Strong Tornado in southern Italy

[Crostorm]

A rare November tornado moved through Taranto,in southern Italy, on Wednesday November 28th. A loop of 10.8 µm Meteosat-9 imagery (below) shows the development of an overshooting top in a thunderstorm that is moving over Taranto between 0900 and 0915 UTC (Note that the time indicated on the satellite image is the nominal time — the time that the satellite starts scanning. The actual scan time over southern Italy is approximately 10 minutes later than the nominal time). Such cloud-top features are frequently associated with severe weather. A faint suggestion of an enhanced-V/thermal couplet is apparent in the later imagery as the strong thunderstorm moves northward across the Salento peninsula and then into the Adriatic Sea.



METOP-A infrared imagery (below) shows the thunderstorm complex about an hour before a tornadic storm moved inland from the Ionian Sea. The corresponding Meteosat-9 image is here. The higher spatial resolution of the polar orbiter METOP-A allows the discernment of much finer detail in the cloud-top features.




Visible imagery from Meteosat-9, above, also shows the development of the overshooting top associated with the tornadic cell. A higher-resolution visible imager from METOP-B, below, showed the line of thunderstorms in which the tornadic cell, indicated by the yellow arrow, was embedded.



http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/blog/archives/11900

[Crostorm]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzb7CXokqFU[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KojGr2y9Ubw[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKFuEwYcHuw[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmorhWA4B3s[/youtube]

[Bunkertor]

Yes, it hit the biggest european steel plant. One worker has been killed

[Cyclenall]

This is like the 4th or 5th International tornado this fall to make the news, quite a number so far. What an amazing tornado for Italy!! It looks violent but probably F2-F4; the cone to almost wedge looks nasty.

I like the 2nd video in Crostorm's 2nd post, the beginning is funny. It sounds like a bunch of laughing manics from the asylum . Great footage that reminds me of some AL twisters from the end of April 2011. The 3rd video has been removed.