Friday, March 28, 2008

March 27, 2008 - Severe Wx

Much to my surprise, Southwest Missouri was put into a slight risk box on Thursday, March 27th. Shortly after realizing this (as Jeff Kerr KC0VGC predicted) we were issued a Severe Thunderstorm Watch. I didn't have a strong feeling we would see anything out of this weather system, but things started rapidly changing at 6:56 PM when a tornado warning was issued for Barry County.

I had been watching this cell develop on radar and it appeared to show signs of a hook echo, so I wasn't surprised when the warning was issued. I geared up and headed out to intercept. While heading south to the Christian/Taney county line I met up with Ian Horton (KB0UTW). We proceeded south to Branson West after debating whether or not we could get south of the storm in time. Once there, the storm fell apart and below severe limits.

While heading down, we talked with Tyler Costantini (KB0PQP) who was observing this storm from the back side. He reported that it did have turbulence and rotation at one time. I did grab a screen shot from video of this storm observing from the south looking north to the Christian and Taney county lines. The picture isn't impressive at all, but you can see the clear slot in the back of the storm and the anvil.


After this I headed home, and monitored as more storms fired up and moved west to east. One storm in particular came just south of my house, and appeared to have a hook echo. In fact, there was indication on GRLevel3 of a meso and other radar images appeared to indicate opposing winds inside the storm. Since it persisted for about 15 minutes, I went ahead and took the family to the basement as it passed by. The little red plus symbol west of Ozark is my house, which is on the south side of Nixa. The little red circle is the meso indicator. I'm not questioning why the NWS did not issue a warning, but this storm concerned me, so I took precautions. Just after this radar image, this storm broke up.


All in all, it wasn't a horrible night. I understand there were confirmed tornadoes in the Rolla area, but nothing too bad.

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