…for not posting to my very own blog lately. Because of that, you deserve a little update from Wyoming.

Since my last posting in early April, many things have happened. I graduated from Central Wyoming College with another degree. I lost my job running the college radio station because of that (bad timing, that…), which I have been doing for over three years. Sadly, my professor, boss, and good friend Dale Smith, after becoming blind due to complications from chemotherapy, spent the last few weeks of the semester in the hospital, getting out the day of graduation. He also had his job at the college changed from electronic media to humanities by the CWC powers that be. He’s doing better health wise, but I’m concerned for him as a friend, and will check with him regularly to see how he is doing.

The day after graduation, the wife and I and grandson loaded up a 5 by 8 Uhaul trailer for my daughter, and left for a cross country trip from central Wyoming, to Nashville, Tennessee, where she was moving. A nice leisurely trip there, got her unpacked and moved in, and then drove south to Birmingham, Alabama to visit family there that we hadn’t seen since our move to Wyoming in 2000. We spent 3 days there, had a wonderful visit, and still with the Uhaul in tow, headed west to Dallas, Texas…actually Plano, which is the northern boundary of the huge DFW metroplex. In Plano, we visited my mom and sister, and wife’s dad and step mom and brother. Stayed there for about 5 days, and then with the Uhaul loaded with tools from my late dad’s workshop, (which I spent 2 days cleaning out for mom) and a few pieces of furniture, we headed back north, home to Wyoming.

Then things got exciting. This was the day that the huge tornado hit in northeastern rural areas of Denver. We had spent the nite before in Raton, New Mexico, and had just hit Colorado City, and the rest area there for lunch, when I got a call from a good friend, whom we had just visited the day before in Ft. Worth, as we were leaving the DFW area. He was watching the news and weather, and got the news about the Denver twister forwarded to me by cell phone. In Colorado City, I couldn’t find any wifi for a net connection, so we headed north to Colorado Springs, the home of Cheyenne Mountain and Peterson Air Force Base. Got off the highway there, checked the McD to see if it had wifi…nope. Then, having spent several nites in various Super 8 hotels across the country the last two weeks, found one on the west side of the interstate…and yes, wifi.

I got on, hit weather.gov, and then the Denver area radar and Nexrad. Holy crap…the storm cell system I was seeing in real time was the WORST storm system I’d ever seen, as far as having to personally deal with it Real Soon Now, by having to get through it to get home. The super cell that hit Windsor, Colorado, was in an anti-cyclonic rotation, and was moving counter clockwise, and heading towards Laramie, Wyoming, which was our connection from 287 to Interstate 80, and places west. Warnings were posted in the Denver forecast page of the current storm, tornado, damage, direction, and so forth, and it just didn’t look good for us.

We heard on the radio about the storms and damage, and decided to take Highway 287 up through Fort Collins..getting of Interstate 25 asap. That took a while to get to, and just as we got through town, and about to get on the highway itself north of Fort Collins, the highway was shut down due to a bus and semi accident. We got detoured through the little town of Laporte to the east, and hit the highway AGAIN, north of the major accident.

All was going well for about 20 minutes. Then, we started seeing a lot of snow on the sides of the road…LOTS of snow. Next, we started seeing vehicles heading south from the summit on 287, with what looked like snow on their front bumpers and windshields. Weird. The skies to the north and east were astoundingly stormy and dark. Sunset was approaching quickly, and the storm clouds hastened the effect. Just then, I realized that what we were seeing on the sides of the road wasn’t snow…but HAIL….INCHES of it. Totally blew me away.

As we kept heading north on 287, it started raining lightly, and soon quite moderately. Within moments, the medium pouring rain was joined by small snow pellets that exploded quietly on the windshield of our car. As it got heavier and darker, the snow pellets turned to pea sized hail…and then to actual snow…and then to VERY heavy snow. The road conditions were deteriorating the closer we got to the summit, and the rain slick roads become ice slicked and then slushy fairly quickly. A group of cars, trucks, and a couple of semi’s (with us in the middle of the convoy) kept plugging along, at about 20 miles an hour, all of us with flashers blinking into what literally turned into a blizzard.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, we hit the crest, and started down the miles long hill that led down into the south side of Laramie. Strangely, it was dark…where it wasn’t supposed to be. Seems that the supercell from Denver/Windsor, dropped another tornado, which tore up some houses and a couple of farms, and took out a few hundred blocks of power. We stopped at the Flying J truckstop to gas up, cleaned the snow and ice off the front of the car and the trailer, and hit the road on I-80. The snow, sleet, and rain stopped about 20 miles west of town, and from there on home, it was very dark, and very cold. Throughout the last 200 miles of our trip, from Laramie to Riverton, the roadway was clear and safe, but the sides of the road held quite a bit of storm passage…meaning snow as far as the eye could see…all the way to Beaver Rim, and halfway down that 9 degree grade of that steep hill.

We arrived home around 3:30am, dragged ourselves in, and went to bed.

It took us a week to recover from that 3600 mile trip. Holy crap we were tired.

Since returning home on May 23, we’ve been busy working on getting ready to move into a new apartment in town, packing boxes, cleaning our storage unit out, and doing a lot of computer work.

And, oh yes, SUMMER college classes…Society and Self from U. Wyo, History and Statistics from CWC. 10 credit hours during the summer session.

THAT’s what we’ve been doing since April.

More to be added later…including some great news about the SurvivalRing website project.

Rich

Today is Wednesday, April 11, 2007. It is three days after the 9th anniversary of the April 8th, 1998 tornadic storms that tore through north Central Alabama in the evening of the 8th.

I was there. I was involved. I had family hurt. I had friends hurt. I knew people that were killed in the storm. I knew people that were some of the first responders to the scene. I was involved in helping with recovery that was needed for months after.

It was a horrible evening. Tornadoes had been mentioned in the weather for days before this day. All day, on the radio, and in all the newscasts from early morning throughout the day…it was mentioned that possibility was high for “severe tornadoes” later in the day.

At the time, I was a letter carrier in Bessemer, Alabama, and had been for years. I lived in rural Tuscaloosa county, just a couple of miles south of the beginning of this terrible event, and very close to the Jefferson County line.

I had been home for less than two hours when the storms started to move in. I was online watching live radar and reports from multiple weather websites. I had my police scanner on, scanning, and plugged into the computer’s speakers.

And then…it started. Oak Grove High School was one of first building to be destroyed…with many people inside…but no deaths there..that started minutes later.

Read more here at my Tornado Survival website.

It was a nightmare…it still brings nightmares. Police and firemen just arriving…reporting in as first on scene…and hearing “there are bodies on the road”…just a few miles from my home…and my wife and kids SOMEWHERE out on the road, heading home from church that evening.

This is just MY observations of that terrible day.

There have been others…in this same time of the year…early Spring…first couple of weeks of April..which is why I write this post today.

In fact, yesterday, April 10th, was the 28th anniversary of the Wichita Falls, Texas tornadic storm system that saw thirteen twisters wreak havoc in the region, with direct hits of Wichita Falls.

From the Texas Tornadoes website, created by the meteorology department of Texas A&M University, this quote says it all..

“The Wichita Falls Tornado is the tornado event that occurred on April 10, 1979. This tornado was the most notable of thirteen tornadoes that ripped through the Red River Valley on the day commonly called “Terrible Tuesday” by many meterologists.”

Here’s an image of the twister that did the most damage to the city, from the NOAA photo library.

A very early summer storm, the Pampa F5 tornado of June 8th, 1995, was one of the best storms ever captured up close of the fury of 250-300 mile an hour winds, with trucks and cars being clearly seen tossed hundreds of feet in the air end over end. You can watch a short, tiny clip here…

Another early summer storm was the Jordan, Iowa tornado of June 13, 1976, considered by Professor T. T. Fujita, developer of the Fujita Scale, to be the most violent he had ever studied. A college thesis by John Brown on a portion of this storm has tremendous detail of the particulars of this storm, including images and a ton of pure weather data about the event and events leading up to it. What was particularly interesting of this tornadic system was development of twin tornadoes, one an F5 with normal rotation, and another F3 twister that was antic-cyclonic (rotating the wrong direction), that developed from the same mesocell and traveled in parallel on the ground for a period of time. The original funnel was a multi-vortex twister, and from what I can understand, the second tornado seemed to develop from one of these vortexes, and then take on a life of its own. Read the report, view the images, and be glad you don’t see these everyday.

There is a vast amount of scholarly information on this storm system that amazed even Fujita, available through Google’s library system

Every meteorologist and weather geek either remembers the Super Outbreak of April 3/4, 1974…33 years ago, as of a week ago. Perhaps the wost hit area of the country during that fateful few hours was Xenia, Ohio was an F5 storm - track length 32 miles - 33 killed - over 1,150 injured - watch a video clip here. A pilot, one Mr.Robert Schwarts, had an amazing tale to share of this day…

From http://www.xeniatornado.com/pilot.htm

On april 3 1974 I was flying in a twin engine airplane which when we left Louisville Kentucky. (actually from Haps airport in Jeffersonville In. ) we studied the weather and found it strange. We delayed our trip for about one and one/half hours before deciding to go ahead and go up to Mad River Ohio to install a radio in an airplane so we could fly it back to Jeffersonville for repairs. We were almost to Cincinnati when everything went crazy. the instruments went crazy and the lights went out. we were blind as It turned pitch-black outside and the plane actually started flying backwards and we could feel ourselves being bounced to the overhead and then thrown to the dash then back against the seat. We had no control of the plane. Our radio was nothing but noise and we could not get through to the Cincinnati airfield. Our transponder was out also. Finally the air control answered our emergency call and had us make a try at turning 90 degrees after we maintained some control of the plane. They said there was so much debris in the air they could not find us. Finally they had us make another turn and they said that they thought they had us. It was still pitch black and we could not see anything. They maneuvered us several times and confirmed they had us. They told us to make a 90 and corrected us as our instruments meant nothing. They told us to continue as fast as we could to our destination. They said to drop in altitude several times and finally after following their directions they said we should see the end of the runway (NOW) and sure enough we broke through the clouds and we were 10 feet off the runway when we broke through the blackness. As we landed we rushed to the hanger and tied the plane down. 5 Minutes later the radio announced that the tornado was tearing through Xenia Ohio. This was quite a trip and hope that anyone caught in a tornado like that has the opportunity to tell his tale. I was very lucky. My Brothers business In Louisville was hit bad and he was almost wiped out. What an EXPERIENCE.. Survivor of one of the most harrowing experiences.”
“We flew over as close to Xenia as we could do to the restrictions about flying over a disaster area and saw the destruction. It was something to see and We did not have a camera with us so could not take pictures but saw the circle drives with the scattered wood and destroyed houses caught in the path of natures fury. We were thankful to those great guys way down in Cincinnati airport (actually in Kentucky) for their patience and knowledge to be able to direct us so accurately to our destination. The letter was getting so long I broke it up. Thanks again for the pictures . These are the first ones I have seen from Xenia.” Robert Schwartz

A few weeks from now will be the tenth anniversary of the May 27th, 1997 Jarrell, Texas F5 storm that killed many, in one of the worst tornadoes to ever hit Texas.

In 3 weeks, we’ll see the 8th anniversary of one of the strongest tornadoes ever measured in history…the F5 storm that struck the Oklahoma City area with 76 confirmed tornadoes in Oklahoma and Kansas, which put the outbreak in the top 10 for number of tornadoes in the U.S.

There are so many more stories…so many more storms…so many more personal observations. It’s a good time to take an hour or two to review what spring storm systems can occur near you, how you can be aware of threatening weather, and what you need to do should storms bear down on you and your family.

A look at the nation’s current weather at www.weather.gov right at this moment near Atlanta, with one warning nearby. A click on this link, bookmarked on your computer, can give you instant access to severe storms near you.

Here in Wyoming we’re in the beginning stages of a snow storm of historical possibilities…biggest spring snow storm in years….

But, the entire midwest is also getting hit with all kinds of OTHER weather…

Be Careful Out There!

Rich

My thanks for Morgan of GlobalIncidentMap.com for this forward…

In the midst of a tornado outbreak …

James Bryant, Meteorologist, The Weather Channel 34 minutes ago

Severe thunderstorms, including several that are unleashing twisters, have exploded over the western High Plains. More than 45 tornadoes have been reported during the evening hours. These big and dangerous storms will persist into early tomorrow as they coalesce into one or more squall lines with a threat of heavy rain. The area under greatest threat extends from south-central Nebraska southward into West Texas. But isolated nasty storms have blossomed as far north as western South Dakota and as far south as the Rio Grande River in Texas. Isolated severe storms, primarily packing large hail, may also chimney up along a cold front in North Carolina, southwest Virginia and northeast Tennessee this afternoon and evening. Overnight, as an offshoot of the severe thunderstorms in the Plains, heavy downpours are expected to unload on parts of western Kansas, the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles, and the northern portions of West Texas. On Thursday the slow moving thunderstorms along the I-35 corridor will feature rounds of repeat severe thunderstorms with a real concern for excessive rainfall. Please don’t drive over flooded roadways or during flash flooding. You are better to turn around and don’t drown. In the Interior West, heavy wind-driven snow is plaguing a good chunk of the Rocky Mountain region. Heavy snow, winter and storm warnings and even are posted for much of southern Montana, most of Wyoming, a large area of Utah and the mountains of western Colorado. Blizzard warnings are in effect for a small portion of southeast Montana and northeast Wyoming where travel over I-90 and I-25 is extremely difficult if not impossible. Travel in the region is discouraged till the storm weakens late on Thursday. By the time the storm winds down late Thursday to early Friday, snowfall in some spots could reach three to four feet with drifts as high as a house. Heavy snow is currently being reported from Buffalo and Sheridan, Wyo., and winds have gusted as high as 60 mph.

This evening, I took my wife out on a date. This one we planned for a few days in advance. It was a fun evening…filled with facts, video, pictures, fun, laughs…and deadly serious work.

We both went to the Weather Spotter class held on our college campus here in Riverton, Wyoming, with Chris Jones of the National Weather Service (now a good friend after 3 years) leading a great evening of VERY educational information for folks who, among other things, just like to be part of an active community wanting to help their neighbors.

This spotter school is the second one I’ve taken (the first one was in Spring 2004), and was even better than the last time. The college class room was crowded, with close to 30 folks showing up from all over the county, and even some from neighboring counties.

The class earned Spotter cards, which contain the info we need to report troublesome weather in our area of the state. Most threats we’ll see here are occasion thunderstorms, outflow boundaries, a rare twister or two, straight line winds (86 miles an hour last August), flash flooding from spring runoff in the nearby Wind River Mountains, and the good old Wyoming winter weather.

A quick look at the web found the Skywarn homepage, the very interesting Storm Spotter Guides Online!, the National Weather Service Skywarn info page at Weather.gov, and more. Interested in looking for a local class? Click there and find your state, for a list of upcoming classes you can attend.

What does a Skywarn Spotter report?
Although all reports are welcome, the National Weather Service is particularly interested in the weather elements described below.

Do something good for yourself…and something good for your community. Become a certified weather spotter for your area.

Rich

While looking thru my weather bookmarks immediately after this weeks deadly tornado activity, I followed a path and found this national weather service page…didn’t even know it existed.

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/data/WNS/STAMTS

Click and view the page…

Basically it’s a NWS tornado history page. Look at the number at the very bottom of the 2004 column summary.

1819 tornadoes.

Then look at the summary totals for the years SINCE 2004.

So far this year, we’ve had around 151 tornadoes. In 2004, all the way thru March, there were only 62…SIXTY TWO. We’ve had nearly THREE TIMES the number of tornadoes in the same time period this year, than we did in 2004, one of the heaviest years of tornadic activity ever.

That means, this year, if the numbers hold anywhere NEAR the current stats we’re seeing…we may see more tornadoes THIS year…than we have EVERY seen in a single year.

This does not bode well..

See the page…print it out….crunch the numbers yourself.

Next, be sure to drop by the Online Tornado FAQ, sponsored by the NWS Storm Prediction Center, and written and updated by Roger Edwards of the SPC.

You’ll find a huge resource about tornadoes, including The Basics about Tornadoes, Tornado Forecasting,Tornado Damage, Tornado Safety, Historical Tornadoes, Tornado Climatology, Spotting & Chasing, Tornado Research, and Scientific References.

I will repeat…what has happened before, will happen again…

If your area has EVER had tornadic activity, YOU need to take action now to PREPARE for possible tornadoes affecting your life in the future.

Things have settled down a bit from this weeks storms, but now is a VERY good time to take a look around you, check your location for historical tornado activity, make a workable shelter plan, find a location in or near your home to shelter in times of tornado threat, and a whole series of other things. A good start would be to head to my Tornado Survival website, with my report about the 1998 monster F 5 storm that hit north central Alabama in Tuscaloosa and Jefferson counties on April 8th, 1998.

There, you will find first hand accounts, images of the aftermath, and resources you can use to get ready for the coming spring storm season. Be sure to get a weather alert radio IN YOUR HANDS as soon as possible. Check my SurvivalRing SurvivalGear store, or your local Radio Shack for handheld, pocket, home or car weather radios. Have one with you when storms are in YOUR forecast.

Don’t let your family down, by thinking it won’t happen to you. Eventually, it will. Be Prepared. Be safe…and HAVE A PLAN.

“Study Yesterday…Prepare Today…Live Tomorrow.”

Rich

I spent many years living in north central Alabama and we had our share of tornadic activity, in Tuscaloosa and Jefferson County. While Enterprise, Alabama is at the very bottom of the state, nearly all areas of Alabama are susceptible to tornado damage on a regular basis.

Between 1993 and 2000, we lived in Abernant, Alabama (bottom of the map…note Oak Grove at the top).

My family and I saw many funnel clouds, saw tornadoes hit north of us, west of us, south of us, and east of us. We saw rotating wall clouds move directly overhead. We were just a few miles south of the devastating April 8th, 1998 F5 tornado that started near Oak Grove, and stayed on the ground for over 31 miles, killing dozens in one of Alabama’s worst tornadic storms. Like Enterprise, the high school in Oak Grove was a direct hit, as seen in the NWS image below.

We have family members who lost everything except their lives, moments after the high school was hit, and their house was one of the next in the path, as the twister followed Warrior River Road to the east. Their home was completely destroyed, but miraculously, my wife’s cousin, in the house when it was struck, survived by seeking shelter in an inner closet.

Now, back to Enterprise…and the events of this week. Perhaps the best coverage, warnings, and dpcumentation to date of this storm came from James Spann of ABC33/40 in Birmingham, who was also on duty for the April 1998 tornado. Here is his website blog with info, damage pictures, pre storm warnings, and detailed weather analysis of the days weather..hours before it occured.

http://www.alabamawx.com/

I’d recommend that everyone take a few moments and read all the postings on that blog site on as soon as possible. Take the time to watch the video in the 3rd from the last post…hit the PREVIOUS POSTS link at the bottom of the page.

http://www.jamesspann.com/wordpress/?p=1139

Spann is a credit to the NWS, and Alabama meteorologists in general. His warnings and alerts for the April 8, 1998 F5, were spot on. The events of yesterday were foreseen for days before the actual storms boiled thru the areas. The smaller twisters that struck across the state yesterday were in areas I am very familiar with, and thankfully, they weren’t as deadly as the Enterprise storm.

Regarding the video…there are many technical explanations, that may leave some of you less geeky folks scratching your head, but note some of the references that Span makes about the extreme forecasts for the day…including the graphic of a 30% chance of tornadoes, for the central part of the state, meaning that there was a 30% chance of twisters within 25 miles of anyone in those areas….

Watching the video, you’ll also note and catch a glimpse of some weather modeling software he uses to describe the forecast for the day (before the storms happened), which shows all kinds of weather data. pause the video, and look at the map images with all the data on them…

Then take a look at this nearly free software…

http://www.nerdtests.com/software_animwx_register.php?awu

Less then $4…runs on your desktop, and if you have the concerns, can learn a lot more about weather by playing with the software. It pulls all data directly from the NWS….

When lives are in danger…use EVERY tool at your disposal to stay safe…and stay alive.

When it’s twisters or ‘canes….a little weather knowledege in your pocket can go a LONG way in helping.

Rich

The 1974 Super outbreak of tornadoes happened April 3/4th of that year.

A total of 148 tornadoes killed over 300 people in several states.

This year’s activity is peaking that of 1974…and we’re still a month away from the anniversary of the 1974 storms.

Be aware of your local weather. Have a plan…PRACTICE your Plan.

Be safe.

Rich