SBW severe weather threat.

[Liverpooldawg]

Confirmed death toll is one.

[starkvegasdawg]

Y?all hear the reports about the people that didn?t have time to make it to their shelter in backyard? Said no alerts on phones, no sirens, etc...
Just said it happened all of a sudden. Now, this is in the town I think in Monroe County. Hamilton MS.
Is that even possible today? I?ve been talking about this system for days because of the guys on this board. I knew a possible tornado was headed towards my house for almost 30 minutes before it arrived.

They can spin up that fast and were last night. And remember, somebody is always at the start of the warning. The amount of shear and helicity last night was massive. It didn't take much to spin one up.

[DownwardDawg]

Thanks Scooba and Vegas for the replies. These weather events both scare me and fascinate me.

[RocketDawg]

Sadly yes. Especially in more rural areas I would guess.
Also the storm that hit Hamilton spun up insanely fast as one tornado died on the sw side of the radar and a new tornado generated on the ne side of it.

The data coming off that tower will be studied for a long time. One of the spc experts noticed something interesting in the velocity already that is comparable to another super strong torando and is now wondering if that occurs in all and just can't be observed due to radar limits usually.


So I'm seeing the death total change from 5 to 1 or 2 or 3. I pray it's still the lower #

That's usually the case in a natural disaster like this.

One item of interest: The SWIRLL program (Severe Weather Institute - Radar and Lightning Laboratories https://www.nsstc.uah.edu/swirll/) has been zeroed out in the federal budget proposal. It's only $5M, so not a lot of money from a budget standpoint. They are doing a lot of research on tornadoes in the southeast.

It most likely will be reinstated, but severe weather and the NWS in general need to have a good budget. The NEXRADs are about 30 years old now and newer technology is available.

[RocketDawg]

Is Monroe County in the Jackson or the Memphis county warning area? Either one is a long way away.

[starkvegasdawg]

Is Monroe County in the Jackson or the Memphis county warning area? Either one is a long way away.

Jackson

[Liverpooldawg]

Jackson

No, it's in the Memphis warning area.

[starkvegasdawg]

No, it's in the Memphis warning area.

So it is. Knew it was a border county.

[starkvegasdawg]

Just drive down Oktoc to look at damage. Lots of big mature hardwoods and pines snapped and uprooted. What surprised me, though, is that I saw no structural damage. Not saying there wasn't any, but it wasn't widespread. Houses that had huge trees down in their yard didn't even have shingles blown off.

[parabrave]

They can spin up that fast and were last night. And remember, somebody is always at the start of the warning. The amount of shear and helicity last night was massive. It didn't take much to spin one up.

I was watching the storm coverage online from WTVA when that cell formed. There was another cell that they were following when the Hamilton cell popped up just over the radar site. It was already a massive one when it did show up on radar that the weatherman and the staff was surprised how big it was. If you didn't see it live last night I'm sure the replay is on YouTube.

[ScoobaDawg]

3 confirmed across the south yesterday. 2 children (8 and 3) were in the back seat of a car with their parents when a tree fell across it, killing the children.
1 killed in Hamilton, 95-year-old Roy Ratliff was killed when a tree fell on his house. 19 people were taken to hospitals for treatment, including two in critical condition.

https://www.wvtm13.com/article/repor...sippi/27138621
https://www.wvtm13.com/article/child...o-car/27137882

[RocketDawg]

Just drive down Oktoc to look at damage. Lots of big mature hardwoods and pines snapped and uprooted. What surprised me, though, is that I saw no structural damage. Not saying there wasn't any, but it wasn't widespread. Houses that had huge trees down in their yard didn't even have shingles blown off.

Maybe the tornadic winds didn't actually touch the ground but stayed 30 or 40 feet up.

[starkvegasdawg]

Preliminary rating on Hamilton tornado is EF-2. Looking at it live on radar I would have bet the farm on it being at least a 4. Winds estimated around 130mph. I know I captured a screen shot of 136mph on my radar.

[Mjoelner34]

As for the Starkville tornado, I think the report of it on Stone Blvd must have been the 'new' part that extends to the south farm as someone earlier in this thread alluded to damage at south farm earlier. I had been home about 10 minutes from my chase trip with Starkvegas to Louisiana yesterday and had the tv on and heard Laubhan talking about the rotation heading our way and he specifically mentioned Bardwell road and Blackjack. From what I saw, he nailed the location!

I live a mile east of Bardwell on Blackjack and after it was over, I took off to find damage in that area. The sirens on campus were still going off when I left. There were powerlines down across Blackjack (which I accidentally drove over because I couldn't see them with the rain) and a tree down across Bardwell (that's the tree pic earlier in the thread). There was also about a half mile debris path on Blackjack consisting of small limbs that was pretty much centered on the Bardwell road intersection. I didn't see any structural damage anywhere and all houses and apartment complexes I passed still had power. The downed powerlines on Blackjack went to an abandoned trailer park so I don't even know if they were energized.

There was some street flooding on Blackjack and several spots on campus.

Here is where I was at home in relation to the path.
tornado1.jpg

[RocketDawg]

As for the Starkville tornado, I think the report of it on Stone Blvd must have been the 'new' part that extends to the south farm as someone earlier in this thread alluded to damage at south farm earlier. I had been home about 10 minutes from my chase trip with Starkvegas to Louisiana yesterday and had the tv on and heard Laubhan talking about the rotation heading our way and he specifically mentioned Bardwell road and Blackjack. From what I saw, he nailed the location!

I live a mile east of Bardwell on Blackjack and after it was over, I took off to find damage in that area. The sirens on campus were still going off when I left. There were powerlines down across Blackjack (which I accidentally drove over because I couldn't see them with the rain) and a tree down across Bardwell (that's the tree pic earlier in the thread). There was also about a half mile debris path on Blackjack consisting of small limbs that was pretty much centered on the Bardwell road intersection. I didn't see any structural damage anywhere and all houses and apartment complexes I passed still had power. The downed powerlines on Blackjack went to an abandoned trailer park so I don't even know if they were energized.

There was some street flooding on Blackjack and several spots on campus.

Here is where I was at home in relation to the path.
tornado1.jpg

That's pretty close. I wonder if winds on the right side are stronger than on the left like they are in a hurricane. Probably never actually been measured. The winds in a tornado aren't necessarily horizontal though. I remember seeing very good video of an F5 near Lawrenceville, Tenn, and the winds on the back side appeared to be coming down at about a 30-degree angle. Seeing that, it's no wonder that nothing can withstand those churning winds.

[Treemydawg]

I’ve spent the entire day at my brothers house in Hamilton today cutting trees and cleaning up debris. He and his family were so lucky to only have trees down in the yard and on vehicles. Their house was untouched which blows my mind with all of the carnage surrounding it. God really had his hands of protection on them last night. Tornados are so weird sometimes with the damage they do in one spot and 100’ down the road things look like nothing has happened at all.

[starkvegasdawg]

Starkville tornado with a rating of EF-1.

[timotheus]

I just saw where a small plane crashed in union county during the storm. All 3 aboard are deceased. 3 from Belmont and 1 from Booneville.

[RocketDawg]

Preliminary rating on Hamilton tornado is EF-2. Looking at it live on radar I would have bet the farm on it being at least a 4. Winds estimated around 130mph. I know I captured a screen shot of 136mph on my radar.

I'm not a storm surveyor, but the pictures I've seen (on the Daily Journal website) showed flattened houses, and they seemed to be reasonably well built. Would an EF-2 flatten a house like that?

[starkvegasdawg]

I'm not a storm surveyor, but the pictures I've seen (on the Daily Journal website) showed flattened houses, and they seemed to be reasonably well built. Would an EF-2 flatten a house like that?

I haven't really seen any pictures, but my only guess is they weren't as well constructed as they appeared. However, that is a very high end EF-2 and the one wind speed I got off radar would have put it at EF-3. So the difference with this tornado is really close to splitting hairs. At EF-3 you start to get significant damage to well constructed buildings.