ExtremeTornadoTours.com

Posted At: May 15, 2008 @ 11:01 AM

As a decaying mesoscale convective system (MCS) moves across the Gulf Coast Region today, there will be a slight chance for severe convection in the untainted environment to the east.  Limiting factors for tornadoes today will be marginal instability and low-level wind shear - but crazy things can happen east of the Great Plains as we all know.  The Storm Prediction Center has issued a slight risk for this area, with a non-zero chance for tornadoes with any isolated storms that can form ahead of the MCS.   It looks like we may have some time off for the next week or so, with the long-range models indicating a classic Western U.S. trough by late next week into the weekend!

Posted At: May 13, 2008 @ 11:55 AM

This morning's model forecasts do not look very favorable for tornadoes across the Southern Plains, and even further northeast into MO.  An unfavorable orientation of the frontal boundary and weak low-level shear are the two main limiting factors for tornadoes today, but extreme CAPE values of 4000+ J/kg will be possible east of the cold front/dryline across OK/TX.  Here is the 12-hr RUC forecast for this evening for CAPE and 850 mb wind:


There is still a possibility that the extreme CAPE values over central OK into Texas can over-compensate for weak low-level shear, so we will still likely be chasing this event.  Even if tornadoes are not a possibility, we would enjoy a core-punch with softball size hail..  Our current target is Duncan to Wichita Falls, TX, but we are also considering a northeast OK target where low-level shear may be able to hang on into the evening.  We'll be streaming this event live so be sure to check the tracker page..  Good luck to all who are chasing this event

Posted At: May 11, 2008 @ 12:05 PM

Preliminary SPC reports indicate that 42 tornadoes touched down yesterday from the eastern Southern Plains to the Southeast U.S., with many of the reports coming from a particularly strong supercell that tracked from Southeast KS into Southwest MO.  Sadly, this storm produced at least 20 fatalities from extreme Northeast OK into Newton Co, MO, with the hardest hit communities being Picher, OK and Seneca, MO, where 7 and 10 fatalities were reported respectively.  The tornado that hit the town of Picher (an old mining town of ~800 people) was a 1/2 mile wide wedge tornado that appeared to be very strong.  From the damage pictures I've seen and from a friend who intercepted the tornado, it appeared to be EF3 to EF4 damage in Picher. 

Here are links to video of this tornado from storm chaser Chris Wilburn:

Wedge near Picher, OK:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-aKmv1QepQ

Stovepipe from I-44 in extreme Northeast OK:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2obd362ZaM

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/05/10/tornado.deaths/index.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24558648/

In addition to this supercell, several tornadoes were reported in Eastern OK and Arkansas, with the town of Stuttgart, AR taking a direct hit from what appeared to be an EF2 tornado.  We were chasing this storm from south of Little Rock, through the town of England where the first circulation tried to put down a tornado.  Here, rain curtains were wrapping completely around the circulation, but a condensation funnel was never visible.  We fell behind the storm briefly but re-intercepted from the west just as a new tornado was moving through Stuttgart.  We could not make out a condensation funnel since we were approaching from the west near dark, but we did see power flashes as the tornado was moving through the south side of town.  After the tornado moved through, we returned to Stuttgart to help with the rescue effort.  Power lines and trees were down everywhere, and the smell of natural gas was nauseating.  We even witnessed some looting around some destroyed structures.  Very bad site.  From what I saw, I'm guessing this was an EF2 tornado.  Here are some radar images I captured as the tornado was on the ground from around 8:10 pm CDT yesterday evening.  Interestingly, this is the last radar image we were able to acquire, since we could no longer connect to mobile internet after this time...likely due to a downed data tower near the town of Stuttgart.

Posted At: May 10, 2008 @ 4:11 PM

A "Particularly Dangerous Situation" (PDS) tornado watch has been issued for central and southern Arkansas for this afternoon and evening, for the expectation of strong, long-track tornadoes in the vicinity of a diffuse warm front draped across the area.  We're currently stationed just south of Little Rock waiting for the storms to our west to intensify and ride the front east-southeast-ward.  Three live streaming teams are in this area, so stay tuned to the tracker for live streaming tornado video!

Posted At: May 10, 2008 @ 7:33 AM

An outbreak of tornadoes is possible today from Eastern OK/Northeast TX eastward through the Lower Mississippi River Valley.  Wind shear will be most favorable for strong tornadoes along an E-W warm front forecast to move northward across AR/MS through the day.  Due westerly upper flow will allow for storms to move eastward parallel to the boundary, increasing further the chance for long-track tornadoes.  CAPE values will be significant, contributing to the formation of massive hail stones.   The warm front can be seen clearly on the WRF forecast CAPE for 00z this evening - forecast to be along I-40 at this time.  The strong trough responsible for this severe weather episode can be seen in the WRF forecast 500 mb map for 00z (see below):
We're currently driving toward an initial target of Little Rock, AR, and will reposition from there depending on the location of the warm front.  Stay tuned to the live tracker as at least 2 streaming teams will be chasing today!

Posted At: May 9, 2008 @ 6:52 PM

TornadoVideos.net just recently partnered with Vuze.com, a company similar to Youtube but specializing in the broadcast of high-quality standard digital and high-definition videos.  Most of the TVN videos have been provided to Vuze, and they just went live today!  You can check out all of our most extreme tornado videos in their best quality at the following link...Check it out and let us know your thoughts!  Vuze is an amazing site...

http://www.vuze.com/channel/tornadovideos.net