3/26/11 DISC: AL,GA,MS

[Brian Stertz]

Some beautiful supercells on radar yesterday but relatively few tornado reports. I am curious about the "large" tornado report near Birmingham AL last night...Walker & Jefferson Co. I did not see this any of the storm reports or in the SPC log for yesterday. Anybody know more about this one? TWC indicated this was a wedge tornado in Dr. Forbes cut in.

 

[Brett Adair]

Apparently someone misconstrued a report....I posted a possible tornado report on SpotterNetwork and someone took it as a wedge tornado report. So many people were looking at the streams thinking it was a wedge....so I don't know who or how it was misinterpreted.

 

[Drew.Gardonia]

Some beautiful supercells on radar yesterday but relatively few tornado reports. I am curious about the "large" tornado report near Birmingham AL last night...Walker & Jefferson Co. I did not see this any of the storm reports or in the SPC log for yesterday. Anybody know more about this one? TWC indicated this was a wedge tornado in Dr. Forbes cut in.

I'm curious about this as well, so far this is ALL I've been able to locate online in regards to it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wbrc/5563489428/in/photostream/

http://www.alabamawx.com/?p=42533&u...aign=dangerous-tornado-approaching-birmingham

I'd tend to think (as would any logical person with a halfway decent amount of knowledge of storms) that the media would have been ALL OVER THIS, and every media source out of Birmingham isn't carrying this on their websites. CNN's not on it, Foxnews isn't on it.

The case of the phantom wedge tornado.......indeed.

 

[Ken Jasionowski]

I'd be interested to get everyone's thought on why 3/26 did not materialize as expected. MDT risk, dozens of tornado warnings, but no actual tornadoes until late in the evening in GA. All the ingredients seemed to be there, so I wanted to get thoughts on why the tornadoes didn't pop? On TWC Dr Forbes was mentioning about dry upper air being pulled in between the two jets and that might be a dampening factor? Alot of the hodos didn't hav great directional shear? Thoughts?

 

[Jesse Risley]

I'd be interested to get everyone's thought on why 3/26 did not materialize as expected. MDT risk, dozens of tornado warnings, but no actual tornadoes until late in the evening in GA. All the ingredients seemed to be there, so I wanted to get thoughts on why the tornadoes didn't pop? On TWC Dr Forbes was mentioning about dry upper air being pulled in between the two jets and that might be a dampening factor? Alot of the hodos didn't hav great directional shear? Thoughts?

There certainly wasn't a jet core placing that region in a traditionally favored quadrant, though middle and upper-level winds were seasonably decent. If you look at the 17z BMX and 18z JAN special soundings, you'll note the 0-1-km shear wasn't incredibly impressive, even in the presence of otherwise adequate deep layer shear, coupled with somewhat arguably weak surface winds. The actual observed soundings looked more unidirectional than not. Someone else noted that mid-level lapse rates were on the lower end of what's considered to be great values, and 6-7 C/km would probably be classified as conditionally unstable, based on whatever moisture is available.

 

[Brett Adair]

Weak inflow regions to the storms and lots of hail causing EXTREME cold downdrafts.... Very little low level shear except along the main boundary. Surface winds were veered across most of the warm sector.

 

[jeremy wilson]

Apparently someone misconstrued a report....I posted a possible tornado report on SpotterNetwork and someone took it as a wedge tornado report. So many people were looking at the streams thinking it was a wedge....so I don't know who or how it was misinterpreted.

Yeah, i posted in now thread saying there was a large and dangerous tornado in a fairly populated area north of Birmingham. I was going off the actual tornado warnings wording. i was all over local webcams and TV stations and couldn't find anything. I kinda felt like a tool when no reports or any word of damage were out by this morning.

 

[Ed Johnson]

I'm right here in the middle of the Alabama weather action... nothing to report but some dark clouds and a very little rain at my house.

 

[Drew.Gardonia]

Yeah, i posted in now thread saying there was a large and dangerous tornado in a fairly populated area north of Birmingham. I was going off the actual tornado warnings wording. i was all over local webcams and TV stations and couldn't find anything. I kinda felt like a tool when no reports or any word of damage were out by this morning.

for it to be in the actual wording, that means a spotter, chaser, or LEO had to of called it into the NWS.

 

[jeremy wilson]

for it to be in the actual wording, that means a spotter, chaser, or LEO had to of called it into the NWS.

Better safe than sorry I guess?

If I was a local and read the warning I would have been scared poopless if I was it it's path. I bet some panicky people were taking shelter thinking the worst was coming. At least this doesn't happen very often.

 

[Randy Denzer]

Apparently someone misconstrued a report....I posted a possible tornado report on SpotterNetwork and someone took it as a wedge tornado report. So many people were looking at the streams thinking it was a wedge....so I don't know who or how it was misinterpreted.

Third hand reports or reporting anything other than what we actually see is a No No. In my opinion, The NWS creates "Possible" by using the "Doppler Indicated" Spotters are used for Ground Truth which is our actual observations.
This could be why the repercussions where the TWC reporting an actual tornado..

 

[Drew.Gardonia]

This is hi-def video (taken by me) and a pic taken by Adam Reagan. There's debate as to whether or not this is a funnel or tornado...I'd just like to see some others opinions on the matter. you be the judge!

Watch video >

Look just to the left of the middle of the photograph at the cone shaped object protruding down from the wall cloud.

 

[Randy Denzer]

Drew,
Could not see it enough to see motion. I would not report either a tornado OR funnel by what I saw in the video.. AND this does not mean it was not a tornado or funnel.. I just can't see the motion I need to see to verify...

Next time get a big ladder to look over the trees!

Randy

 

[Jesse Risley]

Besides the inability to see any rapid vertical motion commonly associated with either a funnel cloud or a tornado, you can't see the surface beneath the structure due to the hills and trees. Even if it was a funnel cloud, and I really can't tell based off of just that video clip, unless you can verify contact with the ground (e.g., a debris swirl), then there's no way to know if there would have been a tornado in progress, save for possible evidence left in a damage path consistent with tornadic vortices. There are oftentimes many SLCs (scary lookin' clouds) that, when viewed from the right angle, give the appearance of a bona fide funnel, yet really are easily discernible as just SLCs after observing them for a short period of time.

 

[Drew.Gardonia]

yeah, my consensus in my reports thread was that "I" didn't see a tornado/funnel, because I couldn't see it coming down, touching down, and having a debris cloud on the ground and see it tearing stuff up because it didn't meet the NWS criteria (from what I saw). just my 2 cents, but I was just curious to see what others thought.