Teams
Forum List
Toggle sidebar

~ 3 Tornado Warnings!!! ~ current weather!

The urban heat island affect would probably strengthen a storm if it moved through...cold air rules the world since it is denser and if it wants to move into a large city and the conditions are right for storms it will happen. There is simply a lot more rural area's than urban, that being said it is less common but not uncommon for large cities to get hit, last month Suburbs of OKC were hit by several very large very strong tornadoes.
 
Al_4_State said:
Downtown KC and Omaha were hit?

I could see suburban fringes, but I'm talking like Parkersburg-esque devastation through the middle of a large city. Has THAT ever happened? I've never heard of it, but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened.
Click to expand...


Look at it on a larger spectrum. Take a map of Iowa. Now throw a thumbtack in the air. Wherever it lands, call that the storm cell and where the tip lies, call that the tornado. Almost everytime you do this, you will hit a rural area.

I do believe that warmth from cities provides "bubbles" that can disrupt the process needed to form twisters, but simple statistical analysis regarding the odds of a tornado hitting a rural area vs. a large urban area favors rural areas, for there is so much more of it.
 
So who got it the worst? We had 2.1" inches of rain east of Charles City, but no wind damage. There were some bad straight line winds up around Elma. I heard areas around Hampton got 6+" of rain. Is that accurate? Was there bad hail/wind/tornado damage confirmed anywhere?
 
Al_4_State said:
Downtown KC and Omaha were hit?

I could see suburban fringes, but I'm talking like Parkersburg-esque devastation through the middle of a large city. Has THAT ever happened? I've never heard of it, but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened.
Click to expand...


1975 Omaha Tornado quote on Wikipedia: "The storm then moved north-east, cutting into Douglas County crossing Interstate 80 (injuring several motorists) and through west-central sections of the city of Omaha. The tornado chopped a path across 10 miles (16 km) of streets and residences, crossing the city's busiest intersection at 72nd & Dodge before lifting at 4:58 PM."

1975 Omaha tornado - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
Al_4_State said:
Downtown KC and Omaha were hit?

I could see suburban fringes, but I'm talking like Parkersburg-esque devastation through the middle of a large city. Has THAT ever happened? I've never heard of it, but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened.
Click to expand...
I'm sure land area has something to do with it, and then how often do EF5 tornadoes pop up? It's unlikely due to land area, and then throw in the fact that EF5 tornadoes aren't exactly popping up all the time and that explains some of why its so rare.
 
wxman1 said:
The urban heat island affect would probably strengthen a storm if it moved through...cold air rules the world since it is denser and if it wants to move into a large city and the conditions are right for storms it will happen. There is simply a lot more rural area's than urban, that being said it is less common but not uncommon for large cities to get hit, last month Suburbs of OKC were hit by several very large very strong tornadoes.
Click to expand...

This would seem to be correct. I caught something on I believe it was the Weather Channel just a few weeks ago on just this subject. A group from aTm was doing a study on this. They looked at Houston and determined that due to the heat island over the city, that there was far more lightening over the city of Houston than should be expected. I would imagine that the same effect would be found for tornados, where the added heat could help stir up the atmosphere.

As for urban tornados, we had a small one near my home a couple years ago in the SW K burbs. And maybe some of the posters a little older than me will remember, but wasn't there pretty major tornado that hit Ankeny in the late 70's?
 
Gotta keep in mind that in 1974, Ankeny wasn't a Des Moines suburb. It was just another Iowa town.
 
CycloneYoda said:
Look at it on a larger spectrum. Take a map of Iowa. Now throw a thumbtack in the air. Wherever it lands, call that the storm cell and where the tip lies, call that the tornado. Almost everytime you do this, you will hit a rural area.

I do believe that warmth from cities provides "bubbles" that can disrupt the process needed to form twisters, but simple statistical analysis regarding the odds of a tornado hitting a rural area vs. a large urban area favors rural areas, for there is so much more of it.
Click to expand...

I'm not claiming to know the answer either way, that's why I'm asking. I could see the city "bubble" theory being responsible, just as much as chance, since Tornado Alley is such a heavily rural area. If the Parkersburg tornado had hit Des Moines, and say, followed the general path of I-235, that could have been one of the worst weather disasters in US History.

ca4cy said:
So who got it the worst? We had 2.1" inches of rain east of Charles City, but no wind damage. There were some bad straight line winds up around Elma. I heard areas around Hampton got 6+" of rain. Is that accurate? Was there bad hail/wind/tornado damage confirmed anywhere?
Click to expand...

My old man has some corn by Elma that took a lot of hail last week. Those straight line winds are JUST what they needed. :jimlad:
 
Al_4_State said:
I'm not claiming to know the answer either way, that's why I'm asking. I could see the city "bubble" theory being responsible, just as much as chance, since Tornado Alley is such a heavily rural area. If the Parkersburg tornado had hit Des Moines, and say, followed the general path of I-235, that could have been one of the worst weather disasters in US History.



My old man has some corn by Elma that took a lot of hail last week. Those straight line winds are JUST what they needed. :jimlad:
Click to expand...

Actually the winds I heard about were closer to Lourdes. I don't know if they went through Elma or not, but hopefully your dad got lucky this time around. Was the hail from the storm last Thursday night? I hope we can pull out of this weather rut pretty soon. There are some incredible looking crops, corn in particular, out there if we can keep the heat and hit the timely rains to finish them off.
 
ca4cy said:
Actually the winds I heard about were closer to Lourdes. I don't know if they went through Elma or not, but hopefully your dad got lucky this time around. Was the hail from the storm last Thursday night? I hope we can pull out of this weather rut pretty soon. There are some incredible looking crops, corn in particular, out there if we can keep the heat and hit the timely rains to finish them off.
Click to expand...

I think this farm is north of Elma a little bit, so straight west of Lourdes.

Our base of operations is in McIntire though, so about 30 miles NW of Lourdes. Sounds like between the heat and the moisture, the corn is just shooting up. I'll be getting back up that way this weekend, so it should be interesting to see. Living and working in Des Moines proper, I don't get out into the countryside as much as I'd like to.
 
IcSyU said:
I'm sure land area has something to do with it, and then how often do EF5 tornadoes pop up? It's unlikely due to land area, and then throw in the fact that EF5 tornadoes aren't exactly popping up all the time and that explains some of why its so rare.
Click to expand...

This.

There is absolutely no definitive research that says a downtown area is protected. That is a myth.

Moore Oklahoma (suburb) saw an F5 tornado in 99. The tornado did move very near downtown.

Just think about it for a second. There have only been 4 F5 tornadoes in Iowa in the past 50 years. Then think of how little area in Iowa is downtown metro ares. I'll bet everytime it misses.

Check out this link. St. Louis has been hit 4 times!
 
FDWxMan said:
This.

There is absolutely no definitive research that says a downtown area is protected. That is a myth.

Moore Oklahoma (suburb) saw an F5 tornado in 99. The tornado did move very near downtown.

Just think about it for a second. There have only been 4 F5 tornadoes in Iowa in the past 50 years. Then think of how little area in Iowa is downtown metro ares. I'll bet everytime it misses.

Check out this link. St. Louis has been hit 4 times!
Click to expand...


While not a major city but didnt the Iowa City tornado kill two myths at once....one that they dont hit larger towns and two they wont cross water?
 
maintain242001 said:
While not a major city but didnt the Iowa City tornado kill two myths at once....one that they dont hit larger towns and two they wont cross water?
Click to expand...


singapore_waterspout_tornado_sea-709452.jpg
 
maintain242001 said:
While not a major city but didnt the Iowa City tornado kill two myths at once....one that they dont hit larger towns and two they wont cross water?
Click to expand...

Yes, the river thing is total fluff as well.

Fort Dodge, Algona, Iowa City, Muscatine have all had torndoes in the past 30 or so years, though unfortunately some people still believe the old legends that bends in rivers will protect them...Or two rivers coming together (raccoon and Des Moines) will naturally deflect them.
 
FDWxMan said:
Yes, the river thing is total fluff as well.

Fort Dodge, Algona, Iowa City, Muscatine have all had torndoes in the past 30 or so years, though unfortunately some people still believe the old legends that bends in rivers will protect them...Or two rivers coming together (raccoon and Des Moines) will naturally deflect them.
Click to expand...

wasnt that an old Indian thing about the rivers coming together...seems like I read that once
 
and also I see my weather radio went off here in Cedar Rapids 30 minutes ago....I thought we were in the clear for a few days but the radio made it seem like we could have some strong storms later
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Help Support Us

Become a patron
Top Bottom
Back