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February 27-28 Severe Threat


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5 minutes ago, BYG Jacob said:

That looks like an absurdly large and powerful tornado.

It's hard to tell how strong it is.  It's far from the radar and I can't distinguish side lobe artifacts from actual wind speeds.  I don't see a huge CC drop, but its not so close to the radar.

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Quote

...A TORNADO WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 100 AM EST FOR
NORTHEASTERN CALHOUN COUNTY...

At 1240 AM EST, a confirmed tornado was located 7 miles northeast of
Marshall, moving east at 35 mph.

HAZARD...Damaging tornado and quarter size hail.

SOURCE...Emergency management confirmed tornado.

tornado debris signature was a few miles north of Marshall

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24 minutes ago, Radtechwxman said:

You're pushing it just a bit man. Far from a violent tornado signature. But definitely a damaging tornado at night which is still dangerous regardless. 

I was reacting too quickly to the donut hole. That looked pretty strong.

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Grand Blanc one was about ~15-20 miles north of me.  Lots of lightning and on and off brief heavy rains, with multiple rounds of storms, over the course of 2.5 hours.  Thankfully I did not get anything damaging this time!!

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IMG_1051.thumb.jpeg.7609d6e9ddda257b35a8c673b58c24ea.jpeg
 

Had too much going on here to post. Had not one, not two, not three.. but FOUR bouts of hail. Each subsequent cell that passed had larger hail, starting at pea size and ending with golf ball/baseball sized hail. The tornado warned cell had a low base visible with lightning off to my southwest. Woke my wife and daughter and told them it was time to go to the basement the same time the sirens went off. They went to the basement and of course I went back outside to make sure it behaved. All local sirens sounded for 2-3 minutes then shut off for the rest of the storm - have some questions for my Emergency Managers on that issue.

As the storm approached, could clearly see the base rotating but extremely hard to see much more than that. Was completely still and quiet with frequent lightning and constant rumbling. Could begin hearing what sounded like a freight train. Kept an eye on velocity scans and CC scans. Sound got louder and louder until the trees began swaying - then another eerie sound of banging started - almost sounded like someone slamming their door repeatedly in the distance, and that’s when the first golfball sized stone smacked the road out front, then the next nailing my two day old new truck sitting in my driveway… wind really picked up and went un-directional and the hail came down in buckets covering the road and yard. Got more hail than snow so far this month.
Quick look at radar showed the couplet miss my house by an half of a mile to the north which would agree with the velocity scans.

Then, hail finally subsided after approximately 10 minutes but lots of CG’s began just to my southwest. Checked the radar to see the cell behind the tornado warned cell getting its shit together showing massive hail signatures of course, heading directly my way. Went in and checked on the fam, came back up and that’s when the HEAVY marble size hail started with intermittent monsters (golfball to baseball). Obliterated both trucks, again and clearly destroyed both this time around.
 

Just as the cell would pass and the hail and rain would subside, it would backbuild causing random golfball sized hail to keep falling every few seconds. Was at this time my fire radio stated there was a confirmed tornado on the ground near F Drive North and 26 mile road and near Rice Creek with damage to structures and multiple trees down. Checked velocity and CC to see a tight couplet with a clear debris signature on the previous scan over the aforementioned area. 
 

Long night. Expensive night. Then my daughter woke up at 4:30 (after going to bed at 2) with the stomach flu. Second time this month. I’m beat. Hate it here. 
 


 

 

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25 minutes ago, Harry Perry said:

 All local sirens sounded for 2-3 minutes then shut off for the rest of the storm - have some questions for my Emergency Managers on that issue.
 

As the storm approached, could clearly see the base rotating but extremely hard to see much more than that. Was completely still and quiet with frequent lightning and constant rumbling. Could begin hearing what sounded like a freight train. Kept an eye on velocity scans and CC scans. Sound got louder and louder until the trees began swaying - then another eerie sound of banging started - almost sounded like someone slamming their door repeatedly in the distance, and that’s when the first golfball sized stone smacked the road out front, then the next nailing my two day old new truck sitting in my driveway… wind really picked up and went un-directional and the hail came down in buckets covering the road and yard. Got more hail than snow so far this month.
Quick look at radar showed the couplet miss my house by an half of a mile to the north which would agree with the velocity scans.

Then, hail finally subsided after approximately 10 minutes but lots of CG’s began just to my southwest. Checked the radar to see the cell behind the tornado warned cell getting its shit together showing massive hail signatures of course, heading directly my way. Went in and checked on the fam, came back up and that’s when the HEAVY marble size hail started with intermittent monsters (golfball to baseball). Obliterated both trucks, again and clearly destroyed both this time around.
 

Just as the cell would pass and the hail and rain would subside, it would backbuild causing random golfball sized hail to keep falling every few seconds. Was at this time my fire radio stated there was a confirmed tornado on the ground near F Drive North and 26 mile road and near Rice Creek with damage to structures and multiple trees down. Checked velocity and CC to see a tight couplet with a clear debris signature on the previous scan over the aforementioned area. 
 

Long night. Expensive night. Then my daughter woke up at 4:30 (after going to bed at 2) with the stomach flu. Second time this month. I’m beat. Hate it here. 
 


 

 

Sorry to hear about your hail damage, but it sounds like you did get lucky with a near miss tornado.

As a retired Emergency Manager, I can only speak about local protocol for sounding sirens (and Indiana statewide for the most part), but sounding sirens once for three minutes for an area under a tornado warning is the standard. That is probably true for your area.

I know there is a lot of confusion about sirens. Some people think that when the siren quits sounding, the threat is over. Also, I've heard of locations that sound the sirens for a second time when the warning is cancelled or expired, which also creates confusion.

Sirens are meant to warn people who are outside, with the understanding most people outdoors will hear the siren and take action. It is not meant to be sounded for the entire time the warning is in effect, nor is it meant for people who are indoors. It would be cost prohibitive to place enough sirens in a particular area to assure that everyone indoors could also hear the sirens. That is the job of NOAA All-Hazard radios, the local media, the FEMA app, etc.

If you have questions or concerns, fire away.

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46 minutes ago, IWXwx said:

Sorry to hear about your hail damage, but it sounds like you did get lucky with a near miss tornado.

As a retired Emergency Manager, I can only speak about local protocol for sounding sirens (and Indiana statewide for the most part), but sounding sirens once for three minutes for an area under a tornado warning is the standard. That is probably true for your area.

I know there is a lot of confusion about sirens. Some people think that when the siren quits sounding, the threat is over. Also, I've heard of locations that sound the sirens for a second time when the warning is cancelled or expired, which also creates confusion.

Sirens are meant to warn people who are outside, with the understanding most people outdoors will hear the siren and take action. It is not meant to be sounded for the entire time the warning is in effect, nor is it meant for people who are indoors. It would be cost prohibitive to place enough sirens in a particular area to assure that everyone indoors could also hear the sirens. That is the job of NOAA All-Hazard radios, the local media, the FEMA app, etc.

If you have questions or concerns, fire away.

Thanks for clearing that up. You would think that I would’ve known that for as long as I’ve been a firefighter, but you learn something new every day. I’m sure that’s the standard here as well, however I have in fact heard the siren cycle for well over 20 minutes in the past. Twice comes to mind in recent memory, 2011 derecho and then again in 2016 during a warning in Marshall. 

 

Seems more reasonable to sound the siren for the duration, especially for the people in that were down-wind in the warning 15-20 minutes away that heard the siren then when it shut off they figured the storm threat had ended. I’m speaking for the general public on that, because that is what they think. I mean, if the government can pay for “gender reassignment surgery”, I’d think we could afford to sound the siren for a PDS for the duration of the event. Just my .02 

 

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5 hours ago, IWXwx said:

Sorry to hear about your hail damage, but it sounds like you did get lucky with a near miss tornado.

As a retired Emergency Manager, I can only speak about local protocol for sounding sirens (and Indiana statewide for the most part), but sounding sirens once for three minutes for an area under a tornado warning is the standard. That is probably true for your area.

I know there is a lot of confusion about sirens. Some people think that when the siren quits sounding, the threat is over. Also, I've heard of locations that sound the sirens for a second time when the warning is cancelled or expired, which also creates confusion.

Sirens are meant to warn people who are outside, with the understanding most people outdoors will hear the siren and take action. It is not meant to be sounded for the entire time the warning is in effect, nor is it meant for people who are indoors. It would be cost prohibitive to place enough sirens in a particular area to assure that everyone indoors could also hear the sirens. That is the job of NOAA All-Hazard radios, the local media, the FEMA app, etc.

If you have questions or concerns, fire away.

That explains a lot.  I was wondering why the turned them off seemingly so quickly during the warnings I had last couple years.   Makes sense to me.

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7 hours ago, Harry Perry said:

IMG_1051.thumb.jpeg.7609d6e9ddda257b35a8c673b58c24ea.jpeg
 

Had too much going on here to post. Had not one, not two, not three.. but FOUR bouts of hail. Each subsequent cell that passed had larger hail, starting at pea size and ending with golf ball/baseball sized hail. The tornado warned cell had a low base visible with lightning off to my southwest. Woke my wife and daughter and told them it was time to go to the basement the same time the sirens went off. They went to the basement and of course I went back outside to make sure it behaved. All local sirens sounded for 2-3 minutes then shut off for the rest of the storm - have some questions for my Emergency Managers on that issue.

As the storm approached, could clearly see the base rotating but extremely hard to see much more than that. Was completely still and quiet with frequent lightning and constant rumbling. Could begin hearing what sounded like a freight train. Kept an eye on velocity scans and CC scans. Sound got louder and louder until the trees began swaying - then another eerie sound of banging started - almost sounded like someone slamming their door repeatedly in the distance, and that’s when the first golfball sized stone smacked the road out front, then the next nailing my two day old new truck sitting in my driveway… wind really picked up and went un-directional and the hail came down in buckets covering the road and yard. Got more hail than snow so far this month.
Quick look at radar showed the couplet miss my house by an half of a mile to the north which would agree with the velocity scans.

Then, hail finally subsided after approximately 10 minutes but lots of CG’s began just to my southwest. Checked the radar to see the cell behind the tornado warned cell getting its shit together showing massive hail signatures of course, heading directly my way. Went in and checked on the fam, came back up and that’s when the HEAVY marble size hail started with intermittent monsters (golfball to baseball). Obliterated both trucks, again and clearly destroyed both this time around.
 

Just as the cell would pass and the hail and rain would subside, it would backbuild causing random golfball sized hail to keep falling every few seconds. Was at this time my fire radio stated there was a confirmed tornado on the ground near F Drive North and 26 mile road and near Rice Creek with damage to structures and multiple trees down. Checked velocity and CC to see a tight couplet with a clear debris signature on the previous scan over the aforementioned area. 
 

Long night. Expensive night. Then my daughter woke up at 4:30 (after going to bed at 2) with the stomach flu. Second time this month. I’m beat. Hate it here. 
 


 

 

Wow.  Glad you're okay.  Hail damage sounds bad.  :(  The 2-3 times I've heard the sirens they went off after the storm had passed and all the risk was over.  Not always much you can do with brief spin-ups, but the warning was issued like 8 minutes after the first CC drop scan with that one tornado last August, which was pretty bad.

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2 hours ago, Lightning said:

That explains a lot.  I was wondering why the turned them off seemingly so quickly during the warnings I had last couple years.   Makes sense to me.

That's weird because I've had the opposite experience a few years ago.  I thought maybe they went off again because another warning was issued for areas farther east and I just happened to be in the overlap (though the event, which was ruled a localized straight line wind event, actually missed me by about 5 miles).  Turning them on to indicate the risk is over would make absolutely no sense to me though.  I figured it had to do with overlapping warnings issued in succession.

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29 minutes ago, frostfern said:

That's weird because I've had the opposite experience a few years ago.  I thought maybe they went off again because another warning was issued for areas farther east and I just happened to be in the overlap (though the event, which was ruled a localized straight line wind event, actually missed me by about 5 miles).  Turning them on to indicate the risk is over would make absolutely no sense to me though.  I figured it had to do with overlapping warnings issued in succession.

Oh yeah I agree that turning them back on when over is not needed.  They didn't do that here.  I was really just referring/wondering why the were only on for ~3 minutes.  In each case here, the past couple years, the warning was just as the storm was beginning or had just begun.    Several years ago I had a couple with warnings that went off once the storm was basically over.  I have seen significant improvement at the DTX office with storm warnings lately.  Likely partially due to the radar improvements that were done in recent years. 

 

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The line of severe t'storms that swept through the metro ended up producing a peak wind gust of 41MPH and 0.50" hail at ORD.

It wasn't anything too exciting, but solid for February. The lightning/thunder production may have been the best I can remember in February.

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