contact with the National Weather Service office in Wilmington, Ohio
phoning in my reports. I even told them at the second phone call to be
prepared because I was going to keep them busy with updated damage
reports.

After that I went on a brief tour of the neighborhood taking pictures
of the damage caused by the winds. Oddly, the houses across the street
from me have no power. Thankfully we do. That usually doesn't happen.
Usually it's the other way around. Although power did flicker from
time to time and even had gone out for about 2 seconds.

Anyway, I can that I sympathize with those who live in hurricane prone
areas. Granted the devastation is far greater than what we experienced
here. But I feel for those of you who have to pick up the pieces after
such a storm. I think Ike will remain etched in the hearts and minds
of those that had to go through that for many days to come. I know
I'll never forget it.
On my honeymoon we almost got hit with a small tornado, nobody can predict the path of those things, it ripped hundred year old trees right out of the ground, our cottage was untouched, but you could see the path all the way across the island. That was one of the scariest moments of my life that's for sure.
My very first storm chase still stands out in my mind and made me
rethink my procedures from that day foreword.

One evening, about 12 years ago a tornado warning was issued for my
county and the county next to me to the west (Madison). It was a
little after 9 PM and it was dark.

At the time it was just myself, my wife and my step-son who was just 4
years old at the time. We had come back into town from a trip. No
sooner than we walk in our house my weather radio's alarm was
activated by the National Weather Service. A tornado warning was
issued. I looked at her and said "let's go!".

We packed up a few things in the car and headed out west. I had the
weather radio on listening to updates issued in the special weather
statements. According to the updates, the area we were heading was in
the direct path of the storm. Once we were at the border of Franklin
and Madison, I pulled over on the freeway to monitor the situation.

It was pouring rain that night so that made it even more difficult to
be able to be effective for spotting. But I made the best of it. A few
minutes later the wind picked up from a light breeze to about 45 miles
per hour or more. We were facing the wind at that point. Still
couldn't see a thing either. Let alone the front of the car due to the
heavy rain! It was that bad out.

The car was rocking back and fourth due to the cross winds that
buffeted us. We were in my old 1982 Ford Crown Vic that was my chase
car.

A few minutes later the wind subsided so we went to the nearest off
ramp to turn around and head back for home as I was getting low on
fuel.

In any event, we never saw a tornado or a funnel, but I think that
night the wall cloud had passed pretty close if not over our car. It's
not unusual for winds to be extreme underneath one of those as they
are where a tornado forms out of.

The following day I made the decision that I would never chase at
night due to the extreme risk involved. It literally scared the hell
out of me. But my training made me stay calm so as not to scare my
wife and step-son.

A decade later I was by myself on another chase. Bad thing to do too!
The storm I was following formed a damaging microburst. I was parked
along side a rural road around trees that all of a sudden started
bending almost to the roadway! I hightailed it to my north in a
clearer area and watched as debris was littering the ground where I
was originally parked! Never been on one of those before but damn that
was just as scary as my night chase. My heart was pounding almost out
of my chest.

It all happened so fast I didn't have time to get my video camera
rolling nor did I take still shots, but that was an experience I'll
never forget.
I certainly don't have any experience like that. I tend to avoid storms, but to each his own. What was remarkable to me was the color of the sky and the really really heavy rain that preceded it. The sky was almost purple and it was about 11am, do you know what causes that? We were 100 miles from the nearest source of industrial pollution etc. I had to bail the boat out twice before the tornado hit.
Purple? Well, not to sound funny but I'll bet it wasn't Prince (or the
artist formally known as Prince). hehe

Seriously, I'm not really sure. I know when a thunderstorm is nearby
and producing hail the sky usually turns a tint of green or a
turquoise green because of the sunlight reflecting off the hail
stones. But a purple hue I really don't know what might have caused
that. Probably a combination of hail and or rain and the ambient
sunlight piercing through (or attempting to) the clouds.

It may have had a lot to do with the angle of the sun at the time
also.
It was green too, but with a purple like glow. It could have been the low clouds reflecting on the (at first) calm lake that gave the purple glow. The lake went from dead calm to 2 foot waves (big for such a small lake) in a matter of seconds then a whirring sound and the sound of limbs breaking and trees falling. Because it was a rather remote area there was no confirmation of a tornado, but there was confirmation of tornadoes in nearby areas. These trees that were snapped in half were hundred+ year old pines that had withstood many storms over the years. Just down a bit along the shore from us was a 30ft tall oak which was literally ripped out of the ground. As far as I know, no buildings were destroyed, but we had enough firewood to last for quite some time :-)
Was there a swirling pattern to the debris? Or was it all laying in
one direction? That's how you can tell if it was a tornado or straight
lined winds.

In a tornado, the debris will be scattered in every direction. With
straight lined winds, debris will fall in a one direction.
It was hard to tell, most of the damage was towards the center of the island, it seemed very selective, several big trees on our neighbors property were ripped out, and then several towards the center, and finally some on the shore about a mile from us. The ones on the shore were in a very sheltered place where regular wind could not knock over a tree like that. It certainly didn't have a straight path though.

Without seeing damage photos, I'd have to say that it may have been a
gustnado. They're a bit weaker than their "cousins", the tornado.
Although they too can do some minor damage (trees and buildings).

They don't form out of a wall cloud like a tornado, they develop on
the leading edge (the "gust front") of a storm, hence the name
"gustnado". It was once thought that they were rare, but they are
anything but. However, just not as common. Their damage pattern can
look much like that of a tornado. Debris falling in different
directions, a swirl pattern in the grass, metal twisted around an
object like a tree or pole. All visual indications that there was
rotation.

If you look at a radar image of a "bow echo", gustnadoes would form
along the crest of the bow with small, weak tornadoes (E F0 to E F1)
forming at either the north and/or south of the crest.

The damage could also been caused by a microburst. However you would
have the damage falling in a straight line. Or it could also have been
a derecho (pronounced day-ray-che-oh) which is a prolonged bow echo
that can travel for hundreds of miles producing severe wind damage in
its path from 58 MPH to nearly 100 MPH. Again, damage would fall in a
single direction. But they, as well as microbursts can produce a sound
eerily similar to that of a tornado.

Interesting stuff. I wish I was paying more attention to what happened rather than covering my head and preparing to die :-) I have never seen anything like it in that area and I spent a good part of my life up to the age of 35 there.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: OT: Now I know what its like to be in a hurricane..
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