Tornadoes tear through Virginia

By now, most everyone has heard about the tornadoes that ripped through Virginia during yesterday's severe weather outbreak. My friend, Storm Chasing Mikey (who has posted some details about the storm on his blog.) took cover as the suspected EF-3 tore through Suffolk, VA, with its 10 mile long damage swath (25 mile storm path)... but two others are being frequently referenced... those in Brunswick and Colonial Heights, Virginia. I saw footage of the tornado in Suffolk, looked like a significant solid cone shaped funnel. The damage footage is awful, showing destroyed structures and battleground of vehicles, tossed around like garbage... Hundreds of people were injured and the damage to structure is extensive warranting a state of emergency in the state of Virginia. Thank God no fatalities have been reported.

Reports regarding these tornadoes should be available on this Wakefield, Virginia National Weather Service website.

Footage of the Suffolk tornado, while it was on the ground is available through Jesse Bass's site.

As for an update on what that does to the tornado trend chart... still over the ten year trend.
Tornadoes were also reported closer to home, one in Live Oak, FL, which is a little under an hour down the road from me. As I mentioned, Mini-Dew was home sick, so it was not a chaseable storm for me, but when my handy-dandy weather radio started offering EAS tones, I started checking radar. At that point the Dekle Beach, FL tornado had already been reported, and a significant cell split off from that tornadic system was firing up and heading in my direction. I reminded Mini-Dew about the tornado drill procedures and emphasized the importance of her following my verbal instructions if I told her to get into the hallway. I started watching the sky, which demonstrated some turmoiled cloud bottoms and some very sporadic upper level rotation, but nothing persistent or consistent. We heard a few rumbles of thunder, experienced a brief drenching downpour and subsequent blue skies. All done.

My heart goes out to every person who has been impacted in any way by this devastating storm. My prayer for them is that they be graced with peace.

Psalm 107:13-14

Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
and he saved them from their distress.

He brought them out of darkness and the deepest gloom
and broke away their chains.

God bless,
~Dewdrop