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The Kitchen Table

Severe weather hitting several states

ravencajun Zone 8b TX

11 years ago

It's not looking good at all for many states in the path of these terrible storms right now. I am hoping everyone is staying safe and will check in! The video coming out of Illinois is horrible. Looks very reminiscent of the Moore, Oklahoma tornadoes, a half mile wide is BIG!

Prayers going out to all in the path.

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Comments (5)

pkramer60
11 years ago
Towns and villages west and northwest of Chicago have been hit hard by wedge tornados. The town of Fairdale, pop. 2200 is wiped out, with one confirmed death, and may have more. Crews are going door to door looking for victims and offering help. Strangers are helping farmers round up their livestock, or are looking for pets.

I am well east of the storms path but we have been watcing the news and all the lighting the storm has generated. It was a wild night and we have been damn lucky that it missed the Ohare area. My friends in the area are all safe.

Please, set up a plan for weather emergancies. Although we are on the outer edge of Chicago, we have a plan to get us and the dog into the basement. Candles, battery radio, comfy chairs, a first aid kit and a crate. Cell phone and flashlights were at the ready if we need to take cover.
sjerin
11 years ago
Looks awful--how terrifying to go through one of those. What is a wedge tornado?
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We're at the northern end of tornado alley, so we get our fair share of them. We've got so much open space here, though, that the odds of them touching down in a heavily populated area are much more slim; they don't often hit the news outside of the province. Last summer, my in-laws were hit by a plough wind that lifted their large cattle barn roof right off the structure and flung it across the yard (news crew came and their clip made it to the national news that evening). Our own communication tower twisted and fell, just missing our house. The winds that night were nearly 100 km/h, if I recall. Lots of twisted grain bins in the ditches all over the area. When you're monitoring the live feed for Greg Johnson's storm chaser truck and he's headed pretty much for your property, though, it does rattle your nerves! We lost about half of our broccoli last summer with the storms, a little over 20 heads. The main stalks snapped right off, so there was no opportunity to recover. The rest were bent flat against the ground for a few days, but they eventually righted themselves and still produced, albeit moderately. Anything with a large leaf was hit hard by wind and hail - mainly squash/pumpkins, rhubarb and the beans. The pole beans were shredded the worst, but surprisingly recovered and managed to produce eventually. We thankfully had the pole structures braced really well. The tomatoes weathered things much better than I thought they would, as did the peppers. A lot of veggies that were flattened - literally into the mud - I thought I'd lost, then they would gradually right themselves. They're tougher than you think!
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bumping this down the page Hope everyone made it through Monday with as little damage as possible.
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A few minutes ago TWC updated Dr. Forbes' TorCon Index, changing the '6' previously assigned to Western/Southern OK to Western/Central OK, so I wanted to note that change here. The TorCon Index updates throughout the day, so I've linked it below so anyone who is interested can check it as needed. I believe TWC's Great Tornado Hunt 2012 team plan are here in Oklahoma today again since this is where they're most likely to find the severe weather they're seeking. I don't know if those of you with plant damage from yesterday would be better off pruning off damaged foliage today or not. You might want to leave it on the plant to help protect still undamaged portions of your plants in case more severe weather hits your area today. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: TWC's TorCon Index
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Lisa, Lucky you! Guess who was even luckier? We were! We had lightning for a couple of hours, pretty rowdy winds blowing in the 30s and 40s for a little while, and a minute or two of rain. After the weather radio went off numberous times between midnight and 2 a.m., and the county set off the fire pagers to repeat the warnings, I got up and tracked the storm on the radar on my computer, and to me, it looked like it hit state Hwy 32, which runs east-west, and followed it more or less straight into Marietta, leaving alone those of us in the southern part of the county. I am sure the northern half of our county got it because I listened to the county's emergency radio channel as sherriff's deputies, firefighters, Marietta police officers and storm spotters/storm chasers watched and reported what they were seeing, and I heard reports of rain and hail, but it missed us. How funny it is---last year, as the storms repeatedly missed us, I was very frustrated. This time, when this storm missed us, I was just relieved. There's a thunderstorm popping up in NW Love County right now, roughly in the same area that got hit last night, but it is a long way from us and I hope it stays away. Dawn
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dees_1
11 years ago
A wedge tornado is one where to visible funnel is wider (across) than the height of the actual funnel. Literally, wedge shaped. They are not uncommon and usually occur with a large shelf cloud.

I am originally from the Chicago area and still have friends and family there so I keep my eyes on the weather. The wedge is getting all the news but there was one in Marengo as well. Those storms were awfully scattered.
ravencajun Zone 8b TX
Original Author
11 years ago
We are getting the ugly thunderstorms and heavy rain here in the Houston area today. And supposedly tomorrow also and most of the week. I did not need more of this heavy rain with my roof leaking as badly as it is now. I will be so happy when the new roof is on! But thankfully we are not dealing with those kinds of disasters.
sjerin
11 years ago
Thanks, dees--that is interesting and I didn't notice that on the news this morning. Raven, I hope you have a good tarp on your roof! Stay safe.

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