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Tornado Outbreak of December 10-11, 2021

Started by I-55, December 10, 2021, 10:57:48 PM

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edwaleni

NWS Water Vapor Loop at the time the tornado rich front came through.  There was a very warm and moist troft of air moving NNE as the cold front pushed ESE very quickly. Very dangerous.



US 89

Quote from: hbelkins on December 12, 2021, 07:12:09 PM
Quote from: Rothman on December 11, 2021, 11:57:20 PM
Quote from: hbelkins on December 11, 2021, 11:09:00 PM
My colleague who lives in Bowling Green and works in the Bowling Green KYTC district office had his home severely damaged to the point that it may be declared a total loss. He's OK, though.

I was far enough east that all we got was rain, and a gusty cloudburst around daybreak, then another gusty cloudburst around noon when the cold front came through. We didn't even have any thunder or lightning, although I understand we may have been under an active tornado warning (possibly due to weak radar-indicated rotation).
I've got a cousin in Richmond and Berea was hit.

The NWS Louisville office is surveying damaged locations now and I haven't heard any reports out of Madison County as to whether it was a tornado or just strong winds. There was damage reported in Kirksville (west of Richmond and northwest of Berea) and that area was hit by a tornado a few years ago. I used to drive through there fairly often and could see the damage to trees.

As of now, all severe weather reports out of Madison County, KY that night were simply straight-line thunderstorm wind damage.

edwaleni


hotdogPi

So is this why I got an extremely heavy downpour at about 11 PM on the 11th?
Clinched, minus I-93 (I'm missing a few miles and my file is incorrect)

Traveled, plus US 13, 44, and 50, and several state routes

I will be in Burlington VT for the eclipse.

edwaleni

Check out the ground swirls left by the tornado near Hayti, Missouri. Amazing.

The storm chaser said he picked up the funnel while on I-155.


triplemultiplex

It strikes me that if it was a hundred years ago, these storms would have killed a thousand people, at least.  It's great how far we've come in giving severe weather alerts.  I've come to take for granted that if something like this was coming my way, my phone would start blowing up with alerts.
"That's just like... your opinion, man."

bmeiser

Quote from: triplemultiplex on December 14, 2021, 05:47:15 PM
It strikes me that if it was a hundred years ago, these storms would have killed a thousand people, at least.  It's great how far we've come in giving severe weather alerts.  I've come to take for granted that if something like this was coming my way, my phone would start blowing up with alerts.
Unless cell phone service / wifi goes down. That's why I buy everybody weather radios as house warming gifts . You should get yourself one as well.

triplemultiplex

There's one in a box around here somewhere.  Probably with no batteries or it takes some weird kind that no one has laying around like C's or something.  Real safe up in here.  :-P
"That's just like... your opinion, man."

hbelkins

NWS survey indicates an EF-1 tornado hitting the Kirksville community in western Madison County, Ky.


Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

paulthemapguy

Exhibit from the NWS Paducah on the tornadoes the night of December 10 into December 11.
https://www.weather.gov/pah/December-10th-11th-2021-Tornado

The Mayfield/Quad-State Tornado was given a peak wind rating of 190mph, which is JUST BARELY below the 200mph threshold needed to declare it an EF-5.  The tornado was thus rated as a high-end EF-4.  Whether the tornado that occurred earlier from the same supercell was distinct from this one, this supercell produced a tornado along tracks comprising the third-highest distance in history.  In other words, the total distance spent on the ground was the third-highest, though maybe not the third-highest continuous track for a tornado.  Surely, though, the tornado that hit Bowling Green was separate, as it came from a separate supercell that didn't develop until later into the night, and had a different track (Mayfield tornado is #1 and Bowling Green tornado is #2 as labeled in the NWS Paducah exhibit linked above).

I've been watching and listening to this newscast out of WPSD in Paducah, from when they were providing ongoing coverage on the tornado disaster.  These broadcasters and others from the region undoubtedly saved a lot of lives.  It was very educational to review this footage and learn the tornado signatures on radar.  Very classic and textbook examples of hook echos and debris balls.  And these guys had the roughest night of their lives trying to get information out to people, as a catastrophe unfolded before their eyes and the radar in Paducah lost power.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-O_1fkdMHA&t=5358s

Another remarkable thing about the tornado situation is how long it produced confirmed and long-lasting tornadoes.  Just as the first Mayfield/Quad State tornado moves out of their area, another supercell started producing a damaging tornado farther south.  This is the supercell that would cause destruction in Bowling Green.  That led the above newscast covering the catastrophe to last more than FIVE HOURS.

I've also been looking at different Youtube users' drone footage of the destruction in populated areas like Bremen, Dawson Springs, and of course, Mayfield.  I don't throw the term "total devastation" around loosely, but an unsettling amount of it is total devastation.

It's probably already clear to most, but it bears mentioning--the fact that this happened at night in December is absolutely insane.  I thought the outbreak on November 17, 2013, was already insane for being so deep into the cold weather season.  But that took place during the day, when you expect to have enough warmth for things to flare.  This was AT NIGHT four weeks later than THAT.  Truly amazing.

A map and descriptions of storm reports on December 10: https://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/211210_rpts.html
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