CT Rain Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 I just saw on Twitter that Quincy pulled some great aerial video from WTNH of the '79 tornado in Windsor Locks. http://www.wxedge.com/articles/20131003aerial_footage_of_windsor_locks_tornado This video appears to be from Poquonock where the subdivision just east of Rt 75 was leveled. Pretty clear F4 damage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weatherwiz Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 Wow, that's an amazing shot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoastalWx Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 How in the Sam hell did this achieve EF4 status? Still blows my mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT Rain Posted October 3, 2013 Author Share Posted October 3, 2013 How in the Sam hell did this achieve EF4 status? Still blows my mind. Given the setup it's crazy. The damage pics are remarkable... worse damage than I saw in Springfield/Monson/Brimfield. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoastalWx Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 Given the setup it's crazy. The damage pics are remarkable... worse damage than I saw in Springfield/Monson/Brimfield. Yeah I mean I look at the setup and just scratch my head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT Rain Posted October 3, 2013 Author Share Posted October 3, 2013 Yeah I mean I look at the setup and just scratch my head. Have to imagine it was a relatively low CAPE/high shear setup along the warm front that lead to the kind of sig tor setup you see in Dixie Alley in the winter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weatherwiz Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 Have to imagine it was a relatively low CAPE/high shear setup along the warm front that lead to the kind of sig tor setup you see in Dixie Alley in the winter. I really wonder how much Cape was actually there. From what I've heard, the sun actually came out and the atmosphere really warmed and given the high dews and 500mb temps were on the chilly side so it wouldn't shocked me if Capes boosted into the 1500 J/KG range, which given the setup is quite significant. That supercell though was a monster for a very long time, exhibiting rotation even when it was still south of Long Island! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginx snewx Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 Not being a severe guy but I do remember how oppressive that day was, just still air Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT Rain Posted October 3, 2013 Author Share Posted October 3, 2013 Not being a severe guy but I do remember how oppressive that day was, just still air Yeah dew points were approaching 70 on the shore that day. Pretty soupy for early October . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joey2002 Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 Incredible aerial video... isn't this still ranked as one of the costliest tornadoes in US history? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT Rain Posted October 3, 2013 Author Share Posted October 3, 2013 Incredible aerial video... isn't this still ranked as one of the costliest tornadoes in US history? 11th Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quincy Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 I dug into the vaults, tried to find more, but that's all that was left on one lonely 3/4"er. If I had more time I'd look more, maybe for a not-so-busy day in the future. Here's a reanalysis from E-Wall: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quincy Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 Yeah I mean I look at the setup and just scratch my head. Here are some maps that don't look terribly impressive...there was some elevated shear: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginx snewx Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 Nice find Q, sometimes the atmosphere defies logic and goes nuts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weatherwiz Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 I would be willing to bet that at the time of tornadogenesis some of those numbers were much different. I think 0-1km helicity was likely much higher, given the channeling southerly flow and 40 knots of effective shear is pretty darn impressive. I also think 0-3km lapse rates may have been a bit steeper along with elevated instability given the presence of sun which poked through. Those are incredible maps though, never saw those on NARR before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quincy Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 I would be willing to bet that at the time of tornadogenesis some of those numbers were much different. I think 0-1km helicity was likely much higher, given the channeling southerly flow and 40 knots of effective shear is pretty darn impressive. I also think 0-3km lapse rates may have been a bit steeper along with elevated instability given the presence of sun which poked through. Those are incredible maps though, never saw those on NARR before. Good points. I wonder how SST's were. I retrieved the maps from the CIPS Analog site...changed the dates in the URL's...didn't expect it to work, but apparently it does all the way back to 1979. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weatherwiz Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 Good points. I wonder how SST's were. I retrieved the maps from the CIPS Analog site...changed the dates in the URL's...didn't expect it to work, but apparently it does all the way back to 1979. I would have to think the SST's were running above-average, how much I wouldn't even know what to guess, but given dews were able to get up to 70F, is one indication they had to be up there b/c if they were cooler you would think it would be more difficult to get those dews into the region and there has to be enough Cape in the lower levels in order to get a tornado of that strength, putting shear/kinetics/dynamics aside and having above-average SST's would certainly be a positive yield into obtaining higher low-level Cape values. Apparently, that supercell was quite impressive over Long Island Sound as well and they notified the NWS at BDL of strong rotation over the sound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT Rain Posted October 3, 2013 Author Share Posted October 3, 2013 I would be willing to bet that at the time of tornadogenesis some of those numbers were much different. I think 0-1km helicity was likely much higher, given the channeling southerly flow and 40 knots of effective shear is pretty darn impressive. I also think 0-3km lapse rates may have been a bit steeper along with elevated instability given the presence of sun which poked through. Those are incredible maps though, never saw those on NARR before. Yeah the grid for that is fairly coarse... but more importantly you have 40+ knots of 0-6km bulk shear and surface based instability. Along the warm front (take a look at BDL obs through the day) you probably had some very impressive 0-1km turning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT Rain Posted October 3, 2013 Author Share Posted October 3, 2013 Good points. I wonder how SST's were. I retrieved the maps from the CIPS Analog site...changed the dates in the URL's...didn't expect it to work, but apparently it does all the way back to 1979. Take a look at the paper by Bosart et al from the early 80s about it... plenty of details in there about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weatherwiz Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 Yeah the grid for that is fairly coarse... but more importantly you have 40+ knots of 0-6km bulk shear and surface based instability. Along the warm front (take a look at BDL obs through the day) you probably had some very impressive 0-1km turning. 0-1km shear values were probably exceeding 200-250 m2s2 and perhaps upwards of 300 m2s2 which is quite insane when matched with other favorable parameters. Not to mention height falls were up there too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT Rain Posted October 3, 2013 Author Share Posted October 3, 2013 0-1km shear values were probably exceeding 200-250 m2s2 and perhaps upwards of 300 m2s2 which is quite insane when matched with other favorable parameters. Not to mention height falls were up there too Yeah it was a very unusual setup but with strong shear and dew points near 20C south of the warm front that was all you needed. I'm guessing the 0-1km and 0-3km shear values were extremely strong in vicinity of the warm front. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quincy Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 Take a look at the paper by Bosart et al from the early 80s about it... plenty of details in there about it. Just looked up the .PDF. Looks like a good read, could probably learn a thing or two from it. The fact that one of our strongest tornadoes was in early October says about that day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damage In Tolland Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 Was there another TOR NE of HFD that day? I saw a map today that had a TOR triangle over what looked like Vernon or Ellington area Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginx snewx Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 Good points. I wonder how SST's were. I retrieved the maps from the CIPS Analog site...changed the dates in the URL's...didn't expect it to work, but apparently it does all the way back to 1979. here ya go Q Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weatherwiz Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 Was there another TOR NE of HFD that day? I saw a map today that had a TOR triangle over what looked like Vernon or Ellington area The BDL tornado was the only confirmed tornado in CT that day. And actually, that was the only tornado in CT that year. That tornado occurred in what was a "dormant" lull in tornadic activity for CT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weatherwiz Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 That's awesome, Steve! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damage In Tolland Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 This map here shows another TOR in Ct that day Severe Weather Reports 10/3/79 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weatherwiz Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 This map here shows another TOR in Ct that day Severe Weather Reports 10/3/79 I think they initially thought there was perhaps another tornado but nothing was ever confirmed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New England Storm Posted October 4, 2013 Share Posted October 4, 2013 Was there another TOR NE of HFD that day? I saw a map today that had a TOR triangle over what looked like Vernon or Ellington area I think that was latter proven to be slw. Also lets not forget the f3 from October 31970 in ORH. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joey2002 Posted October 4, 2013 Share Posted October 4, 2013 This map here shows another TOR in Ct that day Severe Weather Reports 10/3/79 My dad was living in Rockville at the time, and always talks about a rotating "tornado cloud" he saw on his way home that day around 4:30pm. He said that the cloud was spinning around quickly, but not moving towards the ground at that time. Sounds like it was maybe a funnel? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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