April 2024 - General Weather Discussion

[BG918]

Warm and windy through Wednesday before the next storm moves in late Wednesday. Best storm chances are Thursday and early Friday. Severe weather possible, will know more with the Monday model runs.

[soonerguru]

Do you understand the term PDS tornado? There were none of those yesterday. All the tornadoes that touched down were of the smaller size. There were no PDS tornadoes yesterday.

I’m calling this a partial bust because storms failed to initiate in their PDS tornado watch area over the majority of the area. There were supercells but they failed to organize any type of real tornado threat. If they just issued a standard tornado watch, I would say not a bust; however, that PDS tornado watch is a big darn deal. Not seeing anything pop up in that window is going to set up a boy-who-cried-wolf scenario. Remember, that’s already happened once before this season.

The rest of the day went as forecast. You had a major line of storms develop that had all major types of severe weather associated with it.

I'm sorry, but what?

The Sulphur tornado leveled the entire downtown with a high-end EF-3 tornado that tracked for 20 miles. There were at least three long-track tornadoes. I suspect they will "find" EF-4 damage. There were at least 27 tornadoes yesterday. Some of them were moving as fast as 50 mph. Four people were killed and dozens of others were injured.

Not sure I grasp your argument but yesterday ended up being a high-end tornado outbreak unlike we've seen in Oklahoma in years.

Yes, it was a particularly dangerous situation.

[TornadoKegan]

That is awful. Its amazing there weren't any fatalities there.

There has been one fatality in Sulphur i heard

[kukblue1]

I'm sorry, but what?

The Sulphur tornado leveled the entire downtown with a high-end EF-3 tornado that tracked for 20 miles. There were at least three long-track tornadoes. I suspect they will "find" EF-4 damage. There were at least 27 tornadoes yesterday. Some of them were moving as fast as 50 mph. Four people were killed and dozens of others were injured.

Not sure I grasp your argument but yesterday ended up being a high-end tornado outbreak unlike we've seen in Oklahoma in years.

Yes, it was a particularly dangerous situation.

I don't think the second watched the issued for the area east of I-35 was a PDS tornado watch though like the first one in Western Oklahoma that did have any PDS Tornadoes. I think that is the issue some are having.

[soonerguru]

I don't think the second watched the issued for the area east of I-35 was a PDS tornado watch though like the first one in Western Oklahoma that did have any PDS Tornadoes. I think that is the issue some are having.

Interesting. Thank you for pointing that out. Now that you mention it, I recall Damon Lane saying on air, "this is a new tornado watch, but not a PDS watch."

The issue that I was responding to was the suggestion that issuing a PDS watch was inappropriate, implying a bust in the forecast.

It just came a bit later, but we did get a major tornado outbreak with multiple violent tornados. It was a particularly dangerous situation.

[PhiAlpha]

Interesting. Thank you for pointing that out. Now that you mention it, I recall Damon Lane saying on air, "this is a new tornado watch, but not a PDS watch."

The issue that I was responding to was the suggestion that issuing a PDS watch was inappropriate, implying a bust in the forecast.

It just came a bit later, but we did get a major tornado outbreak with multiple violent tornados. It was a particularly dangerous situation.

Yeah I feel like saying the watch was a bust because it expired an hour or two before the storms hit or they were off by a few counties to the west is really splitting hairs. The central part of the state got blasted by some pretty huge tornados.

[stratosphere]

There has been one fatality in Sulphur i heard

Sad to hear and yet still after seeing the damage its a miracle there were not more fatalities from this storm. Hopefully those injured all recover and heal quickly.

[jn1780]

Yeah I feel like saying the watch was a bust because it expired an hour or two before the storms hit or they were off by a few counties to the west is really splitting hairs. The central part of the state got blasted by some pretty huge tornados.

For this event? Sure I agree with that. I think the issue is future non-PDS watches. Maybe there shouldn't even be PDS watches because you want the public taking those watches seriously also. Technically speaking, that first wave was an entirely different mesoscale discussion. That watch was issued specially to cover the cells that fired way ahead of the dryline to cover the possibility of multiple strong long tracked tornados.

[cinnamonjock]

Tornado in Marietta upgraded to an EF-4

[Pete]

Tornado in Marietta upgraded to an EF-4

There is a massive Dollar Tree distribution center that was destroyed.

They must employ several hundred people there, which is a big deal for such a small community.

[cinnamonjock]

The only grocery store in the county was also completely destroyed.

[Pete]

The only grocery store in the county was also completely destroyed.

This shows the destroyed Homeland with the Dollar Tree warehouse behind:

[Roger S]

I sat out a tornado in that parking lot about 12 years ago. It ended up touching down after it passed over Marrieta.

Talked to my ex that works at that hospital this morning and she said they are planning on setting up a temporary ER with limited lab and imaging while they rebuild the hospital but there will be no inpatient in the interim.

[cinnamonjock]

I've heard that the same people owned the homeland and the dollar general connected to it. Both were... not in great condition, but they said they're going to rebuild them. In the meantime though, the closest place for grocery shopping will be Ardmore.

The family dollar on main street is going to be packed for awhile, as it is now the only game in town.

[BG918]

This last system dropped a lot of rain over many areas which was much-needed after a dry start to spring. Areas north and west of OKC are still below-normal, hopefully these next few storms spread more rainfall in those areas. We're about to go into our two wettest months, and typically the northern half of the state does well during "MCS season" in late-May/early-June.

[Will Dearborn]

But they weren't wrong in this case. This was a major, major tornado outbreak. In what world is over 20 tornados not a PDS? None. So they were right. People just called it a strikeout before it was even in the on-deck circle. And it's coming through with a home run. Sulphur is literally on fire, right now.

So those who predicted a make outbreak, were dead-on. Anyone bashing them was dead wrong.

*they weren't wrong in this case*

I said "recently" - models were a bust the last couple of weeks which assuredly led to people calling it too early on Saturday.

The NWS will continue to get better, local media will not - there are different incentives.

[Anonymous.]

May see a few storms pop up tonight, but development will be very random. N OK is the best shot at any type of organized cells.

[yukong]

Two small cells have fired up in Custer County. They are small, but it does seem that there will be some action this afternoon and evening.

[Anonymous.]

SVR Watch is out for W OK, comes right up against OKC. Storms are mostly supercell in structure, so large hail is the primary threat. Low chance of tornado activity, but threat does exist.

[SoonerDave]

Tornado has already touched down near Cordell, did damage, but that storm has weakened. Kiowa County storm has definite lowering with some rotation, could be trouble if it gets more organized.

[C_M_25]

These storms are almost stationary. Quite the contrast from the other day.

Going to be a pretty big flood risk from these storms.

[Mississippi Blues]

These storms are almost stationary. Quite the contrast from the other day.

Going to be a pretty big flood risk from these storms.

Brandon Pennel on 9 has been sitting in the same spot looking at a lowering for maybe 20 minutes now.

[NikonNurse]

Brandon Pennel on 9 has been sitting in the same spot looking at a lowering for maybe 20 minutes now.

It tried, sucked a whole lot of dust up into it. Funnel here, funnel there but nothing past that. But
Brandon sure doesn’t like to breathe between sentences. ��

[SEMIweather]

Likely strong/violent tornado in rural Tipton County at the moment. Crazy evolution on this one.

[PhiAlpha]

Big ass tornado east of the radar location in Frederick.