University of Florida Geography Professor James Elsner posted an interesting .gif animation on his blog recently. It shows the approximate area of all U.S. tornadoes by year from 1950-2011, using a red circle centered on Oklahoma City as a point of reference:
I didn't choose 1988 for any particular reason, it just happened to be the year that was up on the rotation when I took the screen shot. To view James' blog post with the full .gif animation, please go here.
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On this date in 1990, an F-5 tornado struck the community of Plainfield, IL, causing extensive damage. The tornado killed 29 people and injured over 300 more. To this day it is still the only F-5 (now called EF-5) tornado known to occur anytime during the month of August in the United States. Steve L., the pilot of a Cessna 172, took the aerial photos above and below along the damage path in Plainfield a few days after the tornado took place:
The path of destruction was 16 miles long and 600 yards wide at one point as the tornado tracked from Northwest to Southeast across the area during the late afternoon hours:
The National Weather Service (NWS) was heavily criticized for failing to warn of the tornado in this particular event. Back at the time, the area that is now covered solely by the NWS Office in Chicago was split between that office and one in Rockford, IL. The Rockford office performed quite well, giving advanced warning of a tornado that was produced by the same thunderstorm over that part of the region. As the storm moved into NWS Chicago's area of responsibility, the warning performance degraded significantly.
The NWS's own "service assessment" report following the event was rightfully hard on the Chicago office, as you can see in the excerpt below:
At the time that was the harshest criticism I had ever read in a NWS service assessment (of itself), and I don't think it's been surpassed to this date (if anything, the NWS has become "easier" on itself in subsequent service assessments).
In its defense, the NWS in Chicago pointed out that the Storm Prediction Center (which was then called the National Severe Storms Forecast Center) had issued a Severe Thunderstorm Watch instead of a Tornado Watch for the region that afternoon.
While "only" one supercell storm produced tornadoes within the watch area on that day, the Plainfield EF-5 tornado was one of them. Hence the reason that I always caution folks not to let their guard down, particularly when dealing with an isolated, supercell storm.
You can be that residents of the area will never forget that day, nor are they likely to let their guard down "just because" there isn't a Tornado Watch in effect - and who can blame them, especially after seeing images like these:
This was also one of the last tornadoes to be examined by the late Dr. Ted Fujita, the preeminent tornado researcher and damage survey pioneer of our lifetime (creator of the Fujita "F-Scale").
You may find it surprising that the F-5 rating was arrived upon by Dr. Fujita's examination of damage to a corn field, rather than by any structural damage within the city itself:
Dr. Fujita gave a presentation on the Plainfield tornado as shown in the following YouTube video. This was one of his last formal presentations which was held at the 3rd Tornado Symposium in Norman, OK back in 1991. I had the great pleasure of attending that meeting and seeing his presentation in person. If you have the time and interest, I highly recommend viewing it at some point as it gives a lot of great information on this event:
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This morning's chilly weather with snow flurries and temperatures in the middle and upper 20s is a far cry from the spring-like conditions that were in place around West Liberty, KY one year ago today. While the risk of tornado development across the region was high (and very well forecast) on March 2, 2012, no one could imagine the devastation that would strike the community during the late afternoon hours of that day...
West Liberty Tornado as Photographed by Kent Nickell
The tornado struck West Liberty just before 6:00 pm EST. The total path length was 86 miles, making it the longest tornado track in the U.S. for all of 2012, and the 2nd longest in the history of the state of Kentucky (the path length in Kentucky was approximately 60 miles). At its widest point, the tornado stretched 1 mile across, and it killed 8 people. The official damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service in Jackson, KY rated the tornado as an EF-3with maximum winds estimated at 140 mph.
The West Liberty tornado went a long way toward disproving at least one tornado myth: that the river to the West and the hilly terrain surrounding the community would protect it from a tornado. The following video by resident Kevin Adkins clearly shows that the hills were no match for this beast:
The original, "uncut" version of the Tornado Chronicles post concerning the West Liberty tornado continues to be the most viewed article in this blog's history by a wide margin. The post has also generated more comments, e-mails, facebook postings and other correspondence (from across the U.S. and around the world) than any other in the history of this blog.
Because of the widespread interest, I thought it would be fitting to revisit the event on this one year anniversary, and see how the recovery has progressed in the months since the disaster.
Before we jump to the present day, here are some damage photos from the days that immediately followed the event one year ago:
Crews attempt to restore power on 3-4-12
Commercial Bank on 3-3-12
Aerial view of the damage on 3-3-12
The view down Main Street on 3-2-12
Officials estimate that the tornado completely destroyed 74 commercial buildings, 19 government buildings and approximately 300 homes. Hundreds of additional buildings and homes had significant or major damage. The total amount of the damage is estimated at $250 million.
While still a long way from complete, much progress has been made toward recovery since the event that generated the horrific images of last year. Here's a shot looking down Main Street today, which is in stark contrast to the last image shown above from one year ago:
Just last month, the downtown staple "Red Rooster Antiques" re-opened its doors. Owners Eddie and Sherri Granger spent the greater part of the past year working to restore or replace the brick walls, black wood floors, and the original tin roof of the structure, which brought back at least one piece of normalcy to the streets of downtown West Liberty.
The owner of what used to be the floral shop next door decided to retire rather than to rebuild - a decision that several downtown "long timers" also made over the course of the past year.
As the saying goes, "when one door closes another one opens..." and that's exactly what resident Julie Lane had in mind when she opened the doors of West Liberty's brand new floral shop "The Paisley Posey" just last week:
Paul and Janet Franklin, owners of the 55 year old local burger institution "Freezer Fresh" struggled with the rebuilding question for a short while, but ultimately they knew that starting over again was the right thing to do for themselves and the community. Freezer Fresh re-opened back in September, and the best burgers in town are now being served up once again. The wait was reportedly 2.5 hours long on opening day:
Meanwhile, the signs of a continued recovery "work in progress" are all around town. The historic Morgan County Courthouse is in the process of being renovated:
...and a mixture of other "before and after" projects lines the streets:
State officials recently announced that nearly $30 million in new financial aid is on the way to the community (albeit one year later), and plans are in place to use those funds to rebuild public/community facilities and infrastructure.
Projects slated to use some of those funds include a new $9.4 million youth recreation and wellness center as well as a $6 million renovation of the Morgan County Office Building and Community Center. The old courthouse will receive $2.4 million toward renovation, and a new Cooperative Extension Office and municipal parking garage are planned at a cost of approximately $6 million.
New homes have also sprung up over the last year, as a result of the efforts of the Habitat for Humanity and other agencies that have come in to help rebuild:
The West Liberty Elementary School was destroyed by the tornado, and classes will continue to be held in a refurbished warehouse while a new, permanent building is constructed:
Shortly after the temporary school opened last year, the kids had a visit from none other than the Chick-fil-A cow, who tried to make the sudden change in surroundings just a little bit easier for them:
Long time residents say that in many ways, life in West Liberty will never be the same again, which is certainly understandable. Indeed, no one ever promised that a full recovery was going to happen overnight, but overall the community is pulling together and they are making steady progress every day.
If you would like to help the folks in West Liberty with their continued recovery efforts, please visit the following websites for additional information and resources:
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Coming March 2013: "The Tornado Chronicles"full website!
•Interactive tornado database back to 1950 (earlier years coming soon)
• Interactive radar with live warnings and street-level zoom
• Tornado safety, preparedness and education
• Daily tornado/severe weather outlook
• Photos, videos and more!
Please show your support and follow The Tornado Chronicles on twitter and on facebookfor the latest updates on tornadoes and the upcoming website!
I apologize for the relatively sparse postings over the past few days, but I've been taking advantage of the relatively quiet weather conditions to work on The Tornado Chronicles website. In case you've missed the blurbs here and there within recent Tornado Chronicles postings here on the blog, we'll be "spinning out" (pun intended) the popular blog series to its own website effective March 1! In addition to regular "Tornado Chronicles" postings on recent tornado events, the website will also feature a searchable tornado database back to 1950 (we're working on 1900-1950 for a later update), as well as safety and preparedness information, an interactive radar page and the latest outlook, watch and warning information. Here is a "sneak preview" of the top of the homepage. Keep in mind this may change a bit before launch, but it should give you an idea as to what we're working on:
Go ahead and bookmark the site if you'd like, and check back for the launch on March 1st (you never know, you may also catch us testing the site out live from time to time).
We have also created twitter and facebook pages that will include updates on actual tornado events throughout the year, as well as updates on the progress of the site over the coming weeks...
Please show your support and follow "The Tornado Chronicles":
Last Friday, December 14th, severe thunderstorms spawned 3 different tornadoes in the Texas panhandle, an occurrence that had not been observed since at least 1950. The first tornado took place 3 miles Northeast of Washburn, a second took place 5 miles South/Southeast of Clarendon, and a third tornado touched down 1 mile North/Northwest of Lelia Lake. The tornado near Washurn was captured on film (in a moving vehicle, thus it's a bit blurry) by B.J. Shipp:
All three of the tornadoes were rated EF-0 intensity by the National Weather Service (NWS).
While severe weather is very common across the Texas Panhandle region during the spring and summer months, December is quite another story, which makes this event rather unusual. In fact, December is responsible for less than 1 percent of all severe weather that takes place in the panhandle in a given year.
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If you are in need of highly customized, site specific weather forecasts and/or storm warnings for your business, school or event, be sure visit my professional webpage at WeatherGuidance.com.
