More than 100 scientists and nearly 40 support vehicles will fan out across tornado alley Saturday, the first day of the largest tornado study in history. VORTEX2 (Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment 2) kicks off tomorrow and the chase will be on until June 15th. Ten mobile radars or Dows (Doppler on Wheels) will be employed along with weather balloons, unmanned aircraft, and 12 mobile mesonet vehicles. The goal is to answer some perplexing questions about tornadoes that continue to confound scientists. How and why do tornadoes form? How strong are winds near the ground? What is the structure of the tornado?
Vortex2 is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The severe weather season started off quiet this year. The United States went all the way into late April before there was a "moderate risk" of severe weather according to the Storm Prediction Center. That was the latest into the year we have ever gone before reaching that risk level. Saturday was a reminder that even with slow starts, we need to be vigilant. The killer tornado in Yazoo City was 1.75 miles wide at one point, a record for Mississippi. It produced a nearly 150 mile long track, the fourth longest in Mississippi's history.
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It may collectively be the biggest tornado chase in history. Nearly 100 scientists will be roaming the plains in 40 vehicles equipped with the latest technology to detect and track tornadoes. It is called VORTEX2 (Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment 2). More than a dozen universities will also participate in this historic chase. People from as far away as Australia and the Netherlands will come to tornado alley in hopes of cracking the tornado code and getting to the bottom of how they form.
For the first time, remote control planes will be employed. UAVs (unmanned aeronautical vehicles) are lightweight propeller airplanes with 10-foot wingspans. It is all part of the $10 million study funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Warnings for tornadoes now average a lead time of 13 minutes and a 70% false alarm rate. Scientists hope this spring's VORTEX2 study will increase the lead time and decrease the false alarm rate.
VORTEX2 hits the road on May 1st and will roam tornado alley, anyway the wind blows them, until June 15.
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A tornado in
The other reason the Hammon tornado got a lot of attention is that it was captured on video by stormchasers. They ventured a little too close and saw first hand the power of a tornado.
The severe weather season may have started off quiet but don't expect it to stay that way. After El Nino influenced winters like this one there is usually a small increase in the number of tornadoes during the following severe weather season.
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We should climb to near 40 today before more arctic air arrives tonight. Looking back at 2009 so far, NOAA scientists expect the year to rank among the top ten warmest years globally. Not only has this been a warmer than average year but the 2000-2009 decade will be the warmest on record.
Check out NOAA's report and notice that 2009 for Illinois is actually colder than average:
Gusty west and northwest winds will make it really feel like fall for the next few days. According to our WeatherBug network, several locations have reported gusts close to 50 mph since midnight.
Here are some of the stronger gusts through 6 AM today:
Gust Location
49 mph Chicago Heights
48 mph Naperville
48 mph Burlington
48 mph Geneva
A wind advisory is in effect for most of us from 10 AM until 7 PM today. A lakeshore flood warning is in effect for Lake and Porter county Indiana from 10 AM until 1 PM today. Strong winds could produce waves 12 to 15 feet high. The National Weather Service warns, "DOCKS...PIERS...AND BREAK WALLS WILL BE DANGEROUS PLACES TO BE
DURING THE HIGH WAVES AND SHOULD BE AVOIDED."
The image was produced by the European Southern Observatory's GigaGalaxy Zoom project. The original image contains about 800 million pixels. A zoomable image can be found by clicking here. It has a measly 18 million pixels.
For you photographers, a Nikon D3 digital camera (50 mm lens open at f5.6) was used for the photos used to piece together this awesome view.
NOAA has just completed the final phase of a nine-year, $180 million plan to upgrade the computer system that powers our nation's forecasts for the National Weather Service. These aren't your parent's computers. These IBM supercomputers would fill about half of a tennis court and are 34 times more powerful than the most powerful supercomputer that existed just 10 years ago. According to NOAA, it would take someone with a calculator 3 million years to match the number of calculations the new "Stratus" supercomputer system can whip out in one second.
All this extra power should enable the use of more complex weather models that should improve accuracy and lead to more lead time for severe weather warnings.
It was just last week when we lamented the lack of rain from mid-July through mid-August. The first half of this month started out with about half the rain we normally see. We made up for that a bit yesterday, some areas more than others. O'Hare's .31" or rain yesterday brings the months total to 1.91". That's better but still about an inch below average for the month so far.
Here are some heavier rainfall amounts from Wednesday according to our WeatherBug network:
1.90" Flossmoor
1.11" University Park
1.00' Burlington
.98" Markham
However, the rain was accompanied by some severe weather. Spotters reported tornadoes near Elburn and Chesterton. There were almost a dozen tornadoes reported across the midwest according to the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.
We are not out of the woods yet. The SPC has a portion of our area outlooked for a slight risk of severe weather today.
Smooth sailing today with more sun & less humidity. Tomorrow is another story. The Storm Prediction Center has outlooked the southern half of our area for a slight risk of severe weather. A warm front will be pushing northward toward Chicago during the afternoon and good trigger some strong storms.
Snakes, not storms, are the problem down in Texas. The southern third of Texas is in an "extreme" to "exceptional" drought. There has been an increase in poisonous snake bites that may be attributed to the dry conditions. It seems the snakes normal sources of hydration have evaporated so they now are venturing onto watered lawns. A rattlesnake can bite twice. There is the initial bite then the bite in the wallet. A vile of antivenom can cost over $1000.
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