5/10/08 DISC: KS/OK/MO/AR/TX/MS/GA/AL

[Chad Cowan]

Any word on if this was a single tornado? How is that determined across multiple CWA's? Just heard on ABC national news that it was a 73 mile path. They also showed about 2 seconds of the Stormgasm footage.

 

[Mark Farnik]

While this event was indeed devastating and the loss of 20 lives isn't insignificant, I can't help but wonder just how much worse it could have been if this storm had tracked a mere 20 miles further north and the tornado had passed through the greater Joplin metropolitan area. If you look at the tornado track and shift it 20 miles north, the tornado would have been at its peak EF-4 intensity right over the heart of Joplin rather than the 'relatively' open country northwest and north of Racine.
I have a very distinct feeling that if this had happened, we'd be looking at 200 rather than 20 fatalities, and 2,000 injuries as opposed to 200.
As destructive and deadly as this storm was, it could have been much, MUCH worse...
Joplin seems to have been extremely fortunate in recent years, having also dodged a major strike during the infamous May 4, 2003 tornado outbreak.
This makes me very curious as to if residents in Joplin may have been lulled into a false sense that tornadoes 'always miss Joplin', which could have very bad consequences in future events in which the city might not be so fortunate as it has been in the past...
Just my 2 cents worth.
EDIT: Chad, I do believe that it was determined to have been a single, long track tornado. The 73 mile path length sounds about right.

 

[Mikey Gribble]

Check this out if you haven't already Chad. I just skimmed through it, but it said the Picher tornado had a 29 mile track. There are 4 tabs with each county that tornadoes occured in. Click on those tabs for maps of the tornado tracks through those counties. Like I said I just skimmed it, but it looks like they have surveyed this as being several long-track tornadoes vs. one extremely long-track tornado. http://www.crh.noaa.gov/sgf/?n=may10_2008_tornadoes

I almost wish I would have sat it out Donald. It was pretty frustrating getting warning texts all the way home and knowing we missed a big one. Those always hurt. I guess it was probably better I went though because if I stayed home I would have convinced myself I would have been on the tornado and made myself even more miserable lol. Storms aren't supposed to go that fast in May. Anybody know the actual speed of it? The weird thing is that we kept up with the rear storm OK, but whenever we tried to close the gap on the storm ahead of us we just couldn't make up any ground on it. I think the killer was that we kept hitting the rain on the backside of the storm/wet roads and that would seriously slow us down because my car hydroplanes easily. I had no idea that storm would produce a strong tornado either or I would have found a way to catch up to it. Oh well. At least I'm not alone in missing out on it, which as bad as it sounds, makes me feel better.

 

[John Peters]

Check this out if you haven't already Chad. I just skimmed through it, but it said the Picher tornado had a 29 mile track. There are 4 tabs with each county that tornadoes occured in. Click on those tabs for maps of the tornado tracks through those counties. Like I said I just skimmed it, but it looks like they have surveyed this as being several long-track tornadoes vs. one extremely long-track tornado. http://www.crh.noaa.gov/sgf/?n=may10_2008_tornadoes

They are just continuations of the same tornado track per county affected.

 

[Mikey Gribble]

So is it supposed to be one tornado from Picher into Missouri? I honestly didn't read the survey yet. I just read the part for the Picher portion of the storm.

 

[Rob Satkus]

So is it supposed to be one tornado from Picher into Missouri? I honestly didn't read the survey yet. I just read the part for the Picher portion of the storm.

Yes, it actually touched down in Kansas just north of the border and crossed into and went 29 miles thru OK and then on into MO. NWS TUL and NWS SGF both have good path maps on their sites.

Rob

 

[Lee Kuhlman]

I just want to take a minute and offer up some praise to those storm chasers who stopped and assisted in emergency response efforts. There were several in this group who pitched in during a moment of extreme crisis. Having been a media chaser at one point in my life, I know how easy it is to just "cover" the story and move on. My hat is off to those who got promoted from simple chaser to rescuer. I won't embarrass you by mentioning names but you know who you are. Give me a buzz the next time you're in my part of Oklahoma and I'll buy you a beer (or beverage of your choice.)

THANKS!

Lee Kuhlman
City of Newcastle
Storm Operations Team

Newcastle, OK

 

[Sam Sagnella]

ACK! This was quite the tornado:

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHARLESTON SC
1025 PM EDT MON MAY 12 2008

...PRELIMINARY INFORMATION FOR THE MCINTOSH COUNTY TORNADO ON SUNDAY
MORNING MAY 11TH...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DAMAGE ASSESSMENT TEAM HAS SURVEYED THE
AREA OF MCINTOSH COUNTY NORTHWEST TO NORTHEAST OF DARIEN. AS A
RESULT...A PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT HAS BEEN MADE ON THIS TORNADO.

A TORNADO FORMED AT 956 AM...3 MILES NORTHWEST OF DARIEN AND TRACKED
EAST 5.5 MILES TO ABOUT 4 MILES NORTHEAST OF DARIEN IN THE VICINITY
OF HIRD ISLAND AT 1003 AM.

THIS TORNADO DESTROYED A MARINE SALES AND SERVICES BUSINESS. ALL
THAT WAS LEFT OF THIS METAL BUILDING WAS A CONCRETE SLAB. ABOUT 50
BOATS WERE TOSSED AROUND AND DESTROYED...WITH ONE 18 FOOT 4000 POUND
BOAT CARRIED ABOUT 650 YARDS INTO SOME TREES. A 32 FOOT 8000 POUND
BOAT WAS CARRIED ABOUT 130 YARDS ONTO THE TOP OF THE GATEWAY
BEHAVIORAL SERVICES BUILDING. A SECOND SMALLER BOAT WAS ALSO
CARRIED INTO THE BUILDING. A VEHICLE THAT WAS PARKED IN THE PARKING
LOT WAS CARRIED IN THE AIR 150 YARDS. ONE 125 HP BOAT MOTOR WEIGHING
300 TO 350 POUNDS WAS CARRIED 250 YARDS AND DEPOSITED INTO THE ROOF
OF A BUILDING. AT THIS TIME...ONE OF THE BOATS HAS NOT BEEN
ACCOUNTED FOR. SEVERAL OTHER VEHICLES NEAR THIS BUSINESS WERE ROLLED
OR TOSSED AND SEVERELY DAMAGED OR DESTROYED. DAMAGE TO THE BUILDING
AND ALL THE BOATS WERE ESTIMATED TO BE 5 MILLION DOLLARS.

THE GATEWAY BEHAVIORAL HEALTH AND SERVICES BUILDING WAS TOTALLY
DESTROYED. THE ROOF COLLAPSED ALONG WITH MANY OF THE OUTER BRICK
WALLS. PORTIONS OF THE METAL ROOF WERE CARRIED MORE THAN A MILE AWAY
WITH SOME OF IT LANDING ON INTERSTATE 95. OF THE 40 PEOPLE THAT WERE
IN THE BUILDING WHEN THE TORNADO HIT...9 WERE INJURED SUSTAINING
BROKEN BONES AND/OR LACERATIONS. SIX VEHICLES AROUND THIS BUILDING
WERE DAMAGED OR DESTROYED AND A METAL LIGHT POLE WAS SNAPPED OFF.

THE MCINTOSH EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES METAL BUILDING WAS DESTROYED
BY THE TORNADO WITH DAMAGE TO THREE AMBULANCES AND ONE FIRE TRUCK.

TWO OTHER BUSINESSES IN THIS AREA SUFFERED DAMAGE...INCLUDING DAMAGE
TO SATELLITE DISHES AND TWO OVERTURNED TRACTOR TRAILERS.

IN OTHER AREAS ALONG THE TORNADO PATH THE TORNADO DAMAGED OR
DESTROYED FOUR BILLBOARDS ALONG INTERSTATE 95...PRODUCED MAINLY
MINOR ROOF DAMAGE TO SEVERAL DOZEN HOMES...SNAPPED OFF OR UPROOTED
THOUSANDS OF TREES...SOME OF THEM FALLING ON HOMES OR VEHICLES AND
DAMAGED OR DESTROYED NUMEROUS OUTBUILDINGS.

NEAR THE END OF THE PATH...THE TORNADO DAMAGED THE BLUE-N-HALL
MARINA AND FISHING DOCK. IN THIS AREA...A LARGE BOAT HOIST ALONG WITH
18 BOATS AND SEVERAL BOAT TRAILERS WERE DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.
SEVERAL POWER POLES WERE SNAPPED OFF AND SEVERAL VEHICLES WERE
DAMAGED.

THE MAXIMUM WIDTH OF THIS TORNADO WAS 700 YARDS WHEN IT CROSSED
INTERSTATE 95. THIS TORNADO WILL POTENTIALLY BE RATED EF3 OR GREATER
BASED ON THE DAMAGE TO MARINE SALES AND SERVICES BUSINESS AND THE
GATEWAY BEHAVIORAL HEALTH AND SERVICES BUILDING. ADDITIONAL
INFORMATION WILL BE FORTHCOMING AS THE DAMAGE IS EVALUATED FURTHER.

$$

MTE/DB

I went to try and get HDSS data on this tornado, but it's down for some reason. Anyone know why? ( http://has.ncdc.noaa.gov/ )

 

[Alex Lamers]

Why can I not find any news stories on this tornado? It sounds pretty significant...

AJL

ACK! This was quite the tornado:

I went to try and get HDSS data on this tornado, but it's down for some reason. Anyone know why? ( http://has.ncdc.noaa.gov/ )

 

[Mike Peregrine]

I've posted a brief video clip of the Oswego-Hallowell, Kansas area tornado. You can get to it from my blog here. Don't expect wonderfulness. It was shaky and hand-held, but it's all I got ... there's a bit of the rainbow from the Picher storm as well.

 

[afischer]

Here is an amazing video of a tornado that tracked near Yanush Oklahoma on May 10. If I'm correlating it right with the storm survey, this tornado was rated EF-2, with a path length of 22 miles and a max width of 1/3 mile... and was produced by the middle of the three big supercells in southeastern Oklahoma that late afternoon. I'm wondering if it didn't hit much (given the modest rating), as the motions look rather violent... at times reminiscent of the 6/23/98 "crazy farmer" vid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP0mFbkfy9o

Did any chasers manage a view of this beast given the bad roads/terrain? I had an excuse for missing it... I was driving in circles in western Arkansas.

 

[Brian Emfinger]

Here is an amazing video of a tornado that tracked near Yanush Oklahoma on May 10. If I'm correlating it right with the storm survey, this tornado was rated EF-2, with a path length of 22 miles and a max width of 1/3 mile... and was produced by the middle of the three big supercells in southeastern Oklahoma that late afternoon. I'm wondering if it didn't hit much (given the modest rating), as the motions look rather violent... at times reminiscent of the 6/23/98 "crazy farmer" vid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP0mFbkfy9o

Did any chasers manage a view of this beast given the bad roads/terrain? I had an excuse for missing it... I was driving in circles in western Arkansas.

Wow, yeah theres not a whole lot down there to hit and what is down there probably isn't built strong enough to give it a higher rating. It very well could have had EF-4 winds with that look and motion.

I got a glimpse of the storm at 6:30 which was after that tornado had ended but around the time the storm was tracking through the area I ran into trees down/snapped later.

 

[Brian Stertz]

Yeah agreed Andy, it looks seriously wound up ...and certainly looks like a more intense tornado than EF2. The back tower looks pretty fierce in your pic Brian. All I could do is drool as I watched radar from VA. The fast motion of the tornadoes across pretty thick trees and hilly topography certainly seemed to be a big downside to chasing last Saturday.

 

[Jim Bishop]

It looks like Jim Bishop and Simon Brewer may have been the only people that actually foresaw the northern target being better than the southern, so I may have to take back what I said ealier. They would have to answer that question themselves though. I wouldn't be surprised by this because I've always thought Jim and Simon were solidly in the top 5 forecasters of tornadoes from a chasing perspective. They are extremely good and always seem to hit the best tornadoes on big days, which IMO is a huge part of being a great storm chaser.

Mikey,

Thank you for the kind words.

I was only in Norman that weekend to be there for Simon's graduation. But when I looked at the conditions late Saturday morning I immediately called Simon and said "Man, I'm thinking about heading to Southeast Kansas/Northeast OK".

That began a long conversation where we agreed conditions looked amazing for tornadoes. IMO it looked like a classic setup with the nose of the mois axis intercepting the left exit region of the 300mb jet streak, along with a vort max and surface low. Not to mention the backed surface winds and south-southwesterly 850mb flow @ 40 knots. It all just looked too good.

And once I knew Simon was cool with me physically skipping his graduation ceremony - I was in chase mode and hauled it northeast on 44 (after I picked up the equipment)!

Simon played an equal role in my tornado intercept. He gave me extremely valueable nowcasting advice while I was on I44 heading northeast (I had 0 time to stop for data). He even checked the radar on his cell phone while he was at his graduation location wating for it to start. So even though Simon wasn't there I consider that our tornado! And boy oh boy my fiancee sher enjoyed it.

 

[Robert Rohloff]

Updated Storm Information

NWS Tulsa updated the tornado reports for the 10th and included some photos of paths and damage for their ratings.

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/tsa/weather-events/may10_2008/may10_2008.htm