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10 March 2011
A Real Tornado and a Plastic One- Three Cool Videos!
An EF-2 tornado hit Theodore, Alabama on Wednesday and caused significant damage. The tornado was rated an EF-2 by meteorologists at the local NWS office in Mobile, and that indicates wind speeds of 180-218 km/hr (110-135 mph). The image below shows the track of the tornado. Notice the hardware store in the image (between the two EF-2 triangles). There were several security cameras running at the time the tornado hit …
9 March 2011
Spotting A Tornado On Your iPhone-Part Two
So what do you think? Is this a band of severe storms? For the most part they are just heavy, but there may be some strong winds in the line. Large tornadoes rarely come out of a line of storms like this. Heavy rain and gusty winds are the main threat. In part one, I discussed using the Radar Scope app to tell if you are in the path …
28 February 2011
One Dead in Tennessee Tornado
A busy day for me today. Lots of wind damage across North Alabama and a tornado just over the line in Tennessee. This is what the radar looked like at the time of the touchdown. Damage is heavy across the north end of the county, and three mobile homes near Estill Springs are just gone. One of the fatalities occurred there. While on the air, the image below is what …
1 February 2011
Australia Braces as Cyclone Yasi Hits 120kts.
After the floods last month in Queensland, Australia does NOT need this. Cyclone YASI is headed for North Queensland and it is one mean storm. Winds are extreme in YASI with Three second wind gusts estimated at 120 knots. Sustained 10 minute winds are at 85 kts. and climbing. Yasi is a huge storm and also a wet one. It looks very likely there will be a direct hit and the biggest threat is not the winds, but massive flooding.
26 October 2010
Autumn Twisters On The Prowl
When most folks think of tornadoes, they imagine a warm spring afternoon suddenly turning stormy. More often than not this is true but there are glaring exceptions. Last night was one and Tuesday will be another. A powerful storm system has been winding up in the Plains. Last night a band of storms from Texas to Alabama brought tornadoes and large hail. Here in North Alabama, I was up for much …
25 June 2010
Trouble Brewing In The Western Caribbean?
It seems we may have our first Atlantic Basin tropical system forming this evening. I’ve been here in Miami all week at the annual AMS Conference on Broadcast Meteorology. This is the 38th Broadcast Conference and one of the best I’ve attended. The Director of the National Hurricane Center and many of their forecasters put on an excellent seminar Wednesday on tropical meteorology. Director Bill Read also spoke at our …
4 May 2010
Flood Waters and Ash From Space
The ash is back. Ireland has just announced airspace closings for tomorrow and there is now concern that the ash may start to seriously effect flights in the UK. If Gatwick and Heathrow in London shut down the impact will be felt worldwide. Looking at the model data tonight, the greatest threat seems to be Ireland but there may be a narrow window late tomorrow when the ash will be …
3 May 2010
Is The Ash Coming Back?? Maybe
Ireland is closing it’s airspace at 7am Tuesday morning because of ash. The ash is below 20,000 feet so it may not be too disruptive to transatlantic air traffic. The ash is expected to drift over the UK later Tuesday and this may impact Heathrow and Gatwick. If that happens, you will see major disruptions. Below is the latest forecast from the UK Met office: The eruption shows no sign …
1 May 2010
Arkansas Tornados, Nashville Floods and Oil Slick Growing
Tornadoes hit Arkansas last night and today and have also done damage in Miss. and Tennessee. Incredible rainfall totals of near or over 10 inches have ben reported across a wide swath of Tennessee. I just saw a recent report of a destroyed mobile home seen FLOATING down I-24 near Nashville. A pass by one of NASA’s MODIS satellites at 11:40am (1640GMT) shows the oil slick in the Gulf has …
28 April 2010
Albertville Was Luckier Than Most- Here is why.
The EF 3 tornado that hit Albertville developed very rapidly. It first touched down just west of the city. It was on the ground for about 30 minutes and lifted near Geraldine in Dekalb County. We were able to give nearly 30 minutes warning for the folks in Geraldine. Albertville had 7 to 8 minutes. That may not sound like much, but for a town at the beginning of the …
Dan Satterfield has worked as an on air meteorologist for 32 years in Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama. Forecasting weather is Dan's job, but all of Earth Science is his passion. This journal is where Dan writes about things he has too little time for on air. Dan blogs about peer-reviewed Earth science for Junior High level audiences and up.