Extreme weather news and discussion

weatheriscool
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Mississippi tornadoes kill 23, injure dozens overnight (UPDATE)

Source: AP

ROLLING FORK, Miss. (AP) — Emergency officials in Mississippi said 23 people have been killed by tornadoes that tore through the state on Friday night, destroying buildings and knocking out power as severe weather that produced hail the size of golf balls moved through several southern states.

The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency confirmed there had been 23 deaths as of 6:20 a.m. Saturday with dozens of injuries and four people missing throughout the state. The agency said in a Twitter post that search and rescue teams from numerous local and state agencies were deployed along with personnel to assist those impacted by the tornadoes.

The National Weather Service confirmed a tornado caused damage about 60 miles (96 kilometers) northeast of Jackson, Mississippi. The rural towns of Silver City and Rolling Fork reported destruction as the tornado swept northeast at 70 mph (113 kph) without weakening, racing towards Alabama through towns including Winona and Amory into the night.

The National Weather Service issued an alert as the storm was hitting that didn’t mince words: “To protect your life, TAKE COVER NOW!”


Original story below.

an hour ago

ROLLING FORK, Miss. (AP) — A powerful tornado tore through rural Mississippi and Alabama on Friday night, killing at least seven people, destroying buildings and knocking out power as severe weather that produced hail the size of golf balls moved through several southern states and prompted authorities to warn some in its path that they were in a “life-threatening situation.”

The National Weather Service confirmed a tornado caused damage about 60 miles (96 kilometers) northeast of Jackson, Mississippi. The rural towns of Silver City and Rolling Fork were reporting destruction as the tornado continued sweeping northeast at 70 mph (113 kph) without weakening, racing towards Alabama through towns including Winona and Amory into the night.

At least seven people were killed by the tornado in Mississippi, Sharkey County Coroner Angelia Easton told ABC News. Rolling Fork is located in Sharkey County.

ABC News early Saturday reported an additional six deaths, including three in Carroll County, two in Monroe County and one in Humphreys County, citing the county coroners and a Mississippi Highway Patrol trooper. The Associated Press was not immediately able to confirm those fatalities.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/tornado-texa ... c588850505
weatheriscool
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New tornadoes menace Georgia as Biden approves disaster relief for Mississippi

Source: ABC News

At least two twisters touched down Sunday morning in Georgia -- both described by the National Weather Service as "large and extremely dangerous" -- as President Joe Biden approved disaster relief for storm-battered Mississippi, where at least 25 people were left dead in the wake of a powerful tornado. Residents of the Macon, Georgia, suburbs of Milledgeville, Linton, Beulah and Underwood were being advised by the weather service to "take cover now."

A second tornado was confirmed to have touched down Sunday morning near LaGrange, Georgia, about 65 miles southeast of Atlanta, and was moving east at 40 mph, according to the weather service. "You are in a life-threatening situation," the weather service warned residents in the path of both funnel clouds. While the amount of damage and possible casualties remain unclear in Georgia, the weather service warned that flying debris could be deadly for those caught without shelter, and there is a likelihood homes, businesses and vehicles "will be destroyed."

A tornado watch is in effect until at least 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time for parts of Alabama and Georgia. At least 4 million people in the South are also under a severe thunderstorm watch forecast to be accompanied by golf ball-sized hail and 60 mph winds. As the severe weather continued in the South from the early spring storm that began in California, where it spawned twisters near Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, towns in rural Mississippi were starting the clean up from a massive tornado on Friday.

Biden approved disaster relief for Mississippi on Sunday, making funding available to those impacted by the storm devastation. Federal funds will be available to government, tribal and other agencies in Carroll, Humphreys, Monroe and Sharkey counties, the White House said in a statement.
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/biden-approve ... d=98133211
Xyls
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Tornado threat dramatically increasing again today:

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caltrek
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Extreme Weather Rips Through Mississippi, Killing Dozens
by Abigail Weinberg
March 25, 2023

Introduction:
(Mother Jones) A powerful tornado ripped through rural Mississippi last night, killing at least 24 people and injuring dozens more.
The tornado hit Rolling Fork—a town with a population of less than 2,000, and the supposed birthplace of Muddy Waters—particularly hard when it rolled through at about 8 p.m. local time Friday night. Nearly a third of Rolling Fork residents live in mobile homes, which are especially susceptible to tornado damage. Drone footage shows decimated homes, overturned cars, a toppled water tower, and trees stripped of their bark.

The link between climate change and more frequent or intense tornadoes is unclear, but tornadoes do appear to be increasing in frequency in the Mississippi Valley. As my colleague Emily Hofstaedter reported last year, “Runaway climate change is making extreme weather more common and deadly,” with tornadoes and other storms “striking in new territory and throughout more of the year, especially in the Midwest and Southeast.”

Ultimately, conditions were prime for destruction in Rolling Fork, where about one in five residents lives below the federal poverty line.
Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2 ... g-dozens/
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caltrek
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Why Tornadoes are Still Hard to Forecast – Even Though Storm Predictions are improving
An interview with Chris Nowoktarski
March , 2023

Introduction:
(The Conversation) As a deadly tornado headed toward Rolling Fork, Mississippi, on March 24, 2023, forecasters saw the storm developing on radar and issued a rare “tornado emergency” warning. NOAA’s Weather Prediction and Storm Prediction centers had been warning for several days about the risk of severe weather in the region. But while forecasters can see the signs of potential tornadoes in advance, forecasting when and where tornadoes will form is still extremely difficult.

We asked Chris Nowotarski, an atmospheric scientist who works on severe thunderstorm computer modeling, to explain why – and how forecast technology is improving.


Why are tornadoes still so difficult to forecast?

Meteorologists have gotten a lot better at forecasting the conditions that make tornadoes more likely. But predicting exactly which thunderstorms will produce a tornado and when is harder, and that’s where a lot of severe weather research is focused today.

Often, you’ll have a line of thunderstorms in an environment that looks favorable for tornadoes, and one storm might produce a tornado but the others don’t.
The differences between them could be due to small differences in meteorological variables, such as temperature. Even changes in the land surface conditions – fields, forested regions or urban environments – could affect whether a tornado forms. These small changes in the storm environment can have large impacts on the processes within storms that can make or break a tornado.

Read more here: https://theconversation.com/why-tornad ... ng-202704


caltrek's comment: When we were in Virginia, we actually received a tornado warning. I remembered looking out my window and seeing nothing but fog. I had never heard of a tornado emerging out of a bank of fog, but it was still a puzzle as to the reliability of the warning. Hours later, when I discussed the warning with a local, he laughed and indicated that such warnings were common, but never amounted to anything. When I indicated that the news reports were that a tornado had actually touched down in Midlothia, Virginia, he was very surprised. Midlothia was actually about seventy miles or so to our south, but he was surprised that a tornado had touched down anywhere in Virginia. My sister-in-law made the intelligent observation that these overly cautious alerts meant that nobody would take a genuine alert seriously, and so wondered why they bothered.
Don't mourn, organize.

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weatheriscool
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Latest storm piles more snow on California mountains
Source: AP
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A cold low pressure system spinning off the coast of California sent bands of rain and snow across the state Wednesday, making travel difficult and adding to an epic mountain snowpack.

Forecasters said the storm was not as strong as the systems that pounded the state all winter, but that chains were required for vehicles on highways through the Sierra Nevada. A section of U.S. 395 on the eastern side of the range was closed due to snowfall.

The Mammoth Mountain ski resort in the Eastern Sierra declared its snowiest season on record after 28 inches (70 centimeters) of snow since Tuesday afternoon pushed season snowfall totals to 695 inches (17.6 meters) at its main lodge and 870 inches (22.1 meters) at the summit of the 11,053-foot (3,369-meter) peak.

“It’s deep out there,” the resort wrote on its website.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/california-s ... 5796cd80fe
weatheriscool
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Tornado strikes Little Rock as dangerous storms spread across 15 states
Source: CBS News
A tornado plowed through Arkansas' capital and surrounding areas Friday afternoon, reducing rooftops to splinters, toppling vehicles and tossing debris on roadways as people raced for shelter. The Little Rock Fire Department reported heavy damage and debris in the western end of the city, saying on its Facebook page that firefighters were performing rescue operations in the area.

More than 350,000 people were at risk as what the National Weather Service called a "confirmed large and destructive tornado" tore through business districts and neighborhoods in Little Rock and North Little Rock. The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Medical Center in Little Rock was operating at a mass casualty level and expecting at least 15 to 20 patients from the tornado, spokesperson Leslie Taylor said. Several people had already been transported to the medical center, but an exact count was not immediately available.

Mark Hulsey, a special projects manager for Pulaski County, which includes Little Rock, said at least one person was in critical condition. The county's unincorporated areas saw structural damage from the tornado but crews haven't yet encountered any buildings that were "flattened or completely destroyed," Hulsey said. Passengers and airport employees at Clinton National Airport in Little Rock took shelter in bathrooms. And aerial footage showed several rooftops were torn from homes in Little Rock and nearby Benton.

Nearly 70,000 customers in Arkansas were out of power on Friday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks outages; about 37,000 were without power in neighboring Oklahoma. "Significant damage has occurred in Central Arkansas," Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted. "I'm in constant communication with AR State Police and @AR_Emergencies who are working with local law enforcement to assist anyone injured. Praying for all those who were and remain in the path of this storm."
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dangerous- ... nsas-iowa/
weatheriscool
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Storms strike Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana; 7 reported dead
Source: AP
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A monster storm system tore through the South and Midwest on Friday, spawning deadly weather including tornadoes that shredded homes and shopping centers in Arkansas, collapsed a theater roof during a heavy metal concert in Illinois and made a fatal sweep into rural Indiana.

The storm caused three deaths in Sullivan County, Indiana, Emergency Management Director Jim Pirtle said in an email to The Associated Press early Saturday. The storm damaged homes and some residents were missing in the county seat of Sullivan, located near the Illinois state line about 95 miles (152 kilometers) southwest of Indianapolis.

At least one person was killed and more than two dozen were hurt, some critically, in the Little Rock area, authorities said. The town of Wynne in northeastern Arkansas was also devastated, and officials reported two dead there, along with destroyed homes and people trapped in the debris.

Authorities said a theater roof collapsed during a tornado in Belvidere, Illinois, killing one person and injuring 28, five of them severely. The Belvidere Police Department said the collapse occurred as a heavy storm rolled through the area and that calls began coming from the theater at 7:48 p.m. It said that an initial assessment was that a tornado had caused the damage.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/us-storms-to ... osition_01
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NWS confirms tornadoes in N.J. as severe storms leave destruction across Delaware Valley

Source: FOX 29
Updated April 2, 2023 4:57 PM

PHILADELPHIA - A line of severe thunderstorms claimed the life of one person in Sussex County, Delaware Saturday, as they ripped through the Delaware Valley, dumping copious rain, dousing the region with frequent lighting, strong, gusty winds and hail.

Forecasters warned of the potential for severe weather, as part of a system that produced many strong tornadoes in the Midwest and southern states Friday evening, advanced into the northeast Saturday.

Across the Delaware Valley, storms began to develop about 5 p.m., moving west to east, igniting the northern and western Philadelphia suburbs with warnings, both severe thunderstorms and tornadoes, as the system marched across the area on its way to the Jersey shore. In its wake, the system dumped drenching rain, causing flooding in some locales, such as the Schuylkill Expressway, in King of Prussia and frequent cloud to ground lighting.

In Sussex County, Delaware, officials say one person died after a reported tornado caused a house to collapse. The person's age and identify have yet to be released. Delaware Gov. John Carney offered his condolences, saying "Our prayers are with the family of the victim in Sussex County, and everyone affected by today’s severe storms."
Read more: https://www.fox29.com/news/nws-confirms ... are-valley


Mt. Holly NWS confirmed 4 tornadoes - 1 in southern Delaware with a fatality and 3 in New Jersey.

Locations surveyed -




NWS Mount Holly
@NWS_MountHolly
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We will have several teams out surveying later today. Here's a rough outlook of where we are heading.

https://nwschat.weather.gov/p.php?pid=2 ... S41-PNSPHI
Map of the Mount Holly Forecast area with 4 location tracks based on areas where the NWS expected to survey for potential tornado damage. General locations are: 1. Sussex, DE 2. Burlington, NJ 3. Monmouth, NJ 4. New Castle, DE
6:45 AM · Apr 2, 2023
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