Quoted: Tease!  Sounds like you got a bit too close though.

I thought you would like that!!

I didn't intend to get quite that close. I had hoped to get a bit south of the tornado but not underneath it!! I didn't see it but my daughter thought she saw the tail end.


____________________________________
The only hope you have is to accept the fact that you are already dead. And the sooner you accept that, the sooner you will be able to function as a soldier is supposed to function, without mercy, without compassion, without remorse.

Quoted: Quoted: Tease!  Sounds like you got a bit too close though. I thought you would like that!! I didn't intend to get quite that close. I had hoped to get a bit south of the tornado but not underneath it!! I didn't see it but my daughter thought she saw the tail end.   Was that the cell that went through Springfield? ____________________________________ The only hope you have is to accept the fact that you are already dead. And the sooner you accept that, the sooner you will be able to function as a soldier is supposed to function, without mercy, without compassion, without remorse.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Tease!  Sounds like you got a bit too close though. I thought you would like that!! I didn't intend to get quite that close. I had hoped to get a bit south of the tornado but not underneath it!! I didn't see it but my daughter thought she saw the tail end.   Was that the cell that went through Springfield? ____________________________________ The only hope you have is to accept the fact that you are already dead. And the sooner you accept that, the sooner you will be able to function as a soldier is supposed to function, without mercy, without compassion, without remorse.

Yes, that's the one.


____________________________________
The only hope you have is to accept the fact that you are already dead. And the sooner you accept that, the sooner you will be able to function as a soldier is supposed to function, without mercy, without compassion, without remorse.

Well, I thought I'd check back to this thread just to see how everyone made it. Based on the reports I have heard, both from my chaser friends who were in MO and IL, as well as other media sources, it sounds pretty bad. There have been deaths and unjuries unfortunately. I just don't yet know how bad. But there were lots of large, powerful tornadoes tonight that hit populated areas. One of my friends was chasing a storm in MO that produced a tornado that at one point varied from a half mile to 3/4 of a mile wide.

Hopefully dawn won't reveal what I think it may reveal. But I expect to see lots and lots of severe damage over a large area in MO and in IL. The latest SPC severe weather reports thread indicates that 98 tornadoes have been reported to them today. Wow.

Once again, I hope all of you and yours made it through what was a very rocky night.

My stepfather called my mother to check in on her because the tornadoes in Benton County (one county north)  made the national news.

I got pelted a little with some pea-sized hail here in Fayetteville.  I was trying to bring in groceries...

Well, it was a doozy.

Within 1 hour of walking in to the hospital last night, we went to code black (Tornado Warning).

Decided it might be prudent to brush up on Code Yellow (Disaster) protocols, and had just flipped the book open when the call came over my radio from ER that 14 trauma victims were enroute to our small facility.

I called the operator and initiated the code yellow and headed on down stairs.  Within 15 minutes there was  controlled chaos - the rest is on the news this morning.  Multiple tornadoes had touched down and laid waste to several nearby areas (within 5 miles of the hospital).

Several folks lost their lives last night in Randolph County.  Many amazing stories of survival.

The EMS folks, and police never cease to amaze me.

I'm going to bed.  Gnite.

Quoted: Hail the size of baseballs....wow. Golf ball sized hail can break some car windows and it'll sure do a job on the sheet metal of modern cars! I've never personally seen larger than golf ball sized hail,  and that was when I was in Nebraska.  That was ONE NOISY FRACKING STORM. It would really suck to be caught in the open in a hailstorm like that.   The hail would beat you to death. CJ

Tennisball sized is pretty freaky!  Most were golf-ball but we got quite a few tennis-ball sized, and I'm pretty sure one was nearly baseball size.  It went from pinging and knocking to sounding like a crowd was beating our house down with sledgehammers.  I was concerned we might lose some windows.  It put some dents in the old beater van in the driveway.  Other people nearby lost some shingles, so we may call some guys out to look at our roof and see if there is any damage.

Tornado appears to have touched down a bit east of our city.  Stright line winds were just impressive though.

We ended up getting some dirt here. Most likely Oklahoma.

The Midlands got more than just rain and snow from the skies Sunday. Some also saw falling mud. Soil from Texas, Oklahoma or the desert Southwest was scooped up by a large storm system and dropped in raindrops on eastern Nebraska, said National Weather Service meteorologist John Pollack. The muddy rain fell after dark, about midevening. The storm system brought strong winds and little or no moisture to the drought-stricken areas to the south, Pollack said. The blowing dust was pushed high into the atmosphere and carried to Nebraska. If you notice dried reddish-brown drops on your windshield this morning, you can guess that the dirt came from Oklahoma, Pollack said. A darker gray color would indicate that the soil was carried farther.

link to dirt

It's always sad to hear of fatalities.  My prayers to alll those affected.

Well Im postin this form a parking lot in town.

Power is still out at home.

We did fine.

But it looks like a Tornado when up the james river valley again, it th enext one over from us, no one lives there, but I will get some pictures up powerplant there.

Lake Springfield???  

Quoted: Lake Springfield???

Yeah

They just reported on the news, that there were 46 different tornado warnings for western Missouri and parts of eastern Kansas yesterday. 56 different severe thunderstorm warnings for the same area yesterday. That's a hell of a lot.

we got hit pretty had. I was at work. We lost all power not even emergency lights, and the backup generator didn't turn on. We had some minor structural damage.  The store lost about 14K in product due to power loss.

We were not even a 1/4 mile away when it hit. I got some damage on my truck I'll get two new quarter panels, new liscense plate lights, and a new paint job.

About the only good thing to happen last night was I picked up over 7hrs of overtime

Here are some pics that were on Foxnews from the town next to me, Monroe City

wow, We get some tornadoes, but youguys must  get  them daily.

Quoted: wow, We get some tornadoes, but youguys must  get  them daily.

Location location location. If you're east of the rockies and west of the Appalachians, HELLO!  I'm in a totally generous mood today, if anywone has any questions I'll do my best to anwser them.  Or at least point you in the right direction.  It's the best I can do to repay the board.

I live in Springfield, it nailed us but good Sunday night. Two catagory 2 tornados ripped through the city. The first one missed my house by about 1/2 mile. I suffered a broken fence, but as you will see others did not fare as well.

Harp??  

Some of those pics look a bit more than F2 damage P08.  Is that what your local NWS decided?  

National weather service rated them at Cat 2 from wind speed. Some of these buildings were not in the best condition to begin with.

Quoted: National weather service rated them at Cat 2 from wind speed. Some of these buildings were not in the best condition to begin with.

The system is very subjective.  For future refrence.  Cat's refer to hurricanes.  Tornados are F's.  Those buildings definetly look like F3 damage to me.  But I don't work for the NWS, YET!!!!

You are correct, I re-read the article and it was rated a F2. This is all still new to me as it is the first tornado in Springfield since the 50's!
NEWSPAPER ARTICLE

Wind speeds in excess of 120 mph


By JAYETTE BOLINSKI and AMANDA REAVY
STAFF WRITERS
Published Tuesday, March 14, 2006


Technically, it was two tornadoes with winds of more than 120 mph that were responsible for leveling Springfield homes and businesses Sunday night, the National Weather Service in Lincoln reported Monday night.
 

The tornadoes tore through the city about 8 p.m. Sunday.

The strength of both was classified as F2, which attain wind speeds of 113 to 157 mph.

"It was a tornado. We had a visual sighting of it approaching the city and also as it went through," said Ed Shimon of the NWS. "It was on the ground causing a tornado or almost causing a tornado all the way from Kansas City. It was an extremely long-lived storm. It would strengthen, have a tornado, and then it would weaken again."

Meteorologists made a preliminary determination that the first Springfield tornado crossed Interstate 72 near milepost 92 about 8:20 p.m. It was on the ground for almost 51/2 miles in a time span of about six minutes, entering the city near Cockrell Lane and Constitution Drive, tracking to the east-northeast. The tornado was about 300 yards wide and damaged several businesses from Constitution to Veterans Parkway and Lindbergh Boulevard.

The tornado widened to about four-tenths of a mile as it continued to track south of Wabash Avenue, between Veterans Parkway and Chatham Road. The twister widened further to just more than half a mile wide from the village of Jerome to Westchester Boulevard, the weather service said.

The tornado then weakened slightly, producing F1 (73 to 112 mph winds) damage as it turned to the northeast. The damage path remained nearly half a mile wide.

The tornado's width decreased to about one-quarter mile as it strengthened again and turned to the north-northeast near Iles Park and the area of Oak and Myrtle streets between Sixth and Ninth streets, blowing roofs off of homes and severely damaging garages and business.

The first tornado dissipated just north of Ninth Street and South Grand Avenue, the weather service said.

A second twister then touched down about 8:25 p.m. a quarter-mile north of Bunn Park, tracking to the northeast and doing the worst of its damage in an area bounded by 15th Street and Cornell, South Grand and Pope avenues.

This tornado, about 300 yards wide, continued to travel northeast across Old Rochester Road, Singer Avenue and Cook Street from White City Boulevard to a block east of Dirksen Parkway, then crossed Interstate 55 at the Clear Lake Avenue interchange, causing damage to mobile homes and overturning a tractor-trailer.

The second tornado, which spent about five minutes on the ground for nearly four miles, dissipated near Old Route 36, about three-quarters of a mile southwest of the village of Clear Lake, according to the weather service.

In all, 24 central Illinoisans suffered minor injuries during the storm - 19 in Springfield, one in Murrayville in southwest Morgan County and four people who were in a house north of Buffalo.

However, a Springfield man who was feared missing by his neighbors amid the chaos of Sunday night's storm actually died last week, police and a family member confirmed Monday.

A home owned by John L. Hollis in the 700 block of Oak Street was demolished by the storm. Hollis, 64, moved out of the single-story house about six months ago, according to his sister, Nancy Huston. He died of cancer Wednesday at Memorial Medical Center.

Hollis' neighbors, apparently unaware that he no longer lived there, alerted authorities after realizing they had not heard from him. Police scoured the rubble and came up empty.

Springfield's tornadoes were part of a storm system that generated about 20 tornadoes as it traveled through Missouri, where it killed nine people, and Illinois. Shimon said it was the biggest storm to pass through central Illinois in years, and it easily could have spawned an even worse tornado had conditions been right.

"The winds were right for it in terms of speed and direction ... but there wasn't enough instability to stretch that rotation as violently as some other storm systems have in the past," he said. "That was the missing link that probably would have made the storm that went through Springfield an F5" - the strongest of tornadoes.

Springfield, Sherman and Jacksonville all received more than 2 inches of rain by 7 a.m. Monday. Communities throughout the area also were pummeled with hail.

In the 24 hours between 7 a.m. Sunday and 7 a.m. Monday, the temperature in Springfield went from a high of 70 degrees to a low of 45 degrees.

Local law enforcement agencies were deployed overnight and throughout Monday to reroute traffic, shoo away gawkers and help those who needed it.

Sangamon County sheriff's Capt. Jeff Berkler said Monday morning members of the department's Tactical Response Unit were providing perimeter security around Jerome, which suffered some of the worst damage. Many people had volunteered to help, but officials were asking them to sit tight, Berkler said.

"Right now, we're just asking them to stay in their homes because we've got a lot of downed power lines and trees," he said. "There's a lot of sheet metal ripped off buildings that's still blowing around. We've got some wind, and it could cause some serious injuries if that hits you. And a lot of structures are still very unsafe and unsound."

Sheriff Neil Williamson, who drove around the county to assess damage Monday, said one of the most unusual things he saw was a dead hog, in the middle of a barren field, that looked as if it had been lifted up by the tornado and dropped there. Silos and farm buildings were "toppled like dominos."

Despite the heavy damage, he said, people were upbeat.

"Actually, it's amazing," Williamson said. "I've talked to a lot of people in Jerome and out in the county, and you would think they would be devastated by the destruction, but I think they realize they're lucky they're alive."


Jayette Bolinski can be reached at 788-1530 or [email protected]. Amanda Reavy can be reached at 788-1525 or [email protected].

Quoted: I live in Springfield, it nailed us but good Sunday night. Two catagory 2 tornados ripped through the city. The first one missed my house by about 1/2 mile. I suffered a broken fence, but as you will see others did not fare as well.

I was about a 1/4 mile west of you when all that hit. How long was it before you got power?

We got power back at 4am Monday morning. What subdivision are you in? I am in Scarborough.

Quoted: We got power back at 4am Monday morning. What subdivision are you in? I am in Scarborough.

I actually live in Hunting Meadows just south of springfield. But I was at work (Cub Foods on Veterans) when it hit