Radar Images from Tornado

[Arnold214]

Had the CT tornadoes had proper widths it probably would have made the cut. Some of the storm data stuff from 80s/early 90s is suspect IMO.

It's definitely unfortunate.

[CoastalWx]

I'm trying to get vortex95 to post the radar images from July '89. He has to get them transferred from VHS.

[Turtle]

Hey X...

I was showing the hubby the DPI table you posted here, and he caught something right away. You may want to change the date of the Worcester Tornado of 3 Jun 53 to 9 Jun 53, OK?

--Turtle

[HoarfrostHubb]

Hey X...

I was showing the hubby the DPI table you posted here, and he caught something right away. You may want to change the date of the Worcester Tornado of 3 Jun 53 to 9 Jun 53, OK?

--Turtle

lol...yup.

Is DPI a niche way to categorize outbreaks?

I was looking at Thompson's paper (abstract) on it.

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/publications/thompson/dpi/dpi.htm

[Arnold214]

Hey X...

I was showing the hubby the DPI table you posted here, and he caught something right away. You may want to change the date of the Worcester Tornado of 3 Jun 53 to 9 Jun 53, OK?

--Turtle

Ah crap. Luckily that's an easy fix. Thanks!

[ct_yankee]

I'm trying to get vortex95 to post the radar images from July '89. He has to get them transferred from VHS.

I would love to see those images, I remember a while back I tried to find radar grabs of the New Haven storm and couldn't find a thing.

As for the DPI chart, thanks for the replies, that all makes sense... Anomalously small path widths, and the one long-track in NY was out of range. I guess it just goes to show that there are probably always going to be a few major events that just slip through the cracks, regardless of how well you set up the parameters.

[CT Rain]

I would love to see those images, I remember a while back I tried to find radar grabs of the New Haven storm and couldn't find a thing.

As for the DPI chart, thanks for the replies, that all makes sense... Anomalously small path widths, and the one long-track in NY was out of range. I guess it just goes to show that there are probably always going to be a few major events that just slip through the cracks, regardless of how well you set up the parameters.

I don't think the paths were anomalously narrow... I think the storm surveys were incorrect or at least recorded incorrectly. Even in Hamden the damage was easily 1/4 or 1/3 mile wide. From the east side of the old Middle School to the end of the condos on Mill Rock Rd (where damage was F2-F3) is 0.25 miles. That wasn't even the widest part. I also am not sure the tornado was an F4 in Hamden (like Great Barrington for that matter).

Definitely way more than 100 feet.

Same story up in Cornwall near Mohawk Mountain. The damage stretched from the east side of the town center to half way up the ski area which is a fairly sizable width. I actually think that there were F3 pockets of damage up in Litchfield County and the path extended longer than what is recorded (i.e. continued past Bantam lake and into Morris). Unfortunately I think if an aerial survey was incorporated into the damage assessment and sent to Storm Data you would have much different stats.

[CT Rain]

One another thing about Hamden '89 that I think gets overlooked is people don't realize just how close the thing was to hitting downtown New Haven.

A 1/4-1/2 mile F3 was on the ground less than 2 miles from the Green moving directly toward the center of the city. That's an incredibly narrow way to miss a much bigger disaster.

[ChrisM]

This thread is awesome!! Thanks guys

[Arnold214]

I would love to see those images, I remember a while back I tried to find radar grabs of the New Haven storm and couldn't find a thing.

As for the DPI chart, thanks for the replies, that all makes sense... Anomalously small path widths, and the one long-track in NY was out of range. I guess it just goes to show that there are probably always going to be a few major events that just slip through the cracks, regardless of how well you set up the parameters.

We're probably going to rethink the DPI list and probably include the 7/10/89 long-track NY tornado. We would be remiss to leave out such a key piece of the historic 7/10/89 outbreak...especially since that was the same supercell that produced the CT tornadoes. We'll find a good objective way to do it. Given the length, width, and F-scale rating of the 7/10 NY tornado, the DPI would trump the 6/9/53 Worcester day and be #1.

[wxsniss]

great thread guys

reading through the 6/1/2011 thread gives me chills

CT news report from night of July 1989 outbreak:

footage from Hamden starts at 3:40

aftermath video of Hamden:

[weatherwiz]

One another thing about Hamden '89 that I think gets overlooked is people don't realize just how close the thing was to hitting downtown New Haven.

A 1/4-1/2 mile F3 was on the ground less than 2 miles from the Green moving directly toward the center of the city. That's an incredibly narrow way to miss a much bigger disaster.

Yes...Hamden is virtually minutes away from Downtown New Haven. That had disaster written all over it.

[weatherwiz]

Just give Wiz a 40 or 2 and have him go through 30+ years of soundings manually.

Easier (for you) than writing a script.

I actually think I'm going to do this...going to start now.

[vortex95]

Yes...Hamden is virtually minutes away from Downtown New Haven. That had disaster written all over it.

IIRC, there was not a tornado watch in effect this day…svr tstm watch only. I couldn't believe that when it was issued. I had only read about NW flow outbreaks for the NEUS several months earlier, and two days before, the models strongly suggested a sig svr outbreak. I recall the 60 hr AVN from the 12z run 7/8/89 shows a 990 mb low over srn Quebec with a

very hot W to E push of +25 at 850 and 582 thickness S of the low center. This was overdone a bit, as the low was ended up 998 mb, but it didn't make one ounce of difference in the end. It still ended up the biggest tornado day on record in terms of numbers for New England/nrn NJ/ern NY.

Different times then. I recall a paper from NWS PWM in the mid 80s that SELS (now SPC) by its own admission, did not do

a good job in forecast svr wx outbreak in the NEUS compared to the rest of the country, so PWM came up with a svr wx checklist for New England.

The other thing of note is that no tornado warnings were issued for the Bantam and Waterbury tornadoes. It wasn't until the storm was in Hamden was a tornado warning issued. I don't recall offhand if any were issued when it first produced in ern NY. This was before the WSR-88D, and the storm was highly HP, so you can see the challenges from back then.

Either way, a bullet was dodged that no one was killed by that tornadoes themselves. HVN avoided a true disaster. It could have been on the scale or worse of the Plainfield IL F5 on 8/28/90 in terms fatalities and post storm repercussions. The Plainfield event was a host of errors in the system, ranging from the MMO radar operator, to comms at the CHI WFSO, to uncooperative local officials IIRC. There is a Disaster Survey Report on that event.

I have all the NWS statements, warnings, and bulletins saved (hardcopies) for July 1989 outbreak.

I've been told by reliable sources and from my own subjective observations that from the second half of the 1970s through the early 1990s, there was a tendency to downplay tornado occurrences in New England, as if they didn't occur here. The same problem existed in California for longer period. For instance, 7 tornadoes occurred in the LAX Valley on 11/9/82, and forecasters were perplexed and in denial as why it happened b/c it "didn't fit the classic tornado pattern". This was before the post frontal cold air aloft, low topped convection pattern was fully realized.

Fortunately, neither region has had that tendency/mindset for some time. I'm not laying blame or pointing fingers here, just calling them as I saw it all back in the day from my own observations and from veteran meteorologists I knew while in school and later worked with.

[weatherwiz]

IIRC, there was not a tornado watch in effect this day…svr tstm watch only. I couldn't believe that when it was issued. I had only read about NW flow outbreaks for the NEUS several months earlier, and two days before, the models strongly suggested a sig svr outbreak. I recall the 60 hr AVN from the 12z run 7/8/89 shows a 990 mb low over srn Quebec with a

very hot W to E push of +25 at 850 and 582 thickness S of the low center. This was overdone a bit, as the low was ended up 998 mb, but it didn't make one ounce of difference in the end. It still ended up the biggest tornado day on record in terms of numbers for New England/nrn NJ/ern NY.

Different times then. I recall a paper from NWS PWM in the mid 80s that SELS (now SPC) by its own admission, did not do

a good job in forecast svr wx outbreak in the NEUS compared to the rest of the country, so PWM came up with a svr wx checklist for New England.

The other thing of note is that no tornado warnings were issued for the Bantam and Waterbury tornadoes. It wasn't until the storm was in Hamden was a tornado warning issued. I don't recall offhand if any were issued when it first produced in ern NY. This was before the WSR-88D, and the storm was highly HP, so you can see the challenges from back then.

Either way, a bullet was dodged that no one was killed by that tornadoes themselves. HVN avoided a true disaster. It could have been on the scale or worse of the Plainfield IL F5 on 8/28/90 in terms fatalities and post storm repercussions. The Plainfield event was a host of errors in the system, ranging from the MMO radar operator, to comms at the CHI WFSO, to uncooperative local officials IIRC. There is a Disaster Survey Report on that event.

I have all the NWS statements, warnings, and bulletins saved (hardcopies) for July 1989 outbreak.

I've been told by reliable sources and from my own subjective observations that from the second half of the 1970s through the early 1990s, there was a tendency to downplay tornado occurrences in New England, as if they didn't occur here. The same problem existed in California for longer period. For instance, 7 tornadoes occurred in the LAX Valley on 11/9/82, and forecasters were perplexed and in denial as why it happened b/c it "didn't fit the classic tornado pattern". This was before the post frontal cold air aloft, low topped convection pattern was fully realized.

Fortunately, neither region has had that tendency/mindset for some time. I'm not laying blame or pointing fingers here, just calling them as I saw it all back in the day from my own observations and from veteran meteorologists I knew while in school and later worked with.

This is a very interesting account, thanks for sharing.

I would have to think it was this event that then probably changed the mindset of many people regarding severe wx/tornadoes here in the Northeast, especially as the case was further studied and even more knowledge of NW flow events were gained. I have a vague memory of 1995 but I believe even before May 29th, 1995 there was mention of an isolated tornado or two possible across the area and I know this was the case in 1998 as well.

I have read/heard from a few people that tornadoes were definitely downplayed in this part of the country and certainly through the 80's and maybe even early 90's. Thank God though this is not the case anymore. Sure making a mention of a possible tornado is going to freak some people out but at least they are prepared for the potential and can have a plan just in case, rather than be completely caught off guard and not know what to do.

If I remember correctly I believe there were a total of 10 tornadoes in New England alone (not counting NY) and that is just ahead of 7/3/97 and 6/24/10? which had 7. (both days featured only weak tornadoes though). I might not be completely correct on these numbers though...trying to go from memory. That 6/24/10 date may not be correct either....but whatever day it was that had 4 tornadoes in CT and 3 in ME...may have been 7/21/10.

[CT Rain]

IIRC, there was not a tornado watch in effect this day…svr tstm watch only. I couldn't believe that when it was issued. I had only read about NW flow outbreaks for the NEUS several months earlier, and two days before, the models strongly suggested a sig svr outbreak. I recall the 60 hr AVN from the 12z run 7/8/89 shows a 990 mb low over srn Quebec with a

very hot W to E push of +25 at 850 and 582 thickness S of the low center. This was overdone a bit, as the low was ended up 998 mb, but it didn't make one ounce of difference in the end. It still ended up the biggest tornado day on record in terms of numbers for New England/nrn NJ/ern NY.

Different times then. I recall a paper from NWS PWM in the mid 80s that SELS (now SPC) by its own admission, did not do

a good job in forecast svr wx outbreak in the NEUS compared to the rest of the country, so PWM came up with a svr wx checklist for New England.

The other thing of note is that no tornado warnings were issued for the Bantam and Waterbury tornadoes. It wasn't until the storm was in Hamden was a tornado warning issued. I don't recall offhand if any were issued when it first produced in ern NY. This was before the WSR-88D, and the storm was highly HP, so you can see the challenges from back then.

Either way, a bullet was dodged that no one was killed by that tornadoes themselves. HVN avoided a true disaster. It could have been on the scale or worse of the Plainfield IL F5 on 8/28/90 in terms fatalities and post storm repercussions. The Plainfield event was a host of errors in the system, ranging from the MMO radar operator, to comms at the CHI WFSO, to uncooperative local officials IIRC. There is a Disaster Survey Report on that event.

I have all the NWS statements, warnings, and bulletins saved (hardcopies) for July 1989 outbreak.

I've been told by reliable sources and from my own subjective observations that from the second half of the 1970s through the early 1990s, there was a tendency to downplay tornado occurrences in New England, as if they didn't occur here. The same problem existed in California for longer period. For instance, 7 tornadoes occurred in the LAX Valley on 11/9/82, and forecasters were perplexed and in denial as why it happened b/c it "didn't fit the classic tornado pattern". This was before the post frontal cold air aloft, low topped convection pattern was fully realized.

Fortunately, neither region has had that tendency/mindset for some time. I'm not laying blame or pointing fingers here, just calling them as I saw it all back in the day from my own observations and from veteran meteorologists I knew while in school and later worked with.

Thanks for posting this. I was on the Cape at the time and absolutely furious I wasn't back home in Branford.

The 1979 tornado also didn't have a warning with it either at Windsor Locks even though it missed the NWS by a matter of feet.

Would love to see some of those bulletins if you can scan it in?

[CoastalWx]

Kind of short video, but another view of that beast.

[OSUmetstud]

I read that outbreak thread pretty much in entirety today...something I will never forget...easily one of the most impressive weather events of my life. I thought I banged the drums for severe pretty good there, but I didn't become impressed with a legit tornado threat until a day or two ahead of time.

[CoastalWx]

Another video..some footage I actually never saw before.

[vortex95]

Another video..some footage I actually never saw before.

and PT.

[CoastalWx]

and PT.

Don't you have some converting and scanning to do?

[It's Always Sunny]

What a memorable event last summer. At BHO we found a store receipt from Brimfield,MA following the storm. That is nearly 70 miles debris travelled! Attached is a nice hook echo I took from GRLevel2 today, just about 300 miles NE of Dallas. This was taken as a tornado was currently on the ground. Notice the funnel signature.

[weatherwiz]

Holy crap...that's sick.

[Arnold214]

New top 20 DPI table has been completed. We shifted the domain westward a tad and now the 7/10/89 outbreak is #1. The most newsworthy tornadoes (CT) hardly contributed to the DPI of 160 at all. The Upstate NY (Schoharie) tornado had a DPI of ~157 on it's own...and singlehandedly puts the outbreak at #1. I'll take a stab and say that supercell is probably the longest tracked tornadic supercell in NY/New England in A LOT of years. Probably initiated somewhere near or NW of Herkimer County NY and finally produced it's last tornado on Long Island.

[weatherwiz]

That 7/10/89 supercell was really special...you may never see a storm right move as much as that one did.

[ct_yankee]

New top 20 DPI table has been completed. We shifted the domain westward a tad and now the 7/10/89 outbreak is #1. The most newsworthy tornadoes (CT) hardly contributed to the DPI of 160 at all. The Upstate NY (Schoharie) tornado had a DPI of ~157 on it's own...and singlehandedly puts the outbreak at #1. I'll take a stab and say that supercell is probably the longest tracked tornadic supercell in NY/New England in A LOT of years. Probably initiated somewhere near or NW of Herkimer County NY and finally produced it's last tornado on Long Island.

Nice job, thanks for taking the time to redo the table. I knew July 10 '89 was a historic day, and that it probably deserved "a place at the table", so to speak, but I wasn't expecting it to be #1. I agree that supercell was epic in every way. I've always found it strange that the Hamden tornado was on the ground for such a short time, you would expect more of a long track event with an F4, especially considering the long-lived cyclic nature of the parent supercell. I have a friend who swears that East Rock somehow disrupted the vortex and caused it to lift... I've told him there's no evidence that geological features affect tornadoes that way, but who's to say for sure he's wrong? One thing I remember vividly is that there was tremendous straight-line wind damage all the way out to the Sound. Even though the storm presumably wasn't tornadic at that point, it still left quite a trail of destruction, I saw personally what had to be borderline F2 damage right down the street from where I was then living in the Fair Haven section of New Haven. I remember in the immediate aftermath of the storm, with the power gone out, all you could hear in every direction was the sound of police and ambulance sirens blaring. It was obvious something major had just occurred.

[codfishsnowman]

I have posted this before but will do so again.

I live in the East Forest Park section of Springfield. I was home on June 1st. I have never been all that interested in severe wx with my interest much more devoted to winter weather/snow storms etc. I can tell you though that there was something different about June 1st from the morning. I distinctly remember walking the dogs around 7am and being surprised by the southwesterly/southerly wind and how strong it was. It was also very very humid. Something just felt different. I remember having coffee in the afternoon at the bakery down the street and it was getting darker and while walking home, to my north i could see textbook mammatus clounds and could hear thunder in the distance. The mammatus clounds were as well formed as any I had ever seen in any textbook or any weather video.

It was when I got home around 315pm that I began to start watching the weather online and on tv and I saw that there was a tornado warmed supercell in the Northampton area although there was no confirmed tornado on the ground but I guess there was that sig on the radar. It was just after four pm that the historic supercell popped up west of W Spfd and quickly went nuts. I dont know much about this stuff compared to most of the individuals on here but I knew that cell was one to watch. So I was watching Brian Lapas on the local news channel and there was the shot on sky cam west of the river with the ominous wall cloud and then within minutes there is the tornado clear as could be barreling its way to the east. I had no idea there was no tormado warning issued, thats a hoot in retrospect!

I remember when the tornado was crossing the river he had said that it had shifted just a bit to the south. At that point where I was it was a bit darker and I could hear thunder but there was still some sunshine. I knew however that the thing was gonna pass awful close to my house so I took my two little dogs into the basement and stayed there for twenty minutes. I remember it got as dark as the middle of the night and I could see trees bending out the window and there were a few drops of rain and then eventually the sun came back out. I took the dogs back out and in the neighborhood there were people outside who said they saw the tornado passing just to the northeast and there were was some small branches and leaves on the road from the circulation. The tornado passed .2 to .3 miles as the crow flies to the east/northeast. I remember also thinking how humid it still was outside and had the feeling we were not done.

However I had to get dinner started and about an hour or so later I remember it getting darker again and hearing constant thunder in the distance. Eventually it got really dark and looking to the north I could see the sky was a sickly greenish yellow color, unlike anything I had ever seen before. There was a brief heavy rain shower and then the sun came back out again. This was the second supercell that put down a much weaker tornado in the north end of spfd. Then at 830pm a more organized line of tstorms came through with lots of ctg lightning heavy rain and small hail and strong winds.

I was very lucky where I was. A good friend of mine who lives over off Island Pond Road said he was upstairs working in his house and looked outside and the tornado was right on top him with trees flying across the street and within seconds all the windows blew out. His house recieved modest damage overall but houses right across the street were more heavily damaged with a few totally leveled. The National Guard had both ends of his street blocked off for a day and a half.

The July 1989 outbreak I also vividly remember. I was living in Bristol CT at the time and I remember walking to work that afternoon and thinking how humid it was and the sky had kind of a strange look to it. I remember the frequent thunderstorms all that afternoon into the evening and I remember seeing how black it looked to the south and west of Bristol. I heard there were tornadoes in southern ct but did not find out about the scope of the svr weather until the next day. What I do remember hearing on the news at the time was that they were not sure it was a tornado that hit Bantam and Hamden that they had to do the surveys. I do not remember anyone on the news saying they saw the funnel approaching, i imagine those cells were HP so the tornadoes could have been rain wrapped. I remember we got a ton of heavy rain in Bristol. I was only 16 at the time.

[CT Rain]

Nice job, thanks for taking the time to redo the table. I knew July 10 '89 was a historic day, and that it probably deserved "a place at the table", so to speak, but I wasn't expecting it to be #1. I agree that supercell was epic in every way. I've always found it strange that the Hamden tornado was on the ground for such a short time, you would expect more of a long track event with an F4, especially considering the long-lived cyclic nature of the parent supercell. I have a friend who swears that East Rock somehow disrupted the vortex and caused it to lift... I've told him there's no evidence that geological features affect tornadoes that way, but who's to say for sure he's wrong? One thing I remember vividly is that there was tremendous straight-line wind damage all the way out to the Sound. Even though the storm presumably wasn't tornadic at that point, it still left quite a trail of destruction, I saw personally what had to be borderline F2 damage right down the street from where I was then living in the Fair Haven section of New Haven. I remember in the immediate aftermath of the storm, with the power gone out, all you could hear in every direction was the sound of police and ambulance sirens blaring. It was obvious something major had just occurred.

What likely happened is as the inflow to the storm increased over New Haven the fetch off the Harbor and Long Island Sound resulted in a shallow stable layer near the surface. That was probably enough to disrupt the vortex as it got closer to the Sound and lifted after ripping up Newhallville.

You are correct about the straight line winds. There was a 70 knot gust measured in New Haven and straight line winds did a tremendous amount of damage on the west side of Lake Saltonstall on the Branford/East Haven line. It was a fairly impressive swath of straight line wind damage. Not sure what lead to this widespread wind damage (would like to see a radar shot!).

Either way what is ironic about the Hamden F4 is that it probably wasn't an F4... looked like F3 damage to me. The tornado up in Litchfield County (Cornwall, Bantam, Morris) may have been stronger. That tornado went through such a rural area the damage was pretty spotty (except to trees). Unfortunately the path widths and fujita-scale ratings are suspect for most of the event in CT.

[ChrisM]

What likely happened is as the inflow to the storm increased over New Haven the fetch off the Harbor and Long Island Sound resulted in a shallow stable layer near the surface. That was probably enough to disrupt the vortex as it got closer to the Sound and lifted after ripping up Newhallville.

You are correct about the straight line winds. There was a 70 knot gust measured in New Haven and straight line winds did a tremendous amount of damage on the west side of Lake Saltonstall on the Branford/East Haven line. It was a fairly impressive swath of straight line wind damage. Not sure what lead to this widespread wind damage (would like to see a radar shot!).

Either way what is ironic about the Hamden F4 is that it probably wasn't an F4... looked like F3 damage to me. The tornado up in Litchfield County (Cornwall, Bantam, Morris) may have been stronger. That tornado went through such a rural area the damage was pretty spotty (except to trees). Unfortunately the path widths and fujita-scale ratings are suspect for most of the event in CT.

There are still places you can see blowdown around here from that. i didnt think that could happen. What was it 15 years ago?

[weatherwiz]

There are still places you can see blowdown around here from that. i didnt think that could happen. What was it 15 years ago?

It will be 14 this summer.