Tornado in Brum

[GiGo]

That's amazing stuff. Loved the videos! Definitely want to go on a storm-chasing holiday next year..

Who are the best people to link up with for that kind of thing? So how can a novice chaser get some really great views over the space of a week or so without (a) tripping over or annoying the serious weather scientists, (b) getting bored by over-patient veteran storm geeks, or (c) landing a one-way trip into the clouds from the crazies?

[threaded]

I wonder what it is that causes people to go out of their way to put themselves in harms way.

[wxman]

Sorry to hear about your sister roof - was this Brum or Peterborough ??

If you want to go chasing in the USA I do suggest going with a tour - These are by far the best in the business. Perhaps a 6 day tour out of Denver would be best for you ?

[wxman]

BTW it always pays to keep alert while you are about in the UK!

On Saturday I saw a weak funnel cloud just north of Peterborough - it was never going to do any damage ...

http://www.ukweatherworld.co.uk/foru...22884&posts=21

[threaded]

What is it with workmen nowadays, right wusses.

Fancy worring about pulling a tarpaulin over a tall house when it is windy...erm

[wxman]

I forgot to post the link to the stormchase tour site in my post above..

here it is anyway

http://www.silverliningtours.com/

[GiGo]

Thanks, wxman, I'll be there! Heh heh.

[wxman]

I have been very busy this last week investigating the tornadoes of 28th July. This has involved "doing the ground work" and actually walking the damage tracks in order to determine track length, width and intensely.

So far there was three confirmed tornados – 2 of which could be considered Violent for the UK

Birmingham – 14:30pm F0/T1 then F2/T5 – 8.2 miles
This cell first span up an brief tornado that lasted just over 1.5miles and did not hit really hit anything in order for it to be rated
http://www.torro.org.uk/stu/20050728.../tornado1b.jpg

It then went on to “apparently Wedge” over the SW part of the city where the damage is F2/T5 with a 400 meter track width. One of the many badly damaged buildings was a school that lost its roof and most of the first floor. Fortunately due to it being summer vacation it was empty – otherwise I dread to think what might have happened.
(Credit to John Mason, TORRO and to Ian Dunsford for the images)
http://www.torro.org.uk/stu/20050728/brum1.jpg
http://www.torro.org.uk/stu/20050728/brum2.jpg

Wymondham, Leicestershire – 16:19pm F1/T2 1.75 miles
I have interviewed a witness (train signal operator) who saw the tornado form less than 150 meters form his station (confirmed by damage survey). The tornado then passed to his west and then north before crossing the railway line – felled trees across the line cause then closed the line. T2 rating given due to the size of the trees that it snapped. There is some evidence to suggest that this was a anti cyclonic tornado!

Peterborough 16:45 F2/T3
The tornado formed within the North suburbs of the town before moving across open countryside. (this area is very flat and it reminds me of the plains!) it caused much building damage within the city limits but really intensified over open countryside. This was (IMO) a clear Supercell (image shows tornado north of city just prior to dissipating) sorry I spoilt the image by drawing lines all over it!
http://www.torro.org.uk/stu/20050728/Petetorn/scell.JPG

[datestamp]

Hey wxman, there was a lady on a travel program on UK tv recently who'd gone to the States to do some storm chasing (in Kansas?). The tour guide said "if we go into a storm and the hailstones are as big as baseballs, you won't be able to hear me even if I am right next to you". Now bearing in mind they were driving an SUV with a few electronic gizzmos fitted, this sounded rather odd.

I would have thought that such large hailstones would trash the windscreen, beat people inside to death and turn the roof into a luna landscape. Surely, if you were seriously expecting to enter into such a violent scenario, it would make a lot of sense to fit roofbars with a protective wirescreen above to try and slice the giant hailstones before they hit the vehicle. In the UK, if you intentionally drove a vehicle into a tornado the insurance company would laugh at you and say "what insurance?". Please tell me that this gent was joking !


Cue music - The Doors - Riders on the Storm

[wxman]

I have to my cost! been beaten up by baseball sized hail on more than one occasion and each time it has resulting in a new windscreen. I will concour about the noise – it is very loud and it is difficult to talk.

These days I don’t risk the car at all and prefer to say out of the hail core – even if this means missing a tornado. For example May 12th near to Plainview Texas I could not get near to 5the tornado as the hail core was blocking my way so I gave up. The few souls who did venture into the core regretted it big time as they lost every window in the car along with every panel being dented.

Still they did get to see the tornado that day…

I was also under a Supercell Thunderstorm in Aura, Nebraska that produced the USA’s largest hail stone at some 7” across!
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...hailstone.html

Here are some smaller stones that I photoseted down in Texas back in 2002.

http://www.bylink.com/chase/usa2002/...%20(Large).JPG