09-10 analogy

24 minutes ago, Hoosier said:

What happened last night, especially in Kentucky, is an absolute freakshow for this time of year. 

I did some digging and it looks like the deadliest December tornado in KY prior to this was back on December 4, 1925, with 2 fatalities. 

The deadliest ever I could find was Vicksburg MS in 1953, with 38. 

In a way, this seems more unprecedented than April 2011. NOT as bad overall, obviously, but certainly bad enough and maybe more anomalous? After all, you had April 1965 and 1974 as predecessor comparable events for April 27, 2011. April has probably had more tragic tornado outbreaks than any other month. But December? There doesn't seem to be anything like this on the record, except for the 1957 event I linked earlier -- 37 total, 1 F5, 3 F4s. But the fatality count there was 19. (From the wiki, a lot of those tornadoes were after dark, it seems.) Now, the governor of Kentucky, who's probably about as unimpeachable a source as you could get in the immediate aftermath of something like this, is speculating about more than 100 deaths (at least last I heard). With other fatalities in Arkansas and Tennessee. So, really, no comparison, at least using fatality count as the (ghoulish) metric for ranking outbreak severity.

There are gonna be a lot of studies on this one, for certain. 

(Moved this from Mid Atlantic forum; seems more pertinent here.)

10 minutes ago, nw baltimore wx said:

Moving this over from banter. Unbelievable.

 

The way it just ripped apart and threw down the water tower, including the concrete supports ... just insane.

Getting serious Greensburg vibes from the videos from Mayfield. Just horrible. Worst-case scenario: a violent tornado consuming a town of some size in the middle of the night. Except Mayfield is considerably larger than Greensburg. Worst December tornado in the nation's history, perhaps, if these fatality estimates hold steady. The worst one I can think of previously was Vicksburg MS in 1953, 38 deaths. 

EDIT: Here's an outbreak in 1957 that affected the same general area (bullseyed a little bit to the north of last night's) in mid December, and it included an F5:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornado_outbreak_sequence_of_December_18–20,_1957

distant rolling thunder, no visible lightning; steady rain

soon as i typed just now, loudest thunder i've heard yet

rain sounds like applause -- i think that's a tom waits line

Friday is the 20th anniversary of the college park F3 and other vortexinal curiosities (e.g., Tidal Basin F1, quick-hitting F4 near Culpepper) that day.  I still remember how strong the winds were at my location (an RFD, perhaps?) as the supercell passed right to the east and the beautiful flanking line I was able to see with it, probably right around the time the tornado was hitting College Park.

6 hours ago, boviscopophobic said:

Here is my footage of the Edgewater, MD tornado in the early afternoon. I should have also seen the Mullica Hill, NJ tornado but unfortunately botched my road planning.

 

 

That looked to be a multivortex as well, just like mullica hill, especially around 1:01 to 1:17 or so. 
 

ida exceeded Laura as a land falling hurricane, exceeded Ivan as a tornado producer for the Mid-Atlantic (if not for the DMV specifically) and seems to have rivaled Floyd (maybe even Agnes?) as a rain producer. Quite the trifecta. I was about to write that ida is the weather event of the 2020s, but then quickly remembered the Texas cold wave and storms and the NW heatwave. Both similarly extraordinary events. What a year for meteorological extremes.

EDIT: Wrote this before looking at the SPC reports page that still shows only five TOR reports. Surprised there aren’t more.

Philly is the new OKC

So much for the idea that tornadoes from decaying tropical are “weak” spinups. 

This has to be one of the most active tornado years for the philly area ever.

3 minutes ago, Always in Zugzwang said:

Same here, just heard a rumble for the first time today.  Now last night...different story with that cell that went through about 3AM!  Tons of lightning and thunder as well as a deluge of rain.  Several lightning strikes were very close...bright and followed immediately by very loud thunder.

Last night, for me, was the storm of the season. You get much wind? It prolly gusted to around 40-45 here for a bit

First thunder with any of the daytime cells

20 minutes ago, nw baltimore wx said:

A couple more from Southern HS. 

 

And it happened around the time school would have been letting out? 
I’m reminded of a tornado in Chicago way back in the 60s that stuck a school when it was letting out and I think a dozen students died. I think it plowed right through the school bus lot. It was an F4. — this wasn’t anything near that strong I’m pretty sure (unless the same people who initially surveyed LaPlata in 2002 and gave it an F5 survey it) — but still, dodged one here. 
 

here it is, the Belvedere tornado

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_Oak_Lawn_tornado_outbreak

1 minute ago, nw baltimore wx said:

Good thing AACPS students are not in classes yet. Southern High School…

Ouch. 
my daughter’s school doesn’t start til next week so fortunately we avoided a lot of the stress other forum members have gone through today.

17 minutes ago, WxUSAF said:

This is from one of the Orioles announcers

 

Bet she’d rather watch that than a 19 game losing streak

Cell just SW of Alexandria seems to be taking on a look. Meanwhile a bit of a downpour in up nw

Breezy in nw but still socked in with clouds

I don’t remember there being much sun before the Ivan outbreak, but that was a long time ago so memory may not be reliable. 
 

Last night’s storm was IMBY frankly the most impressive nighttime thunderstorm since … well, the derecho, probably. I slept through the one that caused the Arlington tornado earlier this year.

Getting windy this is a potent storm one of the best in a while

Wow at this lightning

Just woke up to a strobe effect

18 hours ago, Witness Protection Program said:

There are plenty of good 'I' names left, including Ida-Claire, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, Ilemonjello....

Gotta have Ichabod in there.

and what is best, in the story of sleepy hollow, he’s in love with a woman named …

Katrina

3 minutes ago, WinterWolf said:

Did you see the video I commented on…that looked absolutely insane. He was videoing from a window between an air conditioner…just amazing.  You’re missing something there in N.H. Pal. 

That was some pretty wild stuff ... a bit reminiscent of some of Josh M.'s legendary footage from Dorian. Not as intense of course, but it's about as hairy as anything I've seen today. 

I don't know what has more staying power: the cam near Grand Isle or Ida itself. 

One thing is, Ida seems to have quite a bit more video documentation than Laura. Laura was largely at night, though ...

This is a pretty good livestream:

https://www.htv10.tv/livestream

with the outstanding virtue that the guys aren't claiming to be in 200 MPH gusts.