Well, that was interesting..storms on May 13 2012..Only Human

A dry slot worked into the area allowing sunshine to peek out, heat up, and destabilize the area.

On Sunday May 13 2012 I was lazing around, just taking it easy. I wasn't expecting any strong storms after looking at computer models / data in the early morning hours. Scratch that, I was expecting some, possibly severe, but that was for the overnight hours of Saturday May 12 into the early morning hours of Sunday May 13. Not Sunday afternoon and evening !!!

In case you couldn't read the above, this is the pertinent part, myself talking about storm potential on Saturday May 12 at 2:44 PM EDT:

As far as anything bad .... Later tonight there appears to be a chance of some stronger storms, judging by wind profiles. The problem with this is, it is hard to pin down an exact area as this will be Isolated events, not widespread. Hopefully the band of rain that came through this morning and the one headed our way in the next hour will keep the local area more stable later, due to limited heating from cloud cover.

After the storms failed to materialize Saturday night, early Sunday morning, I figured the atmosphere was stable and would remain so as clouds and rain were in the forecast. I feel kinda bad that I didn't look at models / data Sunday morning sometime and pick up on this. I kinda feel a little better knowing even the Pro's missed it as well, locally and government. Well sorta with the gov as the Storm Prediction Center did mention a Tornado or two in their update at 0748 AM CDT SUN MAY 13 2012, but not earlier.

As a matter of fact, this is what the SPC said Earlier at 1211 AM CDT SUN MAY 13 2012, which was the last I looked at from them.:

FL PANHANDLE INTO ERN TN...

UPPER VORT MAX IS SHEARING ENEWD ACROSS CNTRL MS EARLY THIS MORNING AND SHOULD PROGRESS ACROSS AL INTO NRN GA BY 18Z. IN THE WAKE OF THIS FEATURE A LONGER WAVE TROUGH WILL LAG ACROSS THE LOWER MS VALLEY. WIDESPREAD EARLY MORNING SHOWERS/TSTMS AHEAD OF UPPER VORT SHOULD LIMIT BOUNDARY LAYER HEATING AND PREVENT SIGNIFICANT DESTABILIZATION/STEEPENING OF LOW LEVEL LAPSE RATES. GIVEN THE MODEST DEEP LAYER SHEAR ACROSS THIS REGION THE LACK OF MEANINGFUL INSTABILITY WILL PRECLUDE MORE THAN A 5% RISK OF MARGINALLY SEVERE WIND GUSTS.

This is from one of the local TV stations weather Facebook page, posted Sunday May 13 2012 at 12:59 PM EDT ..

As we talked about yesterday we would see "Periods" of rain on our Sunday. It may be dry where you live right now, but another round is moving through right now.

This is from the other local TV station Facebook page, posted May 13 2012 at 7:19 AM EDT ..

interactive weather clearly shows rainfall tapering off west to east. We still will see afternoon showers and thunderstorms. Nothing severe, this is the good news. The primary threat will be the advancing front, with the surface low later this afternoon and tonight. A few of these storms will likely produce strong winds.

For the most part the local area did NOT see any severe weather, but it was all around us. As close as Lee, Chambers and Tallapoosa counties in Alabama just across the Chattahoochee river, Tornado Warning. It is considered the local area. We also had a Flash Flood Warning issued that lasted about 4 hours for Muscogee and Harris counties, due to heavy heavy rain. I live in Harris county.

Here's a graphic showing the warnings on Sunday:

OK, enough of this .. we all make mistakes .. on with the show. Here's some pics of storms in the area.

This is from Brandon Thomas down in Barbour county Alabama. He decided to go chase the storms moving through his area. Here is his description; "Brief funnel as the wall cloud began emerging over the lake. — in Eufaula, Alabama."

And another form Brandon, description - "Wall cloud over the lake with RFD cut to the left. — in Eufaula, Alabama."

One more from Brandon - "Slowly rotating wall cloud with inflow tail forming.
— in Eufaula, Alabama."

This one is from Cody Nickel, a student at Mississippi State University majoring in Meteorology, while home on break. He was looking west toward Alabama from an upper floor window at the medical center in downtown Columbus Georgia.

Here's one showing street flooding in Columbus from Belinda Brewer. We had copious amounts of rain. Here at the homestead I recorded 2.83 inches on Sunday.

Tipton Oklahoma Tornado 11/7/2011, and more - Video

Reed Timmer and TVN intercept multiple tornadoes in D2 during the November 7 southwest Oklahoma tornadofest. Watch it to the end and see storm chaser Andy Gabrielson roll his vehicle in the outer circulation of the tornado as he tries to get away.

Via tornadovideos.net



More footage from this outbreak from Storm Chasers David Reimer and Connor McCrorey. Mutiple intercepts.

Via TexasStormChasers :

Storm on October 13 2011 - Harris County Georgia

I was at the doctors office in Northern Harris county off of HWY 219 [River RD] near Lick Skillet RD. when the storm blew through about 1:35 pm. I called this storm in to the Harris Co. 911 call center.

My observations: I watched the sky darken from inside the doctors office. I knew something was coming. I stepped outside and saw this particular large cloud which was rotating in upper and lower levels. As it moved through I spotted a wall cloud. From my point of view, I couldn't see the defining area of the shelf cloud, or enough of it to verify what I was seeing, viewed in the images below. Moments later I heard the roar of the outflow winds coming from the storm which I have experienced a couple times before [Amazing Sound], which brought trees down at the homestead back in April of this year. I estimated the winds to be in excess of 50 mph. This caused the power to go out at the doctors office. I didn't notice any hail as it was raining so hard, and the wind was so strong I retreated back inside the doctors office. Which I might add is a double wide trailer, not the safest place but I had no alternative.

On my way back home I counted 5 trees down, 3 of which partially blocked 1 lane on these two lane roads I traveled. 1 across the power lines and numerous branches from large to small scattered about the roads. The route I took - River Road [ HWY 219 ] north [Tree across power lines], to Mountain Hill School Rd [Tree blocking lane in two areas], to Hwy 315 to the fork of 315 and Fortson RD [tree blocking one lane] and continuing on to West Bon Acre.
There were reports of downed tress and power lines in the Mulberry Grove area, across roads and on houses. I wasn't able to see the trees on houses or the downed power lines. Honestly I didn't look for them, I was trying to get home and see if there was any damage there and check on family members [especially MOM]. No damage at the homestead this time. I had just over a half inch of rain here at the homestead from this storm. 0.51 inches.

Click images to enlarge. Use your back button to return here.

Image credit: Andy Mason	Image credit: Angie Wright Russell
Image credit: bcorrell via WTVM	Image credit: Brandon Thomas
Image credit: Carla Horne Creamer	Image credit: Kevin Holden
Image credit: Matthew Cook	Image credit: Phil Scoggins via WRBL
Image credit: WTVM	Image credit: WTVM
Image credit: Kevin Roble WRBL	Map of roads I traveled

Storm Damage Reports from around the area.

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT...SUMMARY
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PEACHTREE CITY GA
956 PM EDT THU OCT 13 2011

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0146 PM     TSTM WND DMG     MULBERRY GROVE          32.66N 84.96W
10/13/2011                   HARRIS             GA   911 CALL CENTER

            HARRIS COUNTY 911 RELAYED REPORTS OF SEVERAL DOWNED TREES
            AND POWER LINES IN SOUTHERN HARRIS COUNTY. SEVERAL ROADS
            AND 2 HOMES HAD TREES DOWNED ONTO THEM.

******************

0154 PM     TSTM WND DMG     1 SW FLAT ROCK          32.53N 84.88W
10/13/2011                   MUSCOGEE           GA   911 CALL CENTER

            MUSCOGEE COUNTY 911 RELAYED REPORT OF A DOWNED TREE IN
            THE GATEWAY ROAD AREA OF COLUMBUS.

******************

0201 PM     TSTM WND DMG     2 S HAMILTON            32.73N 84.88W
10/13/2011                   HARRIS             GA   911 CALL CENTER

            HARRIS COUNTY 911 RELAYED REPORTS OF 6-10 DOWNED TREES
            ALONG THE AREAS OF HWY 219 AND HWY 103.

******************

0207 PM     TSTM WND DMG     3 NE WAVERLY HALL       32.72N 84.71W
10/13/2011                   HARRIS             GA   911 CALL CENTER

            HARRIS COUNTY 911 RELAYED A REPORT OF A DOWNED TREE ON
            ALABAMA ROAD.

******************

0230 PM     HAIL             2 S TALBOTTON           32.65N 84.54W
10/13/2011  E0.50 INCH       TALBOT             GA   911 CALL CENTER

            TALBOT COUNTY 911 REPORTED SMALL HAIL...JUST SMALLER THAN
            A DIME...AT THE 911 CENTER SOUTH OF TALBOTTON.