That's a big ass storm!

Muad Dib · Oct 26, 2010

Fall Fury: Storm Timeline & Impacts
by Jonathan Erdman, Editorial Meteorologist

Updated: October 26, 2010 3:00 pm ETA powerful storm that is raking high winds, severe t-storms, and, yes, even wet snow in parts of the Midwest and South.

Meteorologists know this is an intense storm due to lowest central pressure of the low in Minnesota bottoming out in the neighborhood of 955-960 mb.

This is a storm stronger than the infamous "Edmund Fitzgerald" storm in Nov. 1975 and an even stronger version almost exactly 23 years after that in Nov. 1998.

In fact, its central pressure is now a record low pressure for a U.S. non-tropical land-based system! The central pressure not only beat the infamous Superstorm of 1993, but also nudged by the "Cleveland Superbomb of 1978"! Its pressure is also lower (stronger) than the last 4 hurricanes of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season.
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Bulldog · Oct 26, 2010

I'm sure Storm has a rather large rear-end.

Dan Leach · Oct 26, 2010

Want to see this from space,... come on ISS dudes, get the cameras out

Ward · Oct 26, 2010

Bulldog said: ↑

I'm sure Storm has a rather large rear-end.
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Fortunately, it won't be hard to climb above.

Bulldog · Oct 26, 2010

His Twitter feed is full of scary pictures.

Muad Dib · Oct 26, 2010

We had a whopper of a storm here about 8 AM yesterday morning. A number of buildings damaged and a shitload of trees broken or uprooted.

Looks like we're in for another.

shootER · Oct 26, 2010

Bock said: ↑

Bulldog said: ↑

I'm sure Storm has a rather large rear-end.
Click to expand...

Fortunately, it won't be hard to climb above.
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Bulldog · Oct 26, 2010

A tornado watch just to our west...could get interesting here later

Muad Dib · Oct 26, 2010

Huge storm system rampages eastward

By Cameron Tankersley and Phil Gast, CNN
October 26, 2010 9:13 p.m. EDT

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Northern Alabama and North Carolina hit Tuesday night
A U.S. low-pressure record may have been broken
Up to 200,000 customers lose power, many of them in Indiana, northern Illinois, Ohio
Emergency official: "We're having to batten down the hatches"

(CNN) -- Hours after it spawned 21 possible tornadoes, mostly in the Midwest, a giant storm system stretched Tuesday night from Alabama to Maryland, bringing new watches and warnings.

The system unleashed its wrath on several communities in northern Alabama and North Carolina on Tuesday night. At one time, it had stretched a staggering 1,200 miles from north to south,

Deputies were assessing damage near the town of Geraldine in DeKalb County, Alabama, and in Marshall County, said Lauree Ashcom, spokeswoman for the Alabama Emergency Management Agency. Marshall includes the lake resort city of Guntersville.

Downed trees are making it difficult to reach residents and determine any injuries, said DeKalb County emergency official Michael Leath. "We're having to batten down the hatches for another system coming in."

Storm damage was reported in Lincoln County, North Carolina, and tornado watches were in effect for several counties near Charlotte. A tornado watch was in effect for Washington until 3 a.m. Wednesday.

Wind, rather than flooding, appeared to be the biggest danger, with gusts exceeding 70 mph in some places. The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center said there were 258 reports of wind damage by mid-evening Tuesday. Nine tornadoes had been confirmed.

No deaths had been reported to state emergency officials by early evening.

The outlook deteriorated Tuesday evening for portions of the Tennessee Valley, with high winds and tornado-spawning conditions reported.

Extensive damage from the high winds and possible tornadoes was reported in a band from Minnesota to the Gulf Coast.

Six tornadoes were confirmed in Indiana, two in Ohio and another in Wisconsin.

Up to 200,000 residents lost electrical power.

Officials in Madison County in northern Alabama reported flooding and downed trees Tuesday evening. A tornado warning was issued in Pickens County. A tornado warning was issued near Chattanooga, Tennessee.

A tornado smashed into a business in LaPorte County, Indiana.

Dan Hill, general manager of Hoosier Machinery Solutions, heard a weather siren and went to check.

He turned to another employee after spying an odd cloud formation outside the business door. " 'Does that look like a tornado?' I asked. As soon as I said that, it touched down."

The twister tore a roof off a pole barn, damaged some reconditioned recycling equipment and employees cars. No one was hurt. The 10 employees "all ran for [heavy] equipment and got inside," Hill told CNN.

The system appears to have made weather history. Preliminary readings indicate that a new record was set for the lowest pressure in a nontropical storm in the mainland United States, said Chris Vaccaro of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The minimum central pressure of 28.22 inches of mercury was equivalent to the pressure of a major Category 3 hurricane, without the corresponding wind scale, he said. If confirmed, the reading would break the current record of 28.28 inches, set on January 26, 1978, during what became known as the Blizzard of 1978.

Storms caused extensive damage to buildings near Racine, Wisconsin, and Peotone, Illinois, Tuesday morning.

A Peotone youth who was with his brother at a farm that was damaged described to CNN affiliate WLS-TV in Chicago what it was like in the middle of the tempest.

"All of a sudden, the wind kicked up," Justin Schroeder said. He said the force of the wind "sent us back into the foyer about five feet. It was like a bomb went off. You didn't hear a tornado. You didn't hear a whistle. It was a like an explosion of glass."

Some experts told WLS that the storms might be the most powerful to hit Illinois in more than 70 years. The CNN Severe Weather Center reported the storm was moving quickly eastward at more than 50 mph.

The Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport reduced air traffic from three runways to one runway for landings and takeoffs Tuesday mid-afternoon because of high winds. About 50 flights had been canceled or delayed, a spokesman said.

O'Hare International Airport in Chicago reported that 500 flights had been canceled as of 3:35 p.m. Some delays were reported at Chicago Midway Airport. Indianapolis International Airport reported some delays for flights to Detroit, Michigan; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Cleveland, Ohio; and Minneapolis, Minnesota, while Detroit Metro Airport said most flights were on time with the most significant delays to O'Hare.

Indiana and Illinois each had at least 60,000 power outages and 38,000 were reported in Ohio. Other states reported smaller figures.

Gabrielle Torres and her husband experienced extreme weather in Corydon, Indiana.

"There were extremely strong winds that were even rocking my husband's semi-truck side to side," she said. "The tornado sirens were sounding but we could barely hear them over the pounding rain."

In St. Louis, Missouri, two reported partial building collapses were blamed on the extreme weather, according to Officer Donna Wisdom of the St. Louis Police Department. Video from CNN affiliate KSDK-TV in St. Louis showed downed trees, damage to homes and thick rubble on a sidewalk beside a building damaged in the storm. Wisdom said no serious injuries were reported from the partial collapses.

A National Weather Service damage assessment team confirmed that an tornado touched down near Somers, Wisconsin, causing two injuries.

Numerous uprooted trees, snapped and downed power poles and roof damage to several buildings was reported. Several parked tractor-trailers were also tipped over, according to the National Weather Service.

Severe thunderstorm warnings and tornado watches popped up throughout central Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee around midday Tuesday as the intense band of storms began to push through Indiana.

At least one tornado was reported to have severely damaged a house in Howard County, northeast of Kokomo, according to CNN affiliate WRTV in Indianapolis.

Witnesses gave accounts that underscored the fury of the storm. Several said they'd never seen anything like it.

CNN iReporter Trey Sturgeon, 23, of Connersville, Indiana, described the wind and rain as "a little bit scary."

"Where I live in Indiana, we don't get winds and possible tornadoes," said Sturgeon, a musician who was at home when he looked out the window to see the storm.

"The first thing I thought of was my family," he said.

"When the winds came, it was a lot more like a dense fog than rain -- from the wind pushing the rain sideways," he said.

"On a tree right down the road, a big tree limb was broken off and it blew across the street before it hit the ground, and we're talking maybe a 200-, 250-pound tree limb. There were reports on my police scanner of tree limbs falling and landing on power lines in the northern part of the county."

All 48 floors of the Chase Tower in downtown Indianapolis were evacuated briefly at the height of the storm, and occupants took refuge in the building's fallout shelter, WRTV reported.

"It was pretty bad up there," Nick Hoetmer, who works in the building, told WRTV. "The windows were moving back and forth, so it was nasty."

Power outages also were significant on the southern end of the storm front, though damages did not seem to be as pronounced, based on local observations.

Some schools closed early in the Memphis, Tennessee, area, where strong winds knocked trees into parked cars and power lines, according to CNN affiliate WMC-TV.
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Muad Dib · Oct 26, 2010

Great! My area is now under a tornado watch.

Forbin · Oct 26, 2010

Dan Leach said: ↑

Want to see this from space,... come on ISS dudes, get the cameras out
Click to expand...

http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/data/geo.html

frontline · Oct 27, 2010

y'all stay safe.

Elwood · Oct 27, 2010

We've been under tornado watches and warnings since mid-afternoon yesterday. It got really fun between 1900-2100 local.

Elwood · Oct 27, 2010

Great, two more tornado warnings. Evidently, whatever God or gods exist have decided that I only need sleep in two hour boxes.

ancharbro · Oct 27, 2010

Got pretty interesting here right around 1530. We had a touchdown about 50 yards from where I was standing, thankfully it was a small funnel. All kinds of trees broken/sheared around here. Gotta love the South!

Lanzman · Oct 27, 2010

Rained and blew hard most of the night here. We had a tornado watch until 0300. Nothing seems to have come of it, tho.

Muad Dib · Oct 27, 2010

Bah! What a disappointment.

It was raining last night when I went to bed and still raining this morning when I woke up. There wasn't any wind that I heard or heard of, however my power was off this morning.

Uncle Albert · Oct 28, 2010

Suddenly got damn cold and windy here the last couple of days.

My little vienna sausage can't withstand any more shrinkage.

oldfella1962 · Oct 28, 2010

HA! I don't care too much what it does around here......it sure beats that hot-ass summer we had.

Volpone · Oct 28, 2010

It has been cold and grey and wet and shitty out here for weeks now. This is the kind of weather people think Portland is like all the time. If I had to live in this shit I'd want to kill a hobo.

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That's a big ass storm!

Muad Dib Probably a Dual Deceased Member

Bulldog Only Pawn in Game of Life

Dan Leach Climbing Staff Member Moderator

Ward A Stepford Husband

Bulldog Only Pawn in Game of Life

Muad Dib Probably a Dual Deceased Member

shootER Insubordinate...and churlish Administrator

Bulldog Only Pawn in Game of Life

Muad Dib Probably a Dual Deceased Member

Muad Dib Probably a Dual Deceased Member

Forbin Do you feel fluffy, punk?

frontline Hedonistic Glutton Staff Member Moderator

Elwood I know what I'm about, son.

Elwood I know what I'm about, son.

ancharbro Fresh Meat

Lanzman Vast, Cool and Unsympathetic Formerly Important

Muad Dib Probably a Dual Deceased Member

Uncle Albert Part beard. Part machine.

oldfella1962 the only real finish line

Volpone Zombie Hunter

Log in or Sign up

That's a big ass storm!

Muad Dib Probably a Dual Deceased Member

Bulldog Only Pawn in Game of Life

Dan Leach Climbing Staff Member Moderator

Ward A Stepford Husband

Bulldog Only Pawn in Game of Life

Muad Dib Probably a Dual Deceased Member

shootER Insubordinate...and churlish Administrator

Bulldog Only Pawn in Game of Life

Muad Dib Probably a Dual Deceased Member

Muad Dib Probably a Dual Deceased Member

Forbin Do you feel fluffy, punk?

frontline Hedonistic Glutton Staff Member Moderator

Elwood I know what I'm about, son.

Elwood I know what I'm about, son.

ancharbro Fresh Meat

Lanzman Vast, Cool and Unsympathetic Formerly Important

Muad Dib Probably a Dual Deceased Member

Uncle Albert Part beard. Part machine.

oldfella1962 the only real finish line

Volpone Zombie Hunter

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