Interesting weather phenomenon

[coppercoins]

On the morning of May 08, 2009, I was rather abruptly awakened from my slumber at 8:02 AM by my cell phone. I answered. On the other end of the line was my wife telling me to take cover immediately.
While on the phone with her, I heard the sound of wind outside, rain hitting my window, and the faint sound of tornado sirens. Shortly thereafter, the sound changed to pea size hail pelting the roof and windows.
Of course the first thing I did was turn on the TV to find that since I have satellite, I had no signal, as is usually the case during thunderstorms...one of the major drawbacks to having satellite TV.
Anyhow, I took cover for about fifteen minutes - and basically couldn't stand not knowing what was going on, so I went to the computer to look at the radar...no signal there either. Bummer.
At roughly 8:45, the TV signal came back, so I turned it to the trusty local news, and...

[coppercoins]

What I saw was nothing short of amazing. I had never seen such an event and decided to record what I could to share at a later date (when I had the time to post it, like today).
In the KY3 viewing area (Southwest Missouri and bordering Arkansas counties) there were 12 tornado warnings at once under a storm that honestly looked more like a hurricane than a thunderstorm.
This event is called a "derecho" - pronounced day-RAY-show. But this one wasn't the typical 'squall line' type derecho - it had an EYE just like a hurricane! Look!



For the sake of giving you an idea of the size of this storm, the dark black lines are state borders...Kansas and Oklahoma to the left, and Arkansas to the south. The 'g' of the word 'Springfield' is where downtown Springfield is. Downtown Springfield to the Kansas/Oklahoma line is 78 miles. Springfield to Branson is 45 miles, and the Arkansas border is 56 miles.

[coppercoins]

For those who cannot make out everything in my rather primitive image from the TV set, here's a version of the same image with arrows superimposed to show the wind direction and general direction of movement of the storm at the time the image was taken:



Winds near the eye of this storm were clocked at over 90 miles per hour, and the winds up to 20 miles from the eye were sustained at over 50 miles per hour. So this was more or less a land hurricane. Its behavior, wind speed, and destruction were very similar.

[coppercoins]

Here's the inset from the corner of the screen showing that at one time 12 different counties were under a tornado warning because of this storm (tornado warning was the dark red color):

[coppercoins]

All in all there were 27 tornado warnings issued in our area that morning, and by noon the whole thing was over as if it never happened...except for six area schools blown apart, numerous homes and churches missing windows and roofs, and numerous power lines down and tree limbs down.

But at least we had a nice, sunny afternoon to clean up.

But what a REALLY awesome display of nature's fury!

[Gabe]

Wow Chuck.. that is a mean looking derecho.

I was in Chicago about a year ago, and the city was hit by a nasty derecho that reminded me of a hurricane. Living in Florida, we get our thunderstorms, but not at the intensity as you guys see.

Glad you made it ok.

[Bennie]

I have also felt the sting of a derecheo (?) when the last big hurricane simply came up the Mississippi and on toward Louisville with its eye still in tack...it is an odd thing to witness and unbelievable thing to begin with. Wow...12 tornado warnings...we get them here alot, but not 12 at a time.
Glad you made it through and hope no one was hurt...

[hasfam]

Amazing to say the least. I've been around a little and have seen a few things, but not much compares with being in the middle of a storm of that magnitude.
Glad you're ok and I hope no one else was injured either.
Rock

[Robert]

Wow, don't remember derechos in Oklahoma. Are you sure the winds to the south are correct? Seems like the winds at Mtn Home/Harrison Ark would be from the NW with that bow echo.

For those who have never been through a Great Plains tornado (or even thunderstorms), the weather can be scary.

Oklahoma does two things very well: Oil and weather. Oklahoma has just about every type of weather there is... tornadoes, droughts, floods, hail (I've seen golfball hail several times), heat waves (112F deg, plus 30 consecutive days over 100F), blue northerns (0 deg w/ a 30 mph wind), earthquakes (<5.0, but but earthquakes nonetheless), 70 mph straight line winds that make your house walls flex, blizzards (seen 4' snow drifts in an apartment complex), freezing rain, odd/interesting cloud formations, and if you look up the weather in OKC for Feb 1996, you'll see the record low (about zero) and the record high (about 94) just 3 weeks apart. Oh, and hurricanes brush by Tulsa, bringing some tropical rain.

If you spend 5-10 years out in the Plains, it'll make you tougher.

[Dick]

Robert, I was in Norman, and Purcel, OK. in '43, and '44. I know what it is like to stand a personnel inspection, in '"Dress blues", with mud up to your butt, and a dust storm in your face!. Yes, it was some crazy weather, but the people were very nice!
Dick

[Robert]

Dick, Did you have anything to do with the big dirt mound just north of Norman and just east of I-35? I heard second hand that it was an artillery target at one time but I've never heard it from someone who was there.

[Dick]

Robert, I was in Aircraft Mechanics School while in Norman, then after graduating, had some special training in RADAR, then went to Purcell for Aerial gunnery training, as part of the Combat Aircrew Training, prior to then going to Jacksonville, Fl, for the flight phase. I "cut my teeth" on the old "Yoke-boats", PBY-5. About the only thing I remember, (other than a couple girls in both "Okie City, and Purcell") was that every time ie snowed, the trolley would de-rail, and 20, or so of us would lift the thing up, and put back on the tracks. Never a dull moment!
Dick

[eagames]

Robert,

Were you hoping for something like this buried under the mound of dirt?

http://www.aaftankmuseum.com/Archive11M4A3E8.htm

[Dick]

I don't recall anything like that in WWII, but it sure would come in handy, now, with this new adminisaration., because "it" is getting pretty deep!
Dick

[Matt Dinger]

I took this picture out of my 10th story hotel room a couple days before the last Baltimore show. That was a fun one, the hotel was popping and creaking.