Big Severe Wx Outbreak around 10/18/07 in Plains

[CrazyC83]

31 confirmed yesterday? Isn't that more than reported?

More than initial reports yes. In the eastern states, it is common to have more tornado confirmations than reports, due to the presence of forested (and sometimes hilly) terrain and hard-to-see HP supercells. That means that a lot of actual tornadoes will get initially reported as wind damage. (For example, the last major outbreak in that region - on November 15, 2005 - had about 40 reports and 50 confirmed tornadoes)

It is possible there were a few more tornadoes that never got reported, since some areas (particularly in northern Michigan and in central/eastern Kentucky) are not exactly heavily populated. It is even possible there might have been tornadic activity across the border in Canada (in northern Ontario) looking at radar shots there but that area is VERY sparsely populated.

[Bunkertor]

Ähm, there are 45 reports and unfortunately 4 Fatalities...

[CrazyC83]

5 or 6 fatalities actually (since one is unconfirmed).

[WindRunner]

Ähm, there are 45 reports and unfortunately 4 Fatalities...

That number has gone up since the end of the outbreak because many of the post-storm surveys get entered in as LSRs, but after the fact. Hence, once they hit the wire, whatever creates that map and database at SPC picks it up and throws it back in the archive on the appropriate date, even if it comes in a several days or a couple of weeks later.

[CrazyC83]

Is there a website that shows archived radar data?

[WindRunner]

Most certainly there is, but you have to hope that the NCDC picked it up.

http://hurricane.ncdc.noaa.gov/pls/plhas/has.dsselect has the raw data files, which you can order in Level II or III format for each available radar site, but require you to have the software (such as GR products) to view them with.

Visiting this page will let you get the data and some free viewing software for the data (link also provides an alternate ordering method for data).

FYI, the data takes a few days to update post-event, but the Level II data from the 18th is already up and Level III should be soon to follow.

[RL3AO]

I know it has nothing to do with the outbreak, but quite the line of storms in Central Oklahoma. Nothing tornadic of course.

Also, should a thread be created to talk about severe weather that doesn't have to do with an outbreak?

[TexasStooge]

For those interested . . . first is the base reflectivity shot of our two southernmost cells, with the cell Crazy mentioned near the center and the cell with the huge hail core towards the bottom.



3-D view of the storm with the hail core. You can see the white blob (70+ dbZ) way up there. Note the yellow and red lines on the back "walls" of the view, they represent the 0C and -20C lines, respectively - which shows you just how far up that core goes.

Nice radar images! Thanks for sharing them!!

[vbhoutex]

I know it has nothing to do with the outbreak, but quite the line of storms in Central Oklahoma. Nothing tornadic of course.

Also, should a thread be created to talk about severe weather that doesn't have to do with an outbreak?

It can be. Probably should be since we like to follow the outbreaks from forecast to conclusion in one thread.