Archive March 18-20th, 2018 Severe Weather

[barcncpt44]

During a press conference, an official from Jacksonville State University said there was major structural damage to several buildings on campus. The entire JSU campus is currently off-limits. Along with a lot of student housing on and off campus severely damaged, it will be interesting to see how JSU finishes the current semester, if at all.

 

[WesL]

During a press conference, an official from Jacksonville State University said there was major structural damage to several buildings on campus. The entire JSU campus is currently off-limits. Along with a lot of student housing on and off campus severely damaged, it will be interesting to see how JSU finishes the current semester, if at all.

Talk about luck that they are on spring break this week. Imagine if they had been in session.

 

[Bama Ravens]

Some good news from Jacksonville.

 

[Kory]

During a press conference, an official from Jacksonville State University said there was major structural damage to several buildings on campus. The entire JSU campus is currently off-limits. Along with a lot of student housing on and off campus severely damaged, it will be interesting to see how JSU finishes the current semester, if at all.

Not sure. At least when UA decided to call off the semester and just proceed into summer break, we only had 3 days left of dead week. This is kind of harder given the time of semester.

I know William and Carey University was hit by a tornado last January. They remained in session with satellite classes and use of Southern Miss’s academic buildings.

 

[warneagle]

Some photos of the damage from Nances Creek. It looks bad but these look like mostly mobile homes or poorly-constructed permanent buildings, so they may not be very informative.

 

[Bama Ravens]

Given how there were multiple tornadic storms in the same areas of east AL last night, I will be interested to see if there was a boundary or something there.

 

[warneagle]

I know the objective criteria are what determine whether or not an outlook/watch verified, but it's also important to look at things in a more general and outward-facing sense: did the forecast adequately communicate the dangers and necessary actions to the public, without overstating confidence or the ceiling of the event, based on the information available? I would say yes in this case. Saying "nobody died so the forecast worked" would be kind of an ex post facto justification, but in the end that really is what matters. It's not something that's easy to verify statistically since you can't go around and ask everybody "did you get the information, did you know how serious the threat was, did you know what actions to take" but it is still important to try to evaluate the qualitative aspects of the forecast as best we can since nailing the moderate risk area or the sigtor hatching on a map doesn't mean much if people didn't know that the threat was there and prepare accordingly.

 

[warneagle]

Jeff Piotrowski (I know, I know) is live-tweeting/live-videoing some of his exploration of the damage in the Ardmore area if anyone wants to see that. Kind of like the photos I posted above, it looks like it's mostly damage to weak structures that doesn't actually tell us much about the intensity of the tornado.

 

[Peter Griffin]

If legit that is some scary stuff.

 

[JayF]

Talk about luck that they are on spring break this week. Imagine if they had been in session.

one of our friends goes to JSU. She was at home luckily but one of her roommates was still there. Some of the pictures going around show her apartment building and her room being completely exposed. Just glad she was home and not there. Her roommate is ok but obviously shaken up over the experience.

 

[ghost]

I appreciate all who contributed to this thread yesterday and today. It was like the old days at TW with so many knowledgeable people reporting/commenting/sharing their observations and expertise. TW is making a comeback and is a valuable resource during weather events.

 

[Sharky75]

This is the best site that I found. Good to finally have a place to chat all things weather.

 

[Helicity]

Interesting to note that the cluster of storms that moved through North/Central AL and into GA could actually qualify as a derecho event:




Gives more credence to the terrific job local/regional mets did in conveying risk in advance of yesterday's weather and provides more confirmation a MOD was warranted, at least in my eyes

 

[Bama Ravens]

It is good that the storms that developed south of the main cluster were so close to the main cluster and not further south. May have had more to work with further away from the cluster.

 

[Kory]

It is good that the storms that developed south of the main cluster were so close to the main cluster and not further south. May have had more to work with further away from the cluster.

The parameters in place over West and Central AL were downright ugly yesterday (before winds veered). We dodged a bullet out this way.

 

[warneagle]

I know we're focusing on yesterday but the current watch in FL has 70/50 probs.

 

[CheeselandSkies]

1630Z SPC outlook mentions veered surface winds as a caveat for strong tornado potential today. I wonder if it will make a difference that said winds would then be coming straight off the Gulf, or would the same issues with reduced covergence/overall convective robustness hold true? Is this why the peninsular FL portion of January 2017's high risk event underperformed?

Based on what I've read in this thread, it seems that the most likely reason for yesterday's semi-bust (storms' inability to take full advantage of dangerous tornado parameters in all but a small part of the PDS/MDT) was not just the veered winds but the layer of dry air they brought with them, that prevented storms from getting going away from the warm-frontal cluster?

 

[buckeye05]

I know the big story seems to be the Jacksonville tornado, though the Atlanta suburbs also got hit pretty hard last night, particularly in Fairburn (southern Fulton County). There was a tight couplet and a significant debris signature in this area. Looks like high-end EF1 to EF2 damage.

 

[Kory]

1630Z SPC outlook mentions veered surface winds as a caveat for strong tornado potential today. I wonder if it will make a difference that said winds would then be coming straight off the Gulf, or would the same issues with reduced covergence/overall convective robustness hold true? Is this why the peninsular FL portion of January 2017's high risk event underperformed?

Winds were veered like nuts during that event. SWerly in most cases.

 

[CheeselandSkies]

Winds were veered like nuts during that event. SWerly in most cases.

Modified my quoted post a bit. I know at least one poster (or maybe I'm even thinking of a post I saw on AmericanWX) said veered winds are less of an event-killer in Dixie than in the Plains, but they still obviously have an effect.