March 30th - 1st Potential Severe Weather Outbreak and Snow Potential

[Tom]

1 hour ago, Clinton said:

Active day Friday 65 tornado reports.  SPC imo did a fantastic job forecasting this outbreak.

You think this will be the Hot Spot over the rest of the coming weeks?  After the Blitz early next week, the severe threat should calm down as the pattern turns colder for the eastern CONUS but I suspect it ramps up again 2nd half of April.

[Clinton]

4 minutes ago, Tom said:

You think this will be the Hot Spot over the rest of the coming weeks?  After the Blitz early next week, the severe threat should calm down as the pattern turns colder for the eastern CONUS but I suspect it ramps up again 2nd half of April.

Yes I do especially with the deep western troughs and cutting storm systems.  Gary Lezak has mentioned several times that he is expecting a severe weather outbreak near KC around the 27th when KC will be hosting the NFL draft.  

[Tom]

1 minute ago, Clinton said:

Yes I do especially with the deep western troughs and cutting storm systems.  Gary Lezak has mentioned several times that he is expecting a severe weather outbreak near KC around the 27th when KC will be hosting the NFL draft.  

Makes a lot of sense to me but I could see it really calm down over the GL's region as we head into MAY due to a cooler/troughy pattern.  "May Grey"???  I think next month the severe and active threat shifts more west and into the TX/OK region and central Plains.

 

Meantime, the models did pretty good highlighting the Northwoods of Wisco into the U.P. and delivered the Good snows up that way.

 

[Stormgeek]

Got a glorious april fools joke from mother nature. Somewhere around 8-10 inches of snow, and it is not exactly light. 

[OmahaSnowFan]

Chased yesterday and saw the big wedge that started just northeast of Ottumwa. Actually saw it form from the first dust swirl in the dirt field and rapidly grow into a beast I could hear roar.

I was set up in the perfect position to get the shot of a lifetime as it crossed Hwy 149, but my daughter who was seeing her first tornado became too scared and wanted to get as far away from it as possible so I had to drive away last minute. Still got some cool pics and video I’m working on.

[AquariusRadar]

One of the ideas I have always promoted is the mobile aquariusradar. Just as storm trackers follow and film tornados today, mobile aquariusradar would target the deadly storms and transmit the microwave energy into the heart of the storm as the truck mounted antenna and transmitter moved to keep the storm in view. It's obvious from some of the dramatic still images posted with this storm system that the storm could be targeted by eye. But many storms occur at night and rain wrapped so the storms remain invisible from a distance. In those and most cases, the operators would use the NWS radar data to pin point the storm center. These mobile radars could stand away 5-to 10 miles and still be effective. I am going to markup the Devin Pitts photo posted by Sparky in an attempt to show the concept for those readers unfamiliar with the idea of using microwave energy to temper storms that can create tornados. This only works because -typically- storms are accompanied by lesser but competing storms. CN storms are always competing for moisture, the fuel that fires the storm. When a killer storm is inhibited by the microwave energy, the surrounding storms will grow as the major storm declines. My stick figure attempts to show the mobile transmitter and antenna atop the flatbed trailer. The tractor trailer would be large size and necessarily restricted to paved roads. The radars can be pre-positioned in the watch boxes hours in advance.

.

[gosaints]

It puke snowed here from midnight to 2am last night. Ended with around 5.5 inches.  20 miles south got almost nothing.

 

[Madtown]

31" on the level.....7 or 8" last night. short sleeve shirt and some brews in the sun this afternoon

[Phil]

Insane winds came though here this evening. Up around 70mph, coming in heavy, semi-regular pulses. Transformers flashing like lightning, ears popping indoors. Crazy, like a 2+ hour severe thunderstorm.

Kudos to LWX for holding firm with the HWW even though it looked iffy until ~ 00z. Great call.

[OttumwaSnomow]

4 hours ago, OmahaSnowFan said:

Chased yesterday and saw the big wedge that started just northeast of Ottumwa. Actually saw it form from the first dust swirl in the dirt field and rapidly grow into a beast I could hear roar.

I was set up in the perfect position to get the shot of a lifetime as it crossed Hwy 149, but my daughter who was seeing her first tornado became too scared and wanted to get as far away from it as possible so I had to drive away last minute. Still got some cool pics and video I’m working on.

Im curious where you saw that touchdown at?  The first damage  i found  was 2.5 miles  from my house!  After it went over my house!  Dmx  point of touch down seems to agree with what  i found. Wondering  your thoughts?

[Stormy]

11 hours ago, AquariusRadar said:

One of the ideas I have always promoted is the mobile aquariusradar. Just as storm trackers follow and film tornados today, mobile aquariusradar would target the deadly storms and transmit the microwave energy into the heart of the storm as the truck mounted antenna and transmitter moved to keep the storm in view. It's obvious from some of the dramatic still images posted with this storm system that the storm could be targeted by eye. But many storms occur at night and rain wrapped so the storms remain invisible from a distance. In those and most cases, the operators would use the NWS radar data to pin point the storm center. These mobile radars could stand away 5-to 10 miles and still be effective. I am going to markup the Devin Pitts photo posted by Sparky in an attempt to show the concept for those readers unfamiliar with the idea of using microwave energy to temper storms that can create tornados. This only works because -typically- storms are accompanied by lesser but competing storms. CN storms are always competing for moisture, the fuel that fires the storm. When a killer storm is inhibited by the microwave energy, the surrounding storms will grow as the major storm declines. My stick figure attempts to show the mobile transmitter and antenna atop the flatbed trailer. The tractor trailer would be large size and necessarily restricted to paved roads. The radars can be pre-positioned in the watch boxes hours in advance.

.

Here is some video I shot from my place, and since you showed interest in tornado recycling, here are

videos looking due west when the second tornado was forming and there were two for a bit. I had to split it because of size. Otherwise I didn't edit anything and I fell asleep while doing this. Lol 

And now I discovered I can't add the remaining portion of the video. And the one I uploaded previously, disappeared! ugh 

 

 

 

Edited April 2 by Sparky

[Stormy]

    Short time lapses above. 

[Stormy]

 

Edited April 2 by Sparky
Corrected a mistake.

[Stormy]

6 hours ago, Sparky said:

Here is some video I shot from my place, and since you showed interest in tornado recycling, here are

 

videos looking due west when the second tornado was forming and there were two for a bit. I had to split it because of size. Otherwise I didn't edit anything and I fell asleep while doing this. Lol 

And now I discovered I can't add the remaining portion of the video. And the one I uploaded previously, disappeared! ugh. I'll just reply to this to add the other half. 

 

 

 

[Stormy]

Okay I'll quit since it's takes to much time, I'm having problems, and you get the idea of what I saw! The lightning lessened near the tornadic part of the storm  

[Stormy]

On 3/31/2023 at 7:15 PM, OttumwaSnomow said:

That storm almost decimated Ottumwa.  Could have been Joplin like.  I literally  watched the rotation  over my house after passing  over Ottumwa  city. Then within  1.5 miles from my house it was on the ground!  The pics below are all within  a few miles  of my land. And a half  hour later the 2nd  cell dropped  huge hail, those pics from my yard. Havent heard of any deaths but sadly some injuries.  Epic day for a seasoned weather watcher!  Thanks to govt and models! Good job!

Here's another good video of the Iowa wedge tornado. The storm that passed over your house is probably the same one that nearly hit me. 

https://youtu.be/gvabR7LE880

[Clinton]

Got this from T-Swails blog, some of the Iowa tornados have been rated and some more videos and such.

VIOLENT TORNADOES RATED BY NWS....

 

The National Weather Service has been out all day Saturday surveying tornadoes from Friday's storms in Iowa and Illinois. The latest is that a tornado that tracked from Ottumwa into Johnson County in Iowa has been rated as a violet EF-4 tornado. This is the strongest tornado to have occurred in eastern Iowa since the EF-5 in Parkersburg.

 

 

The NWS says the wind speeds are estimated at 170 mph with a max width of 600 yards. The EF-4 damage occurred at a farm near Keota in Keokuk County. A house was taken off the foundation in the area. While this tornado was on the ground there was a report of twin tornadoes... it's possible two or three tornadoes were on the ground simultaneously in the area:

 

There still needs to be a determination if the tornado was constantly on the ground, but EF-3 damage was observed in Hedrick and Hills with EF-2 damage in Solon and Coralville.

 

The updrafts were so strong with this storm that it carried items from Hedrick in southern Keokuk county into areas like Swisher, Cedar Rapids, and even Alburnett, nearly 100 miles away!

@KopelmanWX

 

 

CHECK THIS OUT! Debris was taken all the way from Hedrick to Swisher in Iowa after a tornado came through. That's roughly 80 miles away!

Additionally, there was an EF-2 tornado from Grand Mound to Charlotte, an EF-1 near Bellevue and an EF-2 near Bennett. There are additional locations in Iowa and Illinois the NWS still needs to survey.. it will take weeks as they examine the damage and satellite imagery.

 

Thankfully, despite the damage and tornadoes hitting multiple towns, there were no fatalities in my immediate area. There were a handful of minor injuries. There are some people who lost their lives in Illinois and Arkansas with the storms on Friday unfortunately.

[Tom]

11 hours ago, Madtown said:

31" on the level.....7 or 8" last night. short sleeve shirt and some brews in the sun this afternoon

Who woulda thought you'd still have an ice rink and a 31" snow depth on April Fools Day!  Incredible.  What are the latest snow depths that exceed 30" so late in the season in your area?  This has to be a 1st for you since moving from Madison, right?

[Tom]

7 hours ago, Sparky said:

 

IMG_2888.MOV 10.24 MB · 0 downloads   IMG_2882.MOV 9 MB · 0 downloads   Short time lapses above. 

It is so fascinating that you can see the massive and far-reaching rotation of the clouds.  My goodness, great work!

[AquariusRadar]

Operating a mobile aquariusradar might be a job for Sparky and storm chasers as they already have a knowledge of what tornados are going to do direction wise. Meanwhile, we stay at home types go down to the volunteer fire station and fire up the radar on the fire station roof; ready to zap killer storms if they approach the township.

[james1976]

Great pics and videos! Makes ya wonder what kind of severe season we're gonna have with this kind of start.

On the north side of the storm MSP recorded 8.5" of snow and is now 3rd all time seasonal snowfall. It was legit concrete! Prolly heaviest snow I've dealt with.

[Madtown]

10 hours ago, Tom said:

Who woulda thought you'd still have an ice rink and a 31" snow depth on April Fools Day!  Incredible.  What are the latest snow depths that exceed 30" so late in the season in your area?  This has to be a 1st for you since moving from Madison, right?

We skated last year on April 29th. That was at 6am before it warmed up for the day. 30" on the ground this late is pretty crazy to me and from the friends up here it definitely happens, but not the norm. There are usually lakes that start to open around the 15th of April. All of them are still snow covered with about 26" of ice. What looked like an early ice out a month ago is going to turn into hoping for open water on the opener.  I am good with winter being over. Just wish we didn't have to get through mud season to get there.

 

Also only the second time in 18years snowmobile trais in Vilas county made it to the March 31st hard close date. The last time being in 2012/2013

[Stormy]

18 hours ago, AquariusRadar said:

Operating a mobile aquariusradar might be a job for Sparky and storm chasers as they already have a knowledge of what tornados are going to do direction wise. Meanwhile, we stay at home types go down to the volunteer fire station and fire up the radar on the fire station roof; ready to zap killer storms if they approach the township.

I'm actually not a storm chaser though some of my friends were chasing this storm. Tornadoes sometimes just happen to hit nearby with the previous one in May 2019! Numerous supercells have grazed my place to the nw. in the last decade that there seems to be a mini alley nearby, though it's probably just coincidence! At least it gives me a good viewing angle from my home! 

[OmahaSnowFan]

On 4/1/2023 at 10:56 PM, OttumwaSnomow said:

Im curious where you saw that touchdown at?  The first damage  i found  was 2.5 miles  from my house!  After it went over my house!  Dmx  point of touch down seems to agree with what  i found. Wondering  your thoughts?

Yeah that makes sense. I was on Hwy 149 near Hedrick looking south when I saw it form and touch down