ExtremeTornadoTours.com

Posted At: January 6, 2009 @ 3:55 PM

A tornado watch has been issued for this evening across Central Alabama, southwestward to extreme southeastern Mississippi until 7:00 pm CST, east of a cold front advancing across the Central Gulf Coast region at this time.  The environment east of this front is characterized by insane low-level wind shear (values of 250+ m2/s2 -- see below in the left panel), and very marginal instability (CAPE values under 750 J/kg across the entire warm sector -- see right).  While this environment is rather favorable for tornadoes, another factor that has been limiting tornado reports this afternoon is the orientation of the storm motion nearly parallel to the frontal boundary, which results in cell mergers and linear convective structures.  Still though, any isolated cells this evening will have the potential of producing a tornado if they can remain surface based.


The tornado watch issued by the SPC last hour is shown below, with the composite reflectivity superimposed.  To the northeast of the warm sector, winter storm warnings are in place across much of the Northeast U.S. for heavy snow and ice.  If any residents in these areas capture any good photos of the extreme winter weather, please email them to reed@tornadovideos.net for posting on the blog!  All photos will be appropriately credited of course!

Posted At: January 3, 2009 @ 3:37 PM

Check out these pictures of major flooding on the Grand River in Ada, MI from snow-melt and ice jams.  Most of the flooding occurred as temperatures skyrocketed to near 60F last week after 50+ inches of snow in the month of December!  You can see the horizontal planes of ice about 3 inches above the water level shown here, which indicates the crest of the flood.  The Grand River is about 300 yards away in the direction of this photo...Last night there were deer and other animals wandering aimlessly in our neighborhood after being displaced by the flood waters.  Check out Chris taking his team to the limit to document this deadly flood.  After snapping these pictures, I thought I was going to have to pull him to safety.  MASS CHAOS!

Chris in a state of panic, sliding into the freezing flood water!

Unparalleled balance saves his life...

Posted At: January 3, 2009 @ 12:31 PM

Instability and deep-layer wind shear will be sufficient for severe thunderstorms today from Central/Southern Louisiana east to the Florida Panhandle.  Most of the storms so far this morning have been multicellular in nature with only brief supercell structures apparent on radar, if at all.  Marginal low-level wind shear, and the lack of a robust upper-storm system are likely the culprits for this disorganized storm structure, but low-end severe wind and hail are still likely with this convective complex as it drifts eastward across the Central Gulf Coast.  AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Posted At: January 1, 2009 @ 9:52 PM

As of the New Year, GFS forecasts are available on TwisterData.com at 3 hour intervals for Days 1-2, 6 hour intervals for Days 3-8, and every 12 hours out to 384 hours!  This is just the beginning for our model and data website, with many more forecast tools planned between now and tornado season that will make our storm chasing lives much easier!  (if that's possible).  Below is a link to the GFS page...please let us know any comments or suggestions!

http://twisterdata.com/index.php?prog=forecast&prog=forecast&model=GFS

Posted At: December 30, 2008 @ 11:23 AM

The Storm Chasers marathon is underway on Discovery Channel today, for the next 12 hours or so, including the 4 episodes from the 2007 season (TVN provided footage but was not included in last season).  So if you happened to miss any of the episodes from last year or this year, be sure to check them out on Discovery Channel!  It looks like another winter storm system will be moving across the Central U.S. this week...I'll be adding a blog update about it tonight!

Posted At: December 27, 2008 @ 10:12 AM

A classic low-instability/high wind shear severe weather setup will prevail today from Northeast TX to Illinois, as a strong storm system plows across the Central U.S.  The best low-level wind shear will exist across Northeast AR, the MO Bootheel, and Illinois, where SSW-ly 850 mb flow at 50-70 knots will reside.  CAPE values across this area will be 500-750 J/kg at best, but CIN will be almost non-existent across most of the warm sector from Southwest IL south.  The NAM forecast 850 mb flow for 00z tonight can be seen below.  By this time, the convective bands will likely be closing in on the MS River, and I would not be surprised if several of the storms were tornadic supercells embedded within bands of linear convection.


The Storm Prediction Center has issued a moderate risk across the above area where low-level shear is maximized and sufficient instability is forecast this afternoon.  Given the marginal instability and fairly linear storm modes expected, an outbreak of tornadoes is not likely...However, with the incredible low-level shear in place, anything can happen.


Tornado Watches are already in effect from Northeast TX to Southwest IL, with several tornado warnings in Northeast MO where mini-supercells are occasionally showing strong rotation on radar.  These storms are flying in less than ideal terrain, so chasing them would be extremely difficult.  I nearly pulled the trigger on this storm chase, but decided that construction of our ultimate storm chasing machine is much more important!!!  Good luck to all who our chasing, and stay tuned for updates..