- If you look at THIS blog post from last Tuesday, I talked about the chance of MCS type activity (glob of storms)
- Justin mentioned that some of the storms could be strong in Sunday night's newscast
- Justin was tracking the storms in MO yesterday morning on GMR8 and mentioned them heading south.
- Storm Prediction Center had a Severe Thunderstorm Watch in effect for a couple of hours prior to the storm.
- The Severe TS warnings gave 15-45 minute lead times.
- We had information on the bottom of the screen on KAIT, including radar. From 12:00 to almost 2:00 we broke into regular programming.
- We sent instant updates via Twitter and Facebook.
With all of that said, we still had people surprised by the storms. I think when we get into the summer months, people let their guard down. Granted, we only had a 30-40% chance of rain, but that does not mean you can't have severe weather. People think that if it is not 80% or higher, they will stay dry. Let me put this in perspective. If your doctor told you that there is a 30% chance that you will die of a heart attack today, you would be scared to death. When we say there is a 30% chance of storms and some could be strong, most people think they will stay dry. Perspective. Let me get back on track! Ha!
Here is a look at radar at 11:10 am yesterday. Also plotted on this map from the NWS are the storm reports from yesterday's storm:
If you notice in the above image, the storms are entering Arkansas. We already had warnings for counties in Southern MO and the NWS had issued warnings in NE Arkansas, providing as much as 45 minutes to take cover. This next image is at 11:35 am and the winds are really starting to get wild with the storms as they move from Clay County into Greene County. Notice the storms reports from the storm as it raced south. Click the image to enlarge. At this time, SVR warnings were in effect, giving people a 30-45 minute warning:
This next image is from 12:05 PM and the wind damage had occurred in Paragould with numerous trees down, some structural damage, and signs damaged. 4 minutes before this image, a tornado warning was issued for parts of this storm (click to enlarge):
The storm continued to race south with 70-80 mph wind gusts! Parts of Craighead and Mississippi County had extensive wind damage. This radar image is from 12:25 PM:
Even though the rain had not arrived in many locations, the winds arrived much earlier causing a major dust storm in many areas. Take a look at this wild footage from Caraway! This was taken from Bryan McCormick of Region 8 News:
The NWS should be in Region 8 today to survey the damage and to determine if we had a tornado. There were some indications of a tornado on radar from SE Greene County to Mississippi County, but the surveys will determine what caused the damage. Regardless, the straight-line winds need to be taken seriously and those winds caused most of the damage from yesterday.
As we head into the summer months, let's make sure we have a way to get the warnings. There are several ways to get instant warnings:
- Weather Radio
- KAIT
- www.kait8.com
- Twitter feed of @Region8News
- Facebook page of Region 8 News
Stay "weather aware". The warnings were there, but if you do not have a way to get them... they are worthless to you.
Take care,
Ryan
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