Tornado in Suffolk Virginia, now we are not use to it (pics)?

Question

check out the pics what do you think, they are not my pics but it was less then a 1/4 mile from my house, to close for comfert.

What you think we are freaking out.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18910422@N08/page2/

Answer 1

Yesterday was an incredibly scary day for many in portions of NC.  Yesterday was highly underforecasted by meteorologists and those at the Storm Prediction Center due to the fact that every single model underdid key parameters, although right around 10:00 AM the SPC and even local NWS offices should have saw what was about to unfold.  By 11:00 AM there were already tornado warnings flying all over the place by the SPC still had not issued a tornado watch.  The airmass was already very unstable with SBcape values nearing 1500 J/KG and LI values approaching -6 to -7!  Helicity at the 0-1 and 0-3km levels were incredibly impressive and definitely supportive of not only tornadoes but long-tracked violent tornadoes, especially with LCL levels well below 700m.  

Finally by 3:00 PM the SPC woke up and decided to issue a tornado watch.  

The tornado that went through Suffolk, VA looks to be EF4 status and this one may even be rated an EF5, which would be the second one in 2 years, with the other being the Greensburg, KS EF5.  This tornado was a massive wedge tornado which was on the ground for a while.  These types of tornadoes are extremely rare for this area.  The conditions were very favorable for this to happen though.  

Some of the storms on radar early on really didn't even look that impressive but the atmosphere had so much spin (high helicity values and decent directional shear) that tornadoes were being spawned.  

Hopefully this is another wake up call to many that tornadoes can happen anywhere at anytime especially if conditions are as favorable as they were yesterday.

The SPC and local offices did do a great job with lead time of the warnings though with an average lead time of 15 minutes for each warning.

Answer 2

God thought it was ok...

Answer 3

how scary glad your ok

Answer 4

You have my sympathies. I was surprised as well as I couldn't imagine a tornado in Virginia.

We got hit by a tornado a couple of years ago.   While we just lost some trees, it skipped over and severely damaged 4 houses about 1/4-1/2 mile away. Nothing like the damage you have there though.

Answer 5

weatherwiz is right, the SPC was caught sleeping a bit too much yesterday. All variables pointed to the creation of strong tornadoes over VA yesterday. Yet, the outlooks called for only a 2% probability of tornadoes over that region. When I looked at the current conditions, it seemed quite obvious something was about to unfold. Looking at the storm on Doppler radar, I noticed very strong and rather deep rotation, similar to what an EF4-EF5 tornado should look like on radar.

Here are some more pics and info on yesterday's tornado...

http://www.wavy.com/Global/story.asp?S=8...

http://wavy.lintvmix.com/photos-browse.p...

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/28/tornado...

Answer 6

wow, did ur house get any damage?  i think it is crazy, cuz if u look at one part of a pic a house will be demolished, and the house next door will be like nothing ever happened! WOW! mother nature mite have officially become insane! she needs a straight jacket or something! r u completely freaking out? i would be, i could never imagine that happening to me!

Answer 7

I have a nephew who lives about 5 miles from the Suffolk area that was hit.  My husband's two sisters, live a few miles from the one that hit Colonial Heights.  It's just a real miracle that no one was killed.

Answer 8

I think Mother Nature is really getting crazy now days and we should count our blessings everyday. I live in SC and we had warnings but nothing close to my house. I was still very scared and more scared after seeing what it did to Virginia.

Answer 9

What blows me away (no pun intended) is that in the first picture, some houses are obliterated while others merely feet away are just damaged and feet further from that, intact. I cannot conceive of an act of nature only affecting this house, but not that one, especially that can completely blow up a house and barely touch the house two doors down. That's very scary - who will it choose?

Answer 10

My house is in suffolk, no one is in it at the moment, I was just there this weekend to check on it and make sure that it is ready for the next tenants and left the morning of the tornados.  sunday night I prayed in the house and asked God to dwell there and keep my house from harm I asked him to have all storms pass around it, and I am blessed to say that he did exactly that.  My property is fine and I thank God for it.  I have a friend who is displaced because her neighbors house is gone and she cant stay there because they dont know the condition of the ones near it.  This is just one of those things that we have to always be prepared for and it is why we should always keep our insurance up to date and stay constantly in prayer.  Suffolk is a great place to live its clean and new and this is just one of those things.