Tracking The Tornado Outbreak

Tornadoes and large hail will be among the severe weather threats in the central and southern Plains on Saturday.


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I can’t remember a severe weather day with so much advance publicity. NOAA, the federal agency that responsible for the Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center has been relentless in scary press releases. I got another this morning.

Tornadoes and large hail will be among the severe weather threats in the central and southern Plains on Saturday. Experts with NOAA’s National Weather Service will provide a briefing to explain what’s expected and what’s causing the latest round of potentially destructive weather.

First things first. No one doubts these warnings are warranted. Kudos to SPC for getting ahead of the weather.

STATE AND LOCAL EMERGENCY MANAGERS ARE MONITORING THIS POTENTIALLY VERY DANGEROUS SITUATION. THOSE IN THE THREATENED AREA ARE URGED TO REVIEW SEVERE WEATHER SAFETY RULES AND TO LISTEN TO RADIO…TELEVISION…AND NOAA WEATHER RADIO FOR POSSIBLE WATCHES…WARNINGS…AND STATEMENTS LATER TODAY.

One Tornado Watch for Eastern Nebraska and Western Iowa already contained a spacial admonition.

EFFECTIVE THIS SATURDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING FROM NOON UNTIL 700 PM CDT.

…THIS IS A PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION

DESTRUCTIVE TORNADOES…LARGE HAIL TO 4 INCHES IN DIAMETER… THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS TO 70 MPH…AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE AREAS.

They’re called PDS watches–Particularly Dangerous Situation.

The best place to watch all this action is from the Storm Prediction Center‘s website. Everything will pass through there.

The biggest problem today is knowing tornadoes are coming is not enough. People can be sheltered, though some will not heed the warnings. For everything else all bets are off.

Note: The map at the top of this entry will update with live data until midnight, then will permanently contain data for 4/14/2012.

9 thoughts on “Tracking The Tornado Outbreak”

  1. Egads, are these heading towards Ohio??? My daughter moved there six months ago and experienced the first Tornado Siren Warnings about two weeks ago. She is in the Columbus area. EEK!!

  2. I am glad that these folks have had such advance notice about these storms…..I hope it is enough to keep them safe!

  3. Weird. My Facebook shows a stock photo of SCOTUS for this entry. Supreme Court rules tornadoes unconstitutional, on a 5-4 vote! Hope everyone heeds the warnings and hunker down.

    1. On my wall Facebook allows me to choose the image. On your news feed it’s Facebook’s choice. It’s a royal pain.

  4. I moved to CT from Kansas City. I MISS the stormy and severe weather back home. I was a member of the storm spotters thru my local ham club……tornadoalleylive.om is a MUST HAVE here now with all the sever wx!!!! One thing I *don’t* miss is the HORRIBLE humidity during the summer! You could go outside at midnight and it would be 90 degrees and nearly %100 humidity! That’s why I plan my trips back home in October! 😀

    de N0FQY

    1. I moved from CT to Indiana, currently on a long weekend in OK. I MISS the lack of severe weather and tornadoes in CT!! Even storms with no tornado threats are scary, with intense lightning. I know everyplace has potential for severe weather and tornadoes, but not all the time. Unlike native Midwesterners, I simply cannot relax in severe weather. My house has no basement either. It’s brick, so it offers a little more protection than a wood frame but still! At least IN isn’t as bad as OK or KS, etc.

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