Whew... March Tornado Fest 2007

OK, OK, so I didn't cover the event like I would have liked, but last night saw a largely impressive early season, major tornado outbreak. Many tornado reports... 2 fatalities... possibly another... outrageously huge hail... damage to structures... long-lived tornadic supercells... chasers were bagging tornadoes left and right... mutliple catches in one day... it was a chaser's dream come true... The only thing that would have been better would have been if I was out there, but, of course, I was not, so instead I caught up on some long overdue, much needed sleep. I can't believe how hard it was for me to pull myself away from the radar though. Is there some sort of group that can help me with this? Perhaps SWA (Severe Weather-aholics Anonymous), Hello, my name is Dewdrop, and I am a Severe Weather-aholic. All respond, hello, Dewdrop. There has got to be a 12 step program for it, and I am quite certain that it involves chasing tornadoes... ;-) I've already covered the first step... I know I have a problem... what person, in their right mind wants to chase tornadoes... (see my links... there's a whole bunch of us crazy folks, including one I know of who had 7 touch downs yesterday... (no, hubby, that doesn't mean 42-49 points...) See Verne's blog. More and more videos and stills will be rolling in as the day wears on. I am eager to see those. I saw several on TWC and the news this morning. One day... I'll be the one posting those. As for the aftermath, that convergent line'll keep the central plains in a slight risk for severe storms through tomorrow, but it shouldn't be anything like what they saw yesterday. The tornado outlook has dropped down to a mere 5% chance, rather than the 10% they had posted yesterday at the SPC.

Locally, all we have now is hot weather, looking at high 80's... ridiculous. Only thing worth noting was that fog was thick here this morning, didn't interfere with driving much, but there was a lot of it out in the country. Let's see what's coming up for us... did someone order rain...? THE GFS IS SHOWING SOME RUN-TO-RUN CONTINUITY NOW WITH THE NEXT FRONT, WHICH SHOULD BE WEAKENING AS IT APPROACHES OUR AREA ON SUN. THE FRONT SHOULD STALL OVER OR NEAR THE AREA ON MON AND THEN DISSIPATE. KEPT POPS GENERALLY IN THE 20-30 PERCENT RANGE THROUGH THIS PERIOD. But wait, there's more.... this is the part where it gets good... or it at least says something besides sunny and warm... A STRONGER FRONT IS PROGGED TO MOVE THROUGH THE AREA AT THE END OF THE PERIOD WED NIGHT OR THU. It's about time... we were in a holding pattern buried under a ridge of nothingness... Could it possibly be our turn...? stay tuned.

I decided to post some pics from the WTC site. As far as my NY trip went, the WTC site was the most emotional part... my eyes teared up as I considered the lives lost, when I considered the families torn apart by that horrible day. It was humbling. The first picture that I posted is one of many panels posted over the viewing area at the site, listing all the victims of the 9/11 attack. The second is a sculpture that was located at the towers at the time of the attack. They salvaged it and placed it near the site as a temporary memorial. It's amazing how in-tact it is, a testimony, if you will, to the endurance and perserverance of the great United States.

Well, that's all I've got. Final details are being worked out for the upcoming spotter class. I am glad that Valdosta is hosting such a class, and I am anxious to see what kind of turn out we have for it.

Updates: Yep, videos are feeding in now... very cool... Check out Verne Carlson's Weather Channel Video Footage. Also check this... David Drummond's video, it's so cool because it includes the tornado that I spotlighted in my radar images yesterday... Holy cow... Now, that is cool... (thanks for sharing the link, Steve M.). That actually made my night, to actually see the tornado that I saw on radar... Awesome! It gave me chills! It's also cool hearing the WxWorx warnings piping in in the background... Too funny... Really though, Jeff G. is doing a great job again of covering this, so I'll let him do that while I work on my paying job... You can check it out through him. No need to re-invent the wheel... How's that?

Have a great day!
~Dewdrop