Scribbles from a Scribe: tornadoes

Showing posts with label tornadoes. Show all posts

Sunday, February 28, 2021

Spring is around the corner - and for Tornado Alley residents, that means "be prepared"

I spent decades as a newspaper reporter and still do freelance pieces on occasion - including the one I'm sharing below for those who do not have a subscription to the paper in which it appeared. I'm doing it as a public service, since it includes information on safety and preparation for the possibility of severe weather. Prepare a safety plan that works for you...

Duration 3:40

Timelapse video shows strength of Kansas EF-4 tornado

(FILE VIDEO) Timelapse video shows the development and strength of an EF-4 tornado that tore through Kansas on Tuesday, May 28, 2019. BY FLATLANDERS/@FLATLANDERSTV

While the recent record-shattering invasion of arctic air may be still fresh on many people’s minds, some meteorologists are taking a closer look at what spring will be like.

What they’re seeing is a bit unsettling: the atmospheric conditions across the northern hemisphere for this spring closely resembles 2007 and 2011 – years that produced rare EF5 tornadoes, the strongest on the Enhanced Fujita Scale used to measure the strength of twisters.

A record 216 tornadoes touched down from Canada to Texas on April 27, 2011, including four EF5s. The outbreak claimed 348 lives. A month later, another EF5 tornado swept through Joplin, Mo., killing 161 people and injuring more than 1,000 in the deadliest single tornado in the U.S. since records began officially being kept in 1950.

In Kansas, a tornado nearly 2 miles wide essentially wiped Greensburg off the map on the night of May 4, 2007, killing 11 people and injuring almost 70 others. The tornado was the first EF5 recorded under the revised Fujita Scale and the last tornado in the state to earn the scale’s highest rating.

That history is what makes some Kansas officials nervous about 2021.

“I’m definitely concerned about what this storm season has in store for us,” said Keri Korthals, emergency management director for Butler County, which was hit by the last F5 in Kansas prior to Greensburg, on April 26, 1991.

That tornado killed 17 people – 13 of them in the Golden Spur Mobile Home Park – and led to the creation of an emergency management department in Butler County.

“Historically in Kansas, it seems like our weather likes to lull us into complacency before bringing out the big sticks,” Korthals said in an email response to questions. “It gives us a string of mild seasons that make us forget how bad it can get, and then…”

Last year was astoundingly quiet for Kansas and Tornado Alley as a whole. Only 17 tornadoes touched down in the Sunflower State in 2020, the lowest total in more than four decades.

For the first time since official records began 70 years ago, not a single tornado touched down in the 26 counties of southeastern Kansas included in the warning area of the Wichita branch of the National Weather Service. Not only were there no tornadoes, there were no tornado watches issued by the Wichita office.

To put the sleepy 2020 in perspective, Kansas has averaged 94 tornadoes a year over the past decade and 89 over the past 30 years. The Sunflower State hadn’t logged such a low tornado total since 14 in 1976 and 16 in 1977.

“I’ve heard multiple people use the phrase ‘we’re so overdue,’” Korthals said. “And that makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck a little bit, wondering if we’re to the ‘big stick’ year yet.”

The record-setting cold spell that began to finally ease last weekend “isn’t helping that prickly feeling,” she said.

“And given that we’re still in our COVID response phase, that makes it even more unsettling, since that adds an extra layer of difficulty to sheltering, responding and so on if we do have a bad season,” Korthals said.

A DIFFERENT VIEW

Despite the correlations to years that produced rare top-of-the-scale tornadoes, AccuWeather is not predicting an unusually active year for Kansas. Instead, just as in 2011, the southeastern U.S. is projected to see a surge in tornado totals.

High pressure linked to drought in the southwestern U.S. will spread into western Kansas this spring, pushing storm systems east of Kansas, said Paul Pastelok, a long-range forecaster for AccuWeather.

“There may not be a lot of precipitation for your area when the fronts come through,” Pastelok said in an email response to questions. “I am leaning toward Dixie Alley, rather than Tornado Alley, this spring. Moist air from the Gulf of Mexico may have a hard time consistently reaching back into the Plains this spring.”

A CAUTION AGAINST COMPLACENCY

But forecasters and emergency management officials caution against complacency in Kansas. All it would take is “one big one” to hit a populated area and make this year a bad one, said Jeff Hutton, warning coordination meteorologist for the Dodge City branch of the National Weather Service.

“I would bet it will be plenty active in Kansas as far as severe weather,” Hutton said in an email response to questions. “For the number of tornadoes? That will all be completely dependent on each individual severe weather day. There is no scientific skill in predicting that number.”

There was no shortage of strong thunderstorms in Kansas last year, Hutton said. What was missing were the final ingredients needed to initiate tornadoes.

Sedgwick County Emergency Management Director Julie Stimson urged residents to not take tornado season lightly.

“The thought of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes is not on the forefront of many minds,” Stimson said in an e-mail response to questions. “With the recent cold weather and on-going pandemic, the thought of a tornado striking the area is an unnerving thought — exactly why we must begin preparing now.

“We have already seen major tornado events in the U.S. in the midst of the pandemic, demonstrating the urgency to prepare simultaneously to the threat of severe weather while continuing COVID precautions,” she said.

Kansas will observe Severe Weather Awareness Week this week, Stimson said, making this a good time to review what steps you’ll take in the event violent weather threatens.

This includes sorting out where to take shelter if you’re at work or school, updating your emergency supplies kit, and ensuring you have multiple ways of receiving emergency alert notifications — even during power outages.

HOW TO BE PREPARED

Now is a good time to review and safeguard important documents that can help start recovery right after a disaster:

Review and update insurance policies
Take photos of valuable belongings you may want to include in an insurance claim
Create a list of medications, allergies and medical equipment
Locate and safeguard birth certificates, passports and social security cards
Have current digital photos of loved ones readily available
Designate an out-of-town contact who might be able to help you reconnect with loved ones
Have a reserve cell phone charger
Create an emergency contact list.
Stay informed on current weather forecasts and conditions through local media, social media, and the National Weather Service-Wichita office website: https://www.weather.gov/ict/.
Because of COVID-19, stay current on advice and restrictions from your state and local public health authorities as it may affect your actions and available resources and facilities.
If you do have to evacuate to an emergency shelter, protect yourself and others by
- Practice social distancing from other people outside your household
- Follow local shelter COVID 19 precautions: wash hands often, cover coughs and sneezes and follow mask-wearing policies.
- Follow disaster shelter policies and procedures designed to protect everyone in the shelter, especially those who are at higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19, including older adults and people of any age who have serious underlying medical conditions.
- If you feel sick when you arrive at the shelter or start to feel sick while sheltering, tell shelter staff immediately
Source: Sedgwick County Emergency Management

Friday, May 18, 2012

Here's why you should get underground if at all possible if a tornado nears

This is footage of the waiting room at St. John's Hospital in Joplin on May 22, 2011. It was posted on the Joplin Globe's web site.....

It's jaw-dropping...

Sunday, May 6, 2012

It's been five years now since a massive tornado obliterated Greensburg, Kansas....

....this raw video shot by Lanny Dean that night - May 4, 2007 - shows the tornado's development and monstrous size. A caution for viewers - there's some adult language on it, and I'm not surprised given the gravity of what was unfolding.

A killer tornado in Japan

Speaking of tornadoes elsewhere in the world, here is video of a tornado that killed a teenager in Japan earlier today.

Storm chaser Reed Timmer reported Japan has had at least 16 tornadoes since 1950....many of them large and deadly.

Here is video of damage caused by that tornado.

Ach du lieber! A tornado near the Stuttgart airport

Yes, they have tornadoes in Europe, too. Here's one that touched down today near Stuttgart's airport.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Serious tornado threat for much of Kansas and Oklahoma Saturday

If you live in central and eastern Kansas or Oklahoma and have somehow missed the alerts, there's a very high risk of strong, long-tracked tornadoes striking Saturday.

Here's the Storm Prediction Center map outlining the danger:

Supercell thunderstorms figure to be isolated, but any tornadoes that develop are expected to be especially dangerous --- not just because of their intensity but because they'll be moving at 50 miles an hour or more. If you live in the areas shaded red, make tornado safety precautions now and be prepared to take shelter on short notice.

As fast as these tornadoes will be moving, there won't be much time to react. Weather officials haven't issued warnings this serious this much in advance since the deadly Deep South outbreak of April 27, 2011.

Weather researchers I know say this atmospheric set-up is very similar to April 26, 1991, when a significant outbreak produced numerous tornadoes in Oklahoma and Kansas. One of the tornadoes was an F5 that struck Haysville, south Wichita, McConnell Air Force Base and Andover. 17 people died.

What was likely an even stronger tornado touched down in Cowley County and killed one person.

Keep an eye on conditions Saturday and be prepared to take shelter.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

In Tornado Alley, the sky is our classroom.......

......Mother Nature is our instructor.

She is a demanding teacher
insisting attention to detail
if we are to reach her

and learn that day's lesson.

Every field trip is rich with learning
if we are willing to work
and not be blinded by yearning.

Seasoned eyes
can read stormy skies
like a road map as clear
as lines far and near.

Weather has rules
So say the fools
For storms do as they please
And that includes tease
Chasers scurrying on those tiny lines
like rogue ants eager to dine

on the feast that is a savage storm
from which tornadoes form.

Mesmerizing seduction.
Horrifying destruction.

Days of infamy
born from atmospheric symphony.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Video of the Henryville tornado

This was shot by Rhett Adams about a quarter-mile from the EF4 tornado's path. Viewer warning: His comments are laced with profanity.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Video of a tornado forming in a parking lot

This footage comes from a security camera... Folks are driving or walking through the parking lot literally seconds before the tornado forms. Amazing.

Tornado Formation - Watch More Funny Videos

Thursday, May 26, 2011

This is why all tornado warnings should be taken seriously

This video captures the formation and growth of the Joplin tornado. As you will be able to see, it goes from a harmless-looking rope to a massive wedge within a minute or two.

The Hoisington tornado in 2001 was like that, too; touchdown to monster in moments.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

An update on Joplin

The death toll is at 122...making it the deadliest tornado since 1950. The tornado was rated an EF5 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, the top category on the scale.

When you see this video, it's easy to understand why. That level of destruction reminds me of what I saw in Greensburg and Andover. So often when folks say someplace is "gone" after a tornado went through, it's heat-of-the-moment hyperbole.

But not this time.

The Weather Channel reporter breaks down on camera during this report, and I don't blame him.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

the Joplin tornado

A massive tornado has devastated Joplin tonight. The death toll is 24, and likely to climb higher. A Red Cross official has estimated 75% of the city has been damaged or destroyed.

Here's a video of the tornado, and you can tell it's a massive tornado:

Friday, April 29, 2011

Hell from the heavens

I wish I could say I've never seen anything like this before.......but life in Tornado Alley doesn't afford me that luxury.

Nevertheless, this collection of images from the devastation caused by the massive tornado outbreak Wednesday in the Deep South is worth perusing to bring home the degree of devastation....to remind us what's truly important.....and how quickly things can be taken from us and change forever.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Want to know why I pay so much attention to tornado threats?

Even though I frequently write about and have a fascination with tornadoes, I root against their development. I've climbed through too many piles of rubble, talked to too many victims (or their grieving loved ones) to feel any other way.

Tornadotainment has become big business on the cable networks, and it chews at me to see people cheer when monster tornadoes form. Here are a couple of videos shot of the Mapleton, Iowa, tornado last week that help illustrate why I'm relieved when threatening skies don't produce twisters....

And, yes, I was thrilled when the mushroom clouds of supercell thunderstorms fired up just east of Wichita this afternoon, meaning the city was spared from the threat of tornadoes on what was shaping up to be a violent day and night.

May everyone in Tornado Alley be spared the wrath of these storms.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

A night of near misses - and one that didn't

I found myself watching an episode of "Storm Chasers" on the Discovery Channel tonight. The series follows groups of storm chasers through spring in Tornado Alley...some trying to gather scientific data that will help researchers and meteorologists better understand tornadoes and the conditions that create them......and some just trying to capture video and photos that will draw large numbers of hits to their Web sites.

This particular episode struck close to home, because it was in late May in Kansas last year. The Friday before Memorial Day, when tornadoes touched down awfully close to Quinter - the small town next to I-70 in northwest Kansas where my oldest brother, Don, lives. I remember blogging about those tornadoes - one of which hovered in the sky and passed over I-70 and Quinter before finally touching down north of town. Talk about a close call....

Later that night, a tornado touched down in Kiowa County and seemed headed right for Greensburg...which had been decimated by an F5 tornado just the year before. Thankfully, it fell apart prior to reaching Greensburg.

Hearing the tornado sirens go off in the wrecked town that Greensburg largely remained was particularly chilling. As threatening as the clouds appeared, the poor souls of Greensburg had to be shaken to the core as those sirens blared, given what they had been through the previous May.

I was glad to see the researchers check out farm damage north of Quinter the next morning, to remind viewers of what tornadoes can do. There was something important missing from the episode, however: perhaps 50 miles east of Greensburg, on that stormy Friday night, a couple from Colorado was struck and killed by a tornado as they drove east toward Wichita. Driving through a storm in the dark, they probably never knew what hit them.

It would have been wise to mention the fatalities, to remind viewers what can happen when tornadoes strike.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

No tornado outbreak? That's a blessing, not a curse

I shake my head at folks who express disappointment that an expected tornado outbreak doesn't materialize.

Whether it's by e-mail, phone, text message, Twitter or Facebook (or even honest-to-goodness face-to-face conversations!), there isn't an event (or non-event, as it were) that goes by without someone griping about the fact that tornadoes didn't touch down. Or that if they did, the twisters were just short-lived wimps.

I celebrate such outcomes.

I guess I've climbed through too much rubble on too many farms and in too many towns, seen the faces of too many people sifting through rubble looking for loved ones or precious keepsakes, and interviewed too many survivors about what they went through to react any other way.

My fascination with thunderstorms and tornadoes has always been interlocked with an acute awareness of what they can do. I guess that comes from those times in my childhood when Dad would load us up in the car and take us to where that tornado we may have seen the day before struck; or simply seen and helped clean up the damage done to our own farmstead or a neighbor's. Our farm has been hit many times over the years, and I consider it a tremendous blessing that our house was spared each time - more than once via remarkable circumstances.

As far as I'm concerned, every "storm chase tour" should take its groups through a town or by a farm that's been hit, and talk to those cleaning up - so they can be reminded of the high price tornadoes can exact. The "tourists" may not like the "downer" that such a stop may produce, but it's a critical piece of perspective that everyone who has any level of interest in tornadoes needs to have.

I don't blame people for finding tornadoes so interesting - they are an incredible display of nature's raw power. One of the indelible qualities of watching a tornado in person is that time seems to stand still. No matter what vantage point you have, a personal encounter with a tornado (even if it's just as a distant witness) can make you feel mighty small. Powerless. Humbled.

But I cringe every time I hear chasers cheer whenever a tornado touches down. It tells me they've lost the proper perspective. That invariably diminishes them, and it's destructive to the important work of learning about tornadoes so we can better protect ourselves, our livelihoods and those we love.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Foreshadowing? Or merely symbolism?

I had a rather vivid dream last night. I was among a group of people helping a friend clean out her garage in rural Butler County when I happened to glance out the open garage door and notice a large tornado on the ground.

No one else had said a word, and I was amazed a tornado that big had gotten that close to us without anyone noticing. It was an unattached garage, and her house seemed too far away to go for shelter. I found myself telling people to take cover - but having no idea where they (or even I) should go.

As a last resort, I told people to grab cushions from an old couch pushed against a far wall, and shelter our heads with them after we'd squeeze between the couch and the wall. It wasn't much, but it was about the best I could do.

I woke up before we had hunkered down behind the couch, so I don't know what happened next. With news that tornadoes are possible in southern Kansas on Tuesday, I find myself wondering if it's a premonition of sorts (no, I won't be cleaning anyone's garage tomorrow) or simply a metaphor for something else.

I suppose I could do some dream analysis by tapping into some online resource, but I won't bother. At least not tonight. Sleep beckons, and I wouldn't be surprised if Tuesday's a busy day for me...especially if that forecast proves to be accurate.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

The last time a tornado touched Wichita

Meteorologists had been warning that this could be a dangerous night for storms, but it didn't feel like it.

Not until I left the newsroom for an awards banquet early on that first Monday in May a decade ago now. After a rather warm, tranquil day, the air suddenly felt super-heated and oh, so sticky.

It didn't have the same swirling, unsettled feel as April 26, 1991, when my first reaction to stepping outside in the morning was "Uh-oh." But that hot, humid surge was enough for me to abandon any thoughts that the forecasters had whiffed with their words of warning.

Tornadoes had already touched down in Oklahoma by the time I headed to the banquet, and I kept my acceptance remarks to little more than "Thank you," and a hasty departure to monitor the increasingly stormy conditions.

After the banquet, I headed to a housewarming party in south Wichita for a couple from my parish. They were newcomers to Kansas, and didn't know what to make of all this talk about tornadoes.

"Should we be scared?" Kathleen asked me.

"No," I told her, "just alert and aware."

I had rolled down a window on the drive over to Marty and Kathleen's house on South Waco to stave off the stifling heat and humidity. I was in such a hurry to be there when we presented them with their housewarming gift that I left the windows down on my blue Corsica.

I didn't realize that until it began to rain - and rain hard. I dashed out to my car and shut the windows, but by the time I made it back inside my suit was soaked. I think I made some comment about being grateful that I wasn't related to the Wicked Witch of the West, but the jokes ended when huge hail stones began pounding the ground...the pavement.....my car....and other vehicles parked along the street. Many of the stones were at least the size of baseballs, and I was torn between wincing at what hail stones that large meant - we were being pummeled by a dangerous storm - and marveling at what nature was unleashing.

"Our neighbors have a basement," Kathleen said. "Shouldn't we go over there?"

They had young children, including an infant, and I recoiled at the thought of what might happen if one or more of those large hail stones hit them.

"Not with it hailing like this," I said. "I think you'd be safer staying here - at least for now."

Almost before we knew it, the television and radio were reporting that a tornado was on the ground and it was moving through Haysville. I found myself studying the radar for the track of the tornado, searching for the textbook hook echo that betrayed its location.

We talked about pulling a mattress off a bed to cover Kathleen and the children, but there were a lot of people still at the gathering, and I wasn't sure what the rest of us would do for protection. I knew an interior room away from windows was best, and we discussed what else we might use to shield ourselves from debris.

I'm sure the tornado sirens went off, but I never heard them. We should have already been "in safety positions," but I found myself watching the radar and hoping the tornado would miss us. It had hit Haysville and moved into south Wichita...and was shifting to the east, away from where we were.

If it had stayed on its original course as it moved through Haysville and came up Broadway in Wichita, it may have hit where we were. But it shifted course at I-235 and began moving northeast. We were safe.

Except for Kathleen and her children, I don't think any of the rest of us took cover. As soon as I heard the tornado had lifted, I called the office, told them I would be coming in - but first I wanted to go home and change clothes. I was still sopping wet.

A long night followed as we began piecing together details of the devastation. It would be morning before I realized how badly dented my car had been by the large hail stones. But that was an afterthought as I made my way to Haysville to help cover the destruction there.

What would be remembered as the Haysville/Wichita tornado killed 6 people and injured dozens more. I remember it as the tornado I look back on and think "I wish I'd handled that differently."

Our housewarming gift for Marty and Kathleen that night was a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. As one member of our party later put it, we must have been protected by a higher power. I'm not about to disagree with them.

Friday, December 26, 2008

A nighttime drive through the country

With rain and snow in the Saturday morning forecast, I decided to come out to central Kansas Friday night to avoid the possibility of hazardous driving conditions. Of course, that meant driving at night on an unseasonably warm - and awfully windy - night, which offers its own challenges....chief among them deer stirred by the warm weather and semi-trailer trucks wobbling in the howling winds.

I prayed a rosary as I started out, something I like to do for any trip of consequence. It calms me and helps clear my mind for the drive. The last red wisps of sunset were glazing the western horizon as I left Wichita, and before long I was reminded how dark it gets in the rural areas at night - especially, it seems, on winter nights.

There are no bright city lights to pierce the darkness, only pinholes offered by distant stars. My preferred route to the family farm steers me clear of Hutchinson so that I can save time. At night, Hutchinson glows like a dome in the distance, almost like a hovering spaceship of civilization in the cosmos.

I couldn't help but think of outer space as I drove. Wisps of fog clung to the ground in strands, and they'd rush past my car like swooping ghosts. With little but the nighttime sky in front of me I imagined being the captain of a federation starship penetrating the outer bands of a distant galaxy as I pushed west on Trail West Road in Reno County.

It was only a little after 7 p.m. when I reached Partridge, a speck on the map just south of U.S. 50, but already the town was bedding down for the night. Few lights flickered in the town, and I imagined its residents settling in on a quiet Friday night, still basking in the holiday spirit. I found myself reflecting on how every home in a small town seems more important to its neighbors than in a big city, if for no other reason than because there are so few of them.

I expected more traffic on U.S. 50 between Hutchinson and Stafford, but there wasn't much. Noting the signs reporting that Macksville and St. John were coming up, my thoughts turned to Tim Buckman, the law enforcement officer who was killed on this very road not too many miles west of where I was at the moment. He was driving to Macksville on the night of May 4, 2007, to warn them of an approaching tornado when he was blindsided by a second tornado and blown into a field on the north side of the highway.

Ever since then, I haven't been able to make the turn from U.S. 50 onto U.S. 281 without reflecting on how close tornadoes came to decimating the nearby towns of Belpre, Macksville and St. John on the same night an EF5 obliterated Greensburg. Those towns would have been hit late at night, when folks were bedding down for the night - a mood not unlike what I was sensing on my drive tonight.

My thoughts then turned to our family Christmas gathering on Saturday. Several - though not all, by any means - of us will be there...though it's still hard to believe Dad won't be part of it. This will be our third Christmas without him, but I'm still amazed at how fresh losing him feels at times. I grasp completely what those who have suffered similar losses told me for years: You never really get over it, you just figure out how to deal with it over time.

Holidays are natural milestone moments, when families and loved ones gather to celebrate. Inevitably, such times reveal how lives are changing: New additions through marriages and births, aching losses through such events as deaths, divorces or break-ups. It's easy - perhaps human nature - to focus more on the losses or what we don't have that we'd like to. But I know that's not what the child born in Bethlehem would want us to do.

The last few miles into Larned went quickly, perhaps because I found myself watching keenly for any deer that might dart in front of me. Thankfully, the hotel hadn't mangled my reservation, and now it's me who's settling in for the night.

Morning will be here soon enough.