Monday, October 25, 2010

Severe Sunday Review

12:30 PM Monday Update... John Robinson with the National Weather Service confirms EF0 damage on Crystal Valley Road just south of Lawson in western Pulaski county.  He tells me that it was a very brief touchdown with no structural damage to homes.  It's just a bunch of tree limbs that are down in that area.  The other damage in Little Rock was thunderstorm wind damage estimated around 60-70 mph.  The wind gust of 63 mph at the LR airport is the highest

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Our 2nd severe weather season kicked off Sunday with sort of a bang.  The tornado warning for Pulaski county was issued right as I was beginning my "First Forecast" on Channel 7 News at 5.  Since it was directly over a very populated area, I decided it would be best to stick with it and continue the coverage.  The rotation was strong as it entered west Little Rock, but began to turn into a damaging thunderstorm wind threat as the storm moved to the east.  It quickly became apparent that a tornado was NOT on the ground since we were not getting any tornado sighting. I talked with Meteorologist John Robinson at the National Weather Service Monday morning.  He's out surveying the damage and thinks that the highest chance of a tornado would have been in far western Pulaski county where a few trees were knocked down along Lawson road.  If that's the case, it would have been on the ground only a brief amount of time and very weak.

In the video, which was taken from downtown LR looking towards the southwest, it appears to be a wall cloud with an appendage.  It's tough to see any rotation with it, but it's possible.

The radar loop in the second video shows the rotation south of I-630 moving east, then it lost its identity as it moved towards downtown and the airport.  Also below, you will see the original issuance of the tornado warning from the National Weather Service.




THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN LITTLE ROCK HAS ISSUED A

* TORNADO WARNING FOR...
WEST CENTRAL LONOKE COUNTY IN CENTRAL ARKANSAS...
CENTRAL PULASKI COUNTY IN CENTRAL ARKANSAS...
EAST CENTRAL SALINE COUNTY IN CENTRAL ARKANSAS...

* UNTIL 530 PM CDT

* AT 454 PM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING A TORNADO. THIS SEVERE
STORM WAS LOCATED 4 MILES NORTHWEST OF OTTER CREEK...OR 5 MILES
SOUTHWEST OF WEST LITTLE ROCK. DOPPLER RADAR SHOWED THIS TORNADO
MOVING EAST AT 30 MPH.

* LOCATIONS IN THE PATH OF THIS DANGEROUS STORM INCLUDE...
WEST LITTLE ROCK... SW LITTLE ROCK... SHERWOOD...
N LITTLE ROCK ARPT... NORTH LITTLE ROCK... JACKSONVILLE...
DWNTWN LITTLE ROCK... LITTLE ROCK ARPT... BRYANT...
SYLVAN HILLS... SWEET HOME... SCOTT...
PROTHRO JUNCTION... PARK HILL... OTTER CREEK...
MCALMONT... MABELVALE... LEVY...

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

TAKE COVER NOW. MOVE TO AN INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST FLOOR OF A
STURDY BUILDING. AVOID WINDOWS. IF IN A MOBILE HOME...A VEHICLE OR
OUTDOORS...MOVE TO THE CLOSEST SUBSTANTIAL SHELTER AND PROTECT
YOURSELF FROM FLYING DEBRIS.

1 comment:

Chad Gardner said...

As my wife and I were driving through NLR Sunday a little after 5 PM, the sirens started blaring. She looked at me and said: "Weather Geek FAIL! Why didn't you know this was coming?" I stammered around for an excuse as to why I wasn't on top of the weather situation, but couldn't come up with anything. I felt much better later on, as I watched your 5:00 Newscast and the actual NWS tornado warning surprised most people.

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