Major tornado outbreak expected today

[US 89]

For the first time in just over two years, the Storm Prediction Center has issued a high risk of severe thunderstorms:



Most notably, the tornado-specific risk is 45%, which is more than the 30% required for a high risk:



If you're in that area, stay alert. PDS tornado watches are already in effect for the TX panhandle and most of central OK.

edit: updated images to MNHighwayMan's permalinks

[hotdogPi]

Do I need to worry? (I'm barely out of the 2% region.)

[MNHighwayMan]

Do I need to worry? (I'm barely out of the 2% region.)

Probably not.

Thanks for making this thread, US 89, because I thought about it, but didn't feel like going through the effort.

I did, however, make some permanent links to those images, since the images at those links be replaced tomorrow with tomorrow's outlooks.

https://i.imgur.com/yeprjIF.gif
https://i.imgur.com/LxKGfzw.gif

Edit to add: the first tornado warnings have already been issued in both Texas and Oklahoma. Fun stuff.

[hbelkins]

Hopefully, we'll have some great chaser videos come from this.

[TBKS1]

This is from the current Tornado Watch in Oklahoma, second time a maxed out probability watch has ever been issued by the SPC.

[MNHighwayMan]

The first tornado warning to mention a confirmed tornado is/was in the area of Paducah and Childress, Texas.

And now a second confirmed tornado is located northwest of Cashion, Oklahoma, which is about ten miles north-northwest of Oklahoma City.

Hopefully, we'll have some great chaser videos come from this.

If this becomes a tornado outbreak as suggested (which all signs are definitely still pointing to), we definitely will.

[thspfc]

They're just shrugging in Oklahoma right now . . . Anyways, we're far from the danger zone, but the weather tomorrow here isn't looking too good.

[Stephane Dumas]

And we got to remember not all overpass and underpass are made the same way then the one who was hit by a tornado in Kansas in 1991.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHBZylcxIvw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJkDphU5olo

[Scott5114]

I stayed home from work just to be cautious (that and I don't make much money on Mondays, so I'm not missing much). So far, the storms have just been bad enough to make KWTV's David Payne hyperventilate.

[MNHighwayMan]

Notably, today is also the six-year anniversary of the 2013 Moore tornado, the last tornado to be (indisputably) rated EF5.

[Scott5114]

Several school districts canceled classes today to avoid a repeat of the 2013 Plaza Towers Elementary incident.

[Road Hog]

This outbreak for Oklahoma at least so far is the best you can hope for. A lot of cornfield storms and chaser videos and little damage.

[NWI_Irish96]

I lived in Southern Indiana in March 2012 when a PDS Watch was issued and several tornadoes killed more than a dozen people.  Our house at the time did not have a basement and I was at work worried sick about my wife and kids.  The closest tornado ended up hitting 15 miles away, but right then  I vowed that would be the last house I live in without a basement until I'm too old to go up and down stairs.

[hbelkins]

It's amazing how thinking about certain things changes over the years. I remember when drivers were advised that they should seek shelter beneath a bridge in a tornado; that it was a safe place. Now it's just the opposite.

It's like a snake bite. I remember when Cutter sold kits with little scalpels and suction cups. If you were bitten by a "poisonous" snake, you were advised to cut an "X" over the wound, then suck the "poison" out. (Yes, I know it's "venom," not "poison.") Now, they don't even recommend trying to suck the venom out without cutting.

[Beltway]

It's amazing how thinking about certain things changes over the years. I remember when drivers were advised that they should seek shelter beneath a bridge in a tornado; that it was a safe place. Now it's just the opposite.

I also remember when the formation of tornados was a scientific mystery and when the main theory was that it was started by electrical forces in the atmosphere.   Also that winds could go as high as over 500 mph.

[Scott5114]

It's amazing how thinking about certain things changes over the years. I remember when drivers were advised that they should seek shelter beneath a bridge in a tornado; that it was a safe place. Now it's just the opposite.

I think this is mostly because of the May 3, 1999 Oklahoma City tornado. Several motorists on I-35 had stopped under the Shields Blvd. overpass, as that was common advice at the time. The overpass took a direct hit and, while the bridge itself was fine, the winds ejected everyone out from under the bridge, at which point they suffered the effects of not just hitting the ground but being pelted with debris.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

Since this has become the general tornado thread....
https://www.wcpo.com/weather/breaking-down-the-storms-that-produced-tornadoes-near-dayton








Twisted tower in Trotwood (NW Dayton)










Harrison Twp Plaza north (I don't know where in Dayton this is at)


Beavercreek (east of Dayton, south of Wright-Pat AFB)


Beavercreek still


----
And we now have our new standard feature; stupid people complaining on social media about real life circumventing their TV habits.
In this case, a Dayton meterologist getting angry over complaints about Tornado coverage (as it was happening in real time, not after the fact) pre-empting 'The Bachelorette.'
https://www.wkyt.com/content/news/Dayton-meteorologist-sick-and-tired-of-viewers-wanting-to-go-back-to-programming-during-tornado-outbreak-510516601.html

[rickmastfan67]

And we now have our new standard feature; stupid people complaining on social media about real life circumventing their TV habits.
In this case, a Dayton meterologist getting angry over complaints about Tornado coverage (as it was happening in real time, not after the fact) pre-empting 'The Bachelorette.'
https://www.wkyt.com/content/news/Dayton-meteorologist-sick-and-tired-of-viewers-wanting-to-go-back-to-programming-during-tornado-outbreak-510516601.html

This was at least one of the people that made him blow up.

https://twitter.com/haybayallday/status/1133182571934867456

[rickmastfan67]

Anyways, ODOT even had to bring out the Snow Plows (wonder if they still had the plows on, or had to quickly re-add them) to clear off I-75.

https://twitter.com/ODOT_Dayton/status/1133230700122001408

[ce929wax]

This was at least one of the people that made him blow up.

https://twitter.com/haybayallday/status/1133182571934867456

She would be the first to complain because they weren't on the air when a tornado was hitting her.   

[NWI_Irish96]

----
And we now have our new standard feature; stupid people complaining on social media about real life circumventing their TV habits.
In this case, a Dayton meterologist getting angry over complaints about Tornado coverage (as it was happening in real time, not after the fact) pre-empting 'The Bachelorette.'
https://www.wkyt.com/content/news/Dayton-meteorologist-sick-and-tired-of-viewers-wanting-to-go-back-to-programming-during-tornado-outbreak-510516601.html

Channel 9 in Chicago did NOT break away from Monday's Cubs game despite many tornado warnings and at least two confirmed tornadoes on the ground.  They did cover about 1/4 of the screen with graphics and had brief studio updates between innings, but they weren't willing to miss a single pitch of a team that's just going to choke in September again anyway.

[hbelkins]

And we now have our new standard feature; stupid people complaining on social media about real life circumventing their TV habits.
In this case, a Dayton meterologist getting angry over complaints about Tornado coverage (as it was happening in real time, not after the fact) pre-empting 'The Bachelorette.'
https://www.wkyt.com/content/news/Dayton-meteorologist-sick-and-tired-of-viewers-wanting-to-go-back-to-programming-during-tornado-outbreak-510516601.html

This was at least one of the people that made him blow up.

https://twitter.com/haybayallday/status/1133182571934867456

Heard something similar happened in Kansas yesterday. Someone complained about regular programming being pre-empted for storm reports.

[thspfc]

----
And we now have our new standard feature; stupid people complaining on social media about real life circumventing their TV habits.
In this case, a Dayton meterologist getting angry over complaints about Tornado coverage (as it was happening in real time, not after the fact) pre-empting 'The Bachelorette.'
https://www.wkyt.com/content/news/Dayton-meteorologist-sick-and-tired-of-viewers-wanting-to-go-back-to-programming-during-tornado-outbreak-510516601.html

Channel 9 in Chicago did NOT break away from Monday's Cubs game despite many tornado warnings and at least two confirmed tornadoes on the ground.  They did cover about 1/4 of the screen with graphics and had brief studio updates between innings, but they weren't willing to miss a single pitch of a team that's just going to choke in September again anyway.

VERY IMPORTANT PROGRAMMING: You must see the Cubs play a random spring regular season game, accounting for 1/162 of the season, even if it means getting your house blown out by a tornado.

Cubs.

[Brandon]

And we now have our new standard feature; stupid people complaining on social media about real life circumventing their TV habits.
In this case, a Dayton meterologist getting angry over complaints about Tornado coverage (as it was happening in real time, not after the fact) pre-empting 'The Bachelorette.'
https://www.wkyt.com/content/news/Dayton-meteorologist-sick-and-tired-of-viewers-wanting-to-go-back-to-programming-during-tornado-outbreak-510516601.html

This was at least one of the people that made him blow up.

https://twitter.com/haybayallday/status/1133182571934867456

Actually, certain cable companies (Comcast, I'm looking directly at you) take over your entire TV so you only see the EAS stuff and have no chance to look at another channel, say, the Weather Channel if you want to see the coverage and the radar.  Had that happen one day in my area.  I gave up and turned off the TV so I could look at the radar on the internet (NWS).

[ilpt4u]

Actually, certain cable companies (Comcast, I'm looking directly at you) take over your entire TV so you only see the EAS stuff and have no chance to look at another channel, say, the Weather Channel if you want to see the coverage and the radar.  Had that happen one day in my area.  I gave up and turned off the TV so I could look at the radar on the internet (NWS).

Not just Comcast. Mediacom does it, too. I'm sure others do as well