Hoosier

Interactive map that gives all kinds of nerdy details for any location http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/solar_eclipses/TSE_2017_GoogleMapFull.html

I have heard that hotels in/near the totality zone are filling up fast, especially out west where clouds are climatologically less likely. Fortunately, many of us live close enough to be able to drive to the totality zone on the same day. Obviously, weather will be so critical. Hopefully the weather pattern is such that clouds will be at a minimum.

Well, the time is coming, as we are now just about 7 weeks away from this majestic occurrence. Just some general background information on this eclipse. Total solar eclipses are visible somewhere on Earth with some degree of regularity, but it is very unusual to get one in your country, and even more rare if you're lucky enough to get one in your backyard. The last total solar eclipse to occur in the contiguous US was back on February 26, 1979, and the last one to occur in any part of the Midwest was on June 30, 1954. This upcoming total solar eclipse will also be the first one since 1918 to have the path of totality crossing all the way from the Pacific to the Atlantic, and will be the first one to be exclusively visible over the United States landmass in many, many hundreds of years (in other words, you can't be in any other country if you want to see this total solar eclipse). Here are some maps courtesy of Michael Zeiler at www.greatamericaneclipse.com You must be somewhere within the outlined zone to see this as a total solar eclipse. Not 50 miles away, not 10 miles away, not a couple miles away. And the closer you are to the center line, the better. Not to say you won't have a decent show outside of the zone, but in weather terms, it's a bit like the difference between a 6" snow and an all out 3 foot blizzard. For anyone outside of the total eclipse zone, it will look a bit like the May 10, 1994 (annular) solar eclipse.

Can't say it's been a quiet start, overall. If you just look at tornado reports, there aren't many years outdoing this one so far.

Man that's brutal!

Wikipedia has a nice summary and listing of tornadoes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornado_outbreak_of_March_2–3,_2012

Sorry folks. There was stuff being posted all over the board.

I read that many places are already booked in the West (climo favors less cloudiness there).

Yay, other eclipse geeks here Here's about what it will look like in areas that aren't fortunate to be in the zone of totality

Couple images from SPC from that day. I do remember the focus/target area that day being pretty broad. Then attention quickly shifted toward Joplin.

Can't imagine being so close to total devastation as you were. You were in the outer fringes of the tornado IIRC?

What happened in that event? Was it a case of completely missing the lake effect potential or just being off with the placement of the band?

Even if Joaquin would've made landfall in, say, the Carolinas as many models had been suggesting at one point or another, how unusual would that have been? Northwestward moving storms into the Gulf coast/Southeast seem pretty routine.

great pic!

I can tell you all about it...we specialize in 80 degree dews in the LAF. Plainfield is a good reminder that you still need to keep an eye out on days that may not look like much tornadic wise at first glance.

bump...here's another version of the Peoria sounding from the Plainfield tornado day. Sick, sick stuff.

Yeah, if we're thinking about the same video, it's kinda cool how the tree waited to go down until right after the strongest winds passed. lol The cool thing about stuff like this now is that everybody gets it on camera.

I've wondered what it would've been like if areas closer to the surface low had been able to destabilize. I remember someone posting a model image the night before that had good CAPE all the way into northern Indiana with a string of supercells running pretty much the entire length of the state.

June 15-17 was a big severe weather event. The 16th/17th were high risk days for much of the subforum except the fringe areas in the north, east, and south.

Here is the NARR from the mornings of June 21 and June 22. Pretty amazing to see 850 mb temps below 0C in the Lakes.

Come on, even you would be whining about 30s in late June.

I was pretty young but I have some vague memories of that summer. Looking back at the dailies, LAF had a low of 35 degrees on June 22, which really sticks out like a sore thumb when you look at records for surrounding dates.

I don't spend a lot of time in this forum but it's been my understanding that it's mostly been used for climate change discussions on the larger scale. So, inevitably there is the issue about where to post about climate changes/trends for any given city or more localized regions. Personally I don't have a problem with those types of posts in the subforums as long as it stays on a basic level without getting too deep into the reasons for changes. Numbers are not debatable, reasons behind the numbers are.

beavis, I found a wind chill of -58F for ORD on 12/24/1983. Temp was -25F with wind of 25 mph

February 1936 might also be worth checking. It was ridiculously cold especially in the northern Plains/upper Midwest.