A recent spate of tornadoes has left more than 280 people dead, 5 of them in southwest Virginia. 50 Virginians were injured. The governor has declared a state of emergency. This move will allow Virginia agencies to assist local governments with clean up.
According to the Washington Post:
Tornado warnings were issued across the D.C. suburbs early Thursday morning. Fast-moving bands of storms packed high winds and torrential rains. A funnel cloud formed over Point of Rocks in Frederick County shortly before 7 a.m., according to the National Weather Service, but there were no reports of tornadoes touching down in the immediate area Thursday morning.
There were widespread reports of damaged trees, including one that fell across Route 109 in Barnesville and another that landed on an electric line in Middleburg, according to the Weather Service.
Fauquier County schools were delayed by two hours and Prince William County schools canceled outdoor activities. The storms were causing flight delays of up to 90 minutes at Reagan National and Dulles International airports.
The remaining tornado warnings expired at 9:45 a.m., but a tornado watch is in place for the entire region until 3 p.m.
Farther south and west, the storms caused major destruction. Four of the fatalities and most of the injuries occurred when what appeared to be a tornado hit a mobile home park, truck stop and apartment complex in Washington County, Virginia Department of Emergency Management officials said. Storms ripped through a subdivision in Shenandoah County, damaging several homes.
As evening approached in Washington on Wednesday, skies grew ominously dark, rain poured down and funnel clouds were spotted at places miles apart. Winds rose, trees toppled, hail spattered the ground, and it seemed that the area was on the verge of true peril.
“It was a funnel cloud at the treetops,” said Prince George’s County Fire Chief Marc S. Bashoor, reporting what he saw in the Morningside area of the county, near Andrews Air Force Base. “It actually went over top of me.”
But, Bashoor said, the funnel never seemed to touch down.
But incidents throughout the region attracted widespread attention.
“The winds all of a sudden picked up,” Bashoor said, and tree branches seemed to rise into the air, amid sheets of rain.
Late Wednesday night, powerful winds, possibly from a tornado, were blamed for damage to a building at the Bristow Center, a shopping center in western Prince William County.
When the warning sign flashes across the TV set, how many of us head to the basement to cover in an area away from the windows? I am afraid I am somewhat of a scofflaw about tornado warnings. I probably didn’t watch the Wizard of Oz enough. That was my first encounter with the concept of the tornado. Last night I did go into the bathroom which has no windows why my neighborhood was flashed by as an impact area. I got bored and came out. Then I slept through what has been described as a torrential downpour that had the dogs all nervous..
What do you do when there is a tornado warning? Do you pay attention? Go outside? Crawl under the bad? Get into tornado drill mode and move to the safe area of your house?
Tornado safety begins by listening for National Weather Service advisories. A tornado watch is issued when tornadoes are possible in your area. You need to be attuned to environmental cues:
- Dark, often greenish sky
- Wall cloud
- Large hail
- Loud roar, similar to a freight train
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2011/0418/Can-you-outsmart-a-tornado-Take-our-quiz/warning
Nine-for-ten.
Apparently we had one in Bristow just a mile or so from us. We never heard it or anything. My dog was kind of freaking out last night, though, so you have to wonder. Dogs seem to know things.
I got 11 out of 11 correct. Howler knows her tornadoes, or as little howler says, tomatoes.
Here are some really scary satellite images of before and after the Alabama tornado:
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2011/04/alabama_tornadoes_close-up_sat.html
I disagree with one of the answers on the quiz. A tornado warning is issued when conditions are just right for one to develop rather than when one is actually sighted. If warnings were issued only when a tornado is sighted, we would never get one at night.
@NTK, don’t they see them on radar, etc? I thought it was wrong because I don’t think it has to have been seen on the ground.
What is a watch? I thought the watch was from all the right conditions and the warning from the formation actually being sighted for real or on weather equipment.
Not going to the wall on it though.
Thanks for the link. I can’t believe I stayed upstairs after seeing my neighborhood specifically mentioned on the rolling banner. duh duh duh.
Does this community sound sirens? Do they even still have sirens? What would happen if one came at night when people don’t have their TVS or radios on?
How much do sirens cost?
The 3 little pigs probably would not have survived these tornadoes, even the pig in the brick house. In an F-5, building materials really don’t seem to count for much.
The more I see, the more I speechless I become. The mass devastation is just amazing.
The picture of the tornado in N. Stafford that was on the front of the News & Messenger…was taken in front of my office. Several of us were in the building at the time. My bosses wife was in florida and saw the tornado on the weather channel, with our office in the foreground. She called us and told us there was a tornado behind the building. Our server room is pretty strong, so we could have retreated in there.
@Steve,
Seeing that monstrosity would have made a believer out of me. I would have run for the server room. Was that in Bristow? Was the Bristow tornado during daylight?