Windspeed

Cell initation now occurring in and around Nashville and the I-40 corridor.

Supercell near Byrdstown is really cranking.

That's a nasty nasty line.

Storms are just starting to fire over the eastern plateau. I'd imagine strong cells should expand dramatically in coverage over the next several hours. Hopefully areas that haven't lucked out on the rain will so by this evening.

I will look. I was caught on 11W and I too know what 40mph winds look like. There were easily some 60mph gusts mixed with hail when the main core passed over as it moved into Washington Co., Va. Also, there were as many as 2,000 customer outages in the area. I also believe MRX totally missed it. They let the warning expire but the cell actually intensified as it rolled through NW Sullivan, Kingsport, Reedy Creek, Clear Creek, etc.... Right now we have a line of storms that's pushing through the area thanks to old Bill. Hoping for an inch or so of rain off of this. The deficit is still there but we've had enough rain recently to alleviate any real bad drought issues in the upper most areas of NE Tn / SW Va. Though, yes, areas around Knox, Sevier, and west over the Plateau are still pretty dry. My yard is growing out of control here though. lol...

Can't believe that cell wasn't warned. Lots of outages being reported in Sullivan Co., Tn. and Washington Co., Va. 50-60mph winds and hail. Insane lightning show.

Recon experienced a problem and had to bail before the mission was complete. They did punch the core and sent a vortex data message before having to leave though: URPN12 KNHC 061851 VORTEX DATA MESSAGE EP022015 A. 06/18:13:30Z B. 17 deg 48 min N 109 deg 44 min W C. 700 mb 2700 m D. 84 kt E. 053 deg 30 nm F. 144 deg 106 kt G. 053 deg 31 nm H. 953 mb I. 10 C / 3044 m J. 18 C / 3048 m K. NA / NA L. CLOSED M. C45 N. 12345 / 07 O. 0.02 / 1 nm P. AF309 0202E BLANCA OB 12 MAX FL WIND 106 KT 053 / 31 NM 18:04:00Z MAX OUTBOUND FL WIND 92 KT 234 / 21 NM 18:19:30Z CNTR DROPSONDE SFC WIND 170 / 09 KT

Blanca made a dramatic recovery over the past 18 hours once it began to move away from its own upwelling. NHC has it at 115kts. The core will remain over 27-28° celcius SSTs through this evening, then it should gradually begin another weakening trend as it moves over colder SSTs.

The eye is just now coming into a good range on radar to see. What a monster! The absolute worst possible path Pam could have taken through the islands and it took it. The port is typically protected from winds out of the north. But since they spent so much time in the western half of the eye, they had winds straight off the ocean and into the bay for hour after hour all night. I would expect widespread devestation from wind damage, downed trees, mangled infrastructure, structural collapses, etc., all across the capital. Some surge in the direct apex of the port likely occurred simply from the duration they were stuck in the outter portion of the eyewall for a period of several hours as the center passed just over the eastern portion of the island. However, those places that got inside the eyewall experienced horrific and catastrophic damage. Also, the abrupt rise in elevation likely experienced direct forcing with some incredible wind gusts. I could imagine trees debarked and devoid of any vegatation for as far as the eye can see. I fear for folks there. I'm sure it is absolute chaos still even as Pam pulls away.

Awww man. Sorry, Jax...

I've got another inch in less than 30 minutes. This band is ripping indeed. May reach 5" here if this doesn't taper off by dawn.

2" on the ground here south of Bristol. Snow slacked off for just a bit but has since picked up again. Another inch or two seems pretty reasonable. Heavier bands should be out of here by sunrise.

This might explain one of those loud booms everybody heard Tuesday morning: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/02/150220-fireball-meteor-pennsylvania-space/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_tw20150220news-fireballmeteor&utm_campaign=Content&sf7574664=1

The fast rise in temps have slowed to a crawl. I've been sitting at 24º for the past hour. Solar heating is probably done for the day as the sun is behind cloudcover as mid-level clouds are rolling into the region. I suppose it will be a slow warm-up through the overnight hours with the southerly flow increasing. May get some snow or frozen precip out of the incoming system yet. Current readings from the area: 22.2 °F Watauga ES : Abingdon, VA 20.3 °F Mountain Empire Community College : Big Stone Gap, VA 23.7 °F Sandlick ES : Birchleaf, VA 25.7 °F WCYB-TV5 : Bristol, VA 24.9 °F Duffield Primary School : Duffield, VA 21.2 °F Glade Spring MS : Glade Spring, VA 31.9 °F Baileyton ES : Greeneville, TN 25.1 °F Hal Henard ES : Greeneville, TN 27.4 °F Buchanan County Career Center : Grundy, VA 28.3 °F Honaker ES : Honaker, VA 22.7 °F Hurley Elementary MS : Hurley, VA 24.7 °F Cherokee ES : Johnson City, TN 24.6 °F Lamar ES : Jonesborough, TN 22.4 °F WJNV-FM : Jonesville, VA 25.9 °F John Sevier MS : Kingsport, TN 25.2 °F Nickelsville ES : Nickelsville, VA 20.2 °F Norton ES : Norton, VA 25.9 °F Shady Valley ES : Shady Valley, TN 6.7 °F St. Paul ES : St. Paul, VA 23.9 °F Virginia Highlands Airport : Abingdon, VA 21.2 °F Marion/Wytheville - Mtn Empire Arpt : Atkins, VA 25.9 °F Watauga Co. Hosp. Heliport - 3000 ft elev : Boone, NC 26.6 °F Elizabethton Municipal Arpt : Elizabethton, TN 22.1 °F Ashe County Airport : Jefferson, NC 25.0 °F Oak Ridge : Oak Ridge, TN 23.0 °F Tri-City Regional Airport : Piney Flats, TN 23.0 °F Lonesome Pine Airport : Wise, VA

My low was -12º. I don't think I will see that again for a long time. Also, holy moley the temperature is on the rise! 30 degrees since 8 am this morning! If this keeps up, I won't see any frozen precip at all tonight. lol...

Marcia made landfall very close to Yeppoon.

No worries, it was funny and creepy at the same time. And that's one of the many brilliant movies by the late/great, Stanley Kubrick. You should check out the insane conspiracy documentary about that movie called Room 237. And just to avoid cluttering up the OBS thread, here's the latest from the Upper East Tennessee Valley: 4.1 °F Watauga ES : Abingdon, VA 1.3 °F Mountain Empire Community College : Big Stone Gap, VA -.6 °F Sandlick ES : Birchleaf, VA 8.0 °F WCYB-TV5 : Bristol, VA 7.3 °F Duffield Primary School : Duffield, VA 1.2 °F Glade Spring MS : Glade Spring, VA 10.7 °F Baileyton ES : Greeneville, TN 5.9 °F Hal Henard ES : Greeneville, TN 3.7 °F Buchanan County Career Center : Grundy, VA 1.0 °F Honaker ES : Honaker, VA 1.4 °F Hurley Elementary MS : Hurley, VA 7.4 °F Cherokee ES : Johnson City, TN 7.3 °F Lamar ES : Jonesborough, TN 2.1 °F WJNV-FM : Jonesville, VA 9.4 °F John Sevier MS : Kingsport, TN 4.5 °F Johnson County MS : Mountain City, TN 4.4 °F Nickelsville ES : Nickelsville, VA -.4 °F Norton ES : Norton, VA 1.0 °F Shady Valley ES : Shady Valley, TN 5.9 °F St. Paul ES : St. Paul, VA 7.7 °F Virginia Highlands Airport : Abingdon, VA 3.9 °F Marion/Wytheville - Mtn Empire Arpt : Atkins, VA 1.9 °F Watauga Co. Hosp. Heliport - 3000 ft elev : Boone, NC 6.8 °F Elizabethton Municipal Arpt : Elizabethton, TN 1.8 °F Ashe County Airport : Jefferson, NC 12.9 °F Oak Ridge : Oak Ridge, TN 7.0 °F Tri-City Regional Airport : Piney Flats, TN 1.4 °F Lonesome Pine Airport : Wise, VA

lol...

I had -1º @ 7:30 this morning. I'm sitting at 7º right now. Expecting many more records to be crushed. Tonight is a good night to share body heat. *looks around*

Clinch School in Sneedville, TN, is already down to 5ºF. Unless there's something wrong with the equipment, that's the coldest I see reporting right now in the KTRI area.

Congratulations! You may get a significant blanket of white yet if next week pans out.

You're northwest of me. Do you still have cloud cover? Temperature is falling like a rock here. It's 13º @ WCYB. I've got 12º my house, but I'm in a valley.

I think I am going to crush the forecast low tonight. I'm already at 12º @ 9 pm EST. It has fallen 3º in the past hour. Skies are clear.

Seriously, move this a tick west and you're in gulf storm '93 bombogenesis territory right there. lol...

18z GFS hours 168-264: