5/8/09 NOW: AR/MO/KS/OK

[Bart_Comstock]

A very impressive derecho is crossing over SE KS and moving into NE OK, and SE MO and NW AR and looks like it is packing quite the punch with the numerous svr wind reports of winds in the 60-70mph range and fairly substantial tree damage not to mention the massive amount of lightning this system has been putting out.

Right now I am in Bentonville, Ar and am preparing to to intercept this from my home with my stream to cover this for my local station I chase for but I am considering heading up north towards Anderson, Mo however I don't feel I have any chance getting that far that fast.

EDIT:

It looks as if the coma head of this massive bow as started to spin up and as I type this I see a break in the line is forming allowing another area of rotation to spin up as two tornado warnings are now present in far SW MO.

EDIT: Also it seems I goofed on the date... today is the 8th not 9th... I had just rolled out of bed when I started this thread and well I needed my coffee and wasn't totally awake when I typed up this thread. Mods could you please fix this?

 

[Jennifer Combs]

I'm in Northern Springfield, MO. We got sirens going off and it's very green outside. Confirmed tornado in Republic, MO. I'm in the direct path if this tornado stays together so hopefully I can report something in a bit. Sorry I can't report more but here comes the wind so I'm off the computer.

 

[Dave_Hilbert]

Live Springfield, MO stream: http://www.kspr.com/weather/chat

 

[Bart_Comstock]

Looks like there are two reports now on each end of the Springfield Metro of touchdowns. Does anyone know how extensive the damage is? You know this derecho has the most impressive comma head/book end vorticity that I have ever seen. We have be spared down here in Bentonville as well I have yet to even experience svr criteria winds but we did have one hell of a whales mouth for what that's worth.

 

[Chris Bethurum]

I am 5 east of Branson. It was very still and foggy here when family member called and warned of the Springfield activity. It was extremely still until strong inflow from the SE blew 40-50 for about 20-30 seconds. I would say conditions were not severe here, though there has been a lot of lightning mostly cloud to cloud. It hit here ~0825. We appear to be at the south edge of any rotation indicated.

 

[Jennifer Combs]

Looks like there are two reports now on each end of the Springfield Metro of touchdowns. Does anyone know how extensive the damage is? You know this derecho has the most impressive comma head/book end vorticity that I have ever seen. We have be spared down here in Bentonville as well I have yet to even experience svr criteria winds but we did have one hell of a whales mouth for what that's worth.

I'm not out and about this morning but I have news on and am watching out my back door. A roof just blew in on a high school but I didn't catch exactly where (possibly Fair Grove area). So far it's been limbs down, some roofs blown off, signs blown down, a semi on I-44 blown over, traffic lights blown off, stuff like that. I know this isn't supposed to be the place to post reports, I just wanted to answer you and oh my, something just went boom outside my house so I'm gonna go look.

Edit: Since I mentioned it I figured I'd let everyone know no one was injured at that school.

The news keeps talking about the strongest winds are on the front of the storm where the bow is, and that's what I always thought because that's what I always experienced, but I'm definitely having stronger winds, and more often, on the backside of this storm. Looking at radar, the storm still looks pretty strong just eat of Mountain Home, AR and around Lebanon, MO.

 

[Jason Bolt]

Probably more of a report than anything, was working til 0700 this morning and the bow came through Cherokee Co. (KS) right at 0700. Of course my relief wasn't here yet so we wound up on multiple semis blown over and a mobile home destroyed 2nd to straight line winds. Apparently damage is widespread over Joplin and SE KS. The comma head seemed to really wind up just as it approached the state line with a nice couplet between Pittsburg and Nevada. Even now, the system is moving so fast warnings are being put out three counties ahead of the line in some places, that's pretty amazing.

 

[Jeff Duda]

Wow, this thing has really started cranking since I woke up and began following it. PDS severe t-storm watch and the organization of the line has really increased. I wasn't seeing any inflow notches along the leading edge of the line two hours ago, but now they're everywhere! Plus, the RIJ behind the system is producing severe wind gusts well behind the line itself. Very impressive velocity signatures on GR2 showing up here.

 

[Bart_Comstock]

It appears there are two separate reports of homes destroyed in Douglas County, MO and there was a heck of a couplet that moved over that area as well. The amount of couplets in this line is crazy and has spawned more and more reports of funnels and damage across the warned areas and now the SPC has issued Tornado Watch 267.

Down in my neck of the woods the rain is once again picking up and there is starting to be localized street flooding of several inches as well as an incredible amount of CG and CC lightning. We certainly dont need anymore rain here and all this is going to do is lead to another day of a heightened flash flood risk.

It will be interesting to see later today how the OFB's will effect this afternoon's svr wx potential and I think they will add with forcing and combining that with the shortwave we could see a interesting round of severe weather this late afternoon and evening.

 

[Jason Bolt]

Media reporting one fatality in Wilson Co. KS.

 

[Darrin Rasberry]

Garden-variety TOR watch in anticipation of it really going Old Testament when it hits the OFB near the Western Kentucky/Eastern MO border, but it still has all HIGHS for the wind and hail categories, which still means its as PDS SVR as before. I wonder how long this absolute beast will continue?

 

[Darrin Rasberry]

Media reporting one fatality in Wilson Co. KS.

SPC also reporting 1 injury from a rolled vehicle in Butler Co. and significant damage from 100 mph winds in Cherryvale ...

 

[John Farley]

Probably should add IL and maybe KY to the thread. Very strong couplet now moving east out of Randolph Co, IL. Can't chase today and this system is rather unchaseable anyway, but quite an amazing system.

Edit - The bow-head, which has become somewhat detached from the line and more like an HP supercell, just produced a tornado near the Iron-Washington Co. MO line. Also the storm mentioned in the initial post is still TOR warnd and may have produced a tornado in Chester, IL.

 

[Evan Stubbart]

Can someone change the title of the thread to the correct date- it's not the 9th, it's the 8th.

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

Pretty insane wind damage reports coming out of that thing. "Homes Flattened" and such.

Reports of golfballs coming out of that bow too, which seems more on the uncommon side with damaging wind events.