Monday, June 16, 2008

Nature whips up the "father" of all wind storms on Father's Day, Possible Tornado in Remington

The worst damage I saw in our viewing hit Creasy Lane. Roof damage was easy to see at Christ Memorial Temple

Hurricane wind gusts of 75 to 80 mph hit this church while folks were praying. Luckily services were being held in the other adjacent church. There was no basement so everybody got to their safe spot by moving to the center aisle as the sky turned midnight dark and opened up with buckets of rain. The roar of the wind sounded as if a jet was lifting off nearby. They did a great job of staying away from the outside walls and getting to the interior of the lower-level. It was a mass many will never forget and the best part was nobody got hurt!


Wildcat contracting fixed this roof almost as fast as the storms blew through!

Simply amazing! Our weather here in Indiana is unrivaled when it comes to not only our weather, but how quickly it can change. We went from having a very low risk of any thunderstorms on Father's Day to a moderate risk of severe weather in less than 10 hours. It is a good thing I cut my body pump class a few minutes short, because the storms hit fast and furious.

You see the sturdy medal rooftop that was ripped off this building like it was a toy house off of Creasy Lane surrounding the Road and Rail Securities. This was some of the most impressive straight-line wind damage I have seen in Tippecanoe County in several years.

I am glad everybody is safe and sound. That was my best Father's Day gift of all along with a very nice "wild thing" card that sang to me from my wife. Nature I guess did not want to be outdone! I did find time to wish my Father a happy Father's Day down in Florida. I will always remember how we went to fly our kite when I was only 3 and he told me about all the different types of clouds. How I remember that day, I will never know. But I do and it was a sure sign I would be a meteorologist some day! Thanks Dad! I also wanted to thank my oldest two daughters for coming out with me on damage assessment. Lauren was a bit too young to come along but it did turn into a special Father's Day I will never forget and not just because of the storms. My daughters took pictures and I explained and showed them why they are told to get in their safe spots during severe weather. Notice this swing set we found under a four foot in diameter tree at Munger Park. This is why we tell people over and over during severe weather to get inside and also get into the lower-level interior rooms away from outside walls. Sometimes these huge trees fall on homes.

Brian Wolf our new weekend weatherman was with me and I do not think he has ever laughed so much. The Prangley girls were quite entertaining. Brian did a great job this weekend! It was his first time on TV and he had almost everything in the book thrown at him. I told him at least he did not have flying frogs like I did my first weekend on the air back in Gainesville, Florida but what happened today you can say was almost the equivalent of that. Brian has a great future in this business!

Brian and I were treated to stories of how the Prangley family reacted to the storms while Dad was at work. Abbey graded better than normal and although she did a lot of pacing during yesterday's storms, she did stay calm. Megan followed our weather team's advice during the heart of the storm by getting some pillows and taking our family dog BJ into the bathroom. Why she did not take the rest of her family with her, I do not know. My Father's Day advice for her is to always make sure the entire family is accounted for and gets in the safe spot with her and then if the dog is nearby to grab him as well. Remember to stay alert and wait for the all clear. You want to turn up your television set so you can hear what is going on while in your safe spot. Do not doze off like Megan was doing. She told me she almost fell asleep.

God blessed me with a great family and I have learned patience that is for sure. They also help me communicate to the public during severe weather because I know everybody reacts to severe weather differently.

So remember to get everybody in your family on the same page, no matter how many different personalities are running rampant. The Prangley's will have a family meeting about this. Maybe I should install a camera in my neighborhood and at my house so I can monitor these people! We can go from the Renaissance Cam to the Prangley Cam and that way I can go over what they are doing right or what they are doing that is not so right. :) You want to talk about good reality TV. The looks you would see on my face would probably be priceless. But in all seriousness, the main thing I care about is everybody staying calm and safe, but you also need to take action and stay alert.

I have confirmed last night's storms as straight-line wind damage, but the wind did hit the earth with such force it did scatter debris that made it look like a tornado was hitting at times as you see above. This was taken off Interstate 65 and state road 18 just outside of Brookston. This was one of the areas where we had unconfirmed reports of tornadoes. Thanks to Bob McCutcheon we can see it was not a tornado. This was an impressive mix of a shelf cloud and haboob or dust storm created by the extremely high winds. It does look very scary that is for sure! There have been no verified tornadoes across area, but I cannot totally rule out a gustnado making brief contact with the ground in portions of White County near Buffalo, another one in Otterbein, and another possible one in northeast Clinton County. Here is what it looked like near Frankfort. Rick Ryan sent in all of these very dramatic photos.

Gustnadoes are cousins of tornadoes and some weather offices classify them as weak tornadoes while others do not. Yesterday was one of those days after looking at all the evidence and looking at pictures where I think these debris clouds would still fit the category more as straight-line winds than tornadoes or gustnadoes. I am very picky about these things as you can imagine. The wind damage in a lot of the pictures above goes to show you that straight-line winds can cause as much damage sometimes as small tornadoes. Speaking of tornadoes check out the picture below.
We took this picture around 6 pm tonight at our home that is just on southside of Remington. We watched the rotation touch the field, go over our house & into the field to the east of us.

Now new pictures and evidence is coming in from Jasper County that there may have been a tornado touchdown on the southside of Remington. You can see the brief e-mail above sent in to our weather team. I do think if there was an actual tornado yesterday it would have been in this area. Live Doppler 18 was showing plenty of purple and wind shear in this area before it became a potent straight-line wind producer. I may have to go check it out in person and if you live in this area please send in some more pictures. Mary Anne Best has us covered and I will talk more to her in-depth sometime today. What do you think?


Check back for more dramatic storm photos here on the blog along with some more storm stories from where you live. I will try to confirm the tornado. Enjoy the beautiful day and I look forward to seeing you tonight with much brighter days ahead. Last night's sunset was a sign of better more tranquil days ahead!

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

My wife and I were out right after the storm that hit the Remington area around 6pm Sunday. Several trees and limbs were blown down around town. I know of one home on the south road out of Remington right on the edge of town that had several trees down in there yard. Also a telephone pole by Lake Arthur Estates was leaning to the east after the storm. This would of been close to the area were the first picture was sent in from. I really don't know if it was a tornado that hit the area. But the picture sent in definately had a debris cloud and what appeared to be a funnel coming up from it. The picture here was to small to really tell though. We were out around the south side and really didn't see any tornado type of damage to crops in the fields like you normally get with a path of corn or beans being plowed up or laying flat. We traveled to Wolcott as well to see if maybe they received damage there. Nothing looked damaged. I did here several reports that a tornado was sighted around the Farm Builder Business outside of Remington. Several reports came in about people sighting it from I-65 and the Travelers Plaza and McDonalds out on the US-24 and I-65 intersection. I do know that winds here we're strong enough to blow good size branches from tree tops and toss them a fair distance. Also my homes front door was blown open almost hitting my wife in the back. Our front door faces west in town.

Vince Sanders

Anonymous said...

Thanks to Weather Team 18 for the coverage last night. Just a reminder to all, if your power goes out, tune to 107 FM for Mike's broadcast for up to date weather information. It was especially helpful last night when we lost power at the height of the storm. Thank you too Justin for your info, we appreciate it.

ML

Anonymous said...

I love the pics..looks like what went over wallmart..I got a few pics.

Anonymous said...

Thoughs are some great pictures mike.
We here at home did not get any damage to are property thank goodness!
I do hope everyone is safe renee glad you got you pictures at
wal-mart.
And thanks to all the bloggers for all your help I enjoy your posting
THANKS AGAIN... you are all good friends :)

Justin in Lafayette

Bull/Bear Forecast Team said...

http://pictures.sprintpcs.com/mmps/000_0731a8b980d1e35e_1/2?&&iconifyVideo=false&outquality=90&contenttype=application/x-quicktimeplayer

Copy and paste entire link. Taken near the US231 and I65 exit(Wayfara).

Tornado or no? Sorry video is poor, taken with Cell phone....

Bull/Bear Forecast Team

Anonymous said...

Bull/Bear, I tried to cut and paste that link, it did not work.

ML

Bull/Bear Forecast Team said...

http://pictures.sprintpcs.com/?mivt=PE6rJe7O8h89k5JkkUd0&shareName=MMS


Try that.... when I copy and paste the other link it works...odd...

Bull/Bear

Oh Yeah... Saw the hay going down today... Might rain between now and Thurs.... You heard it hear first....

Anonymous said...

Well at least we dont have to worrie about any bad weather today
so I say hit the pool!!! :)

PS. I could not get the link pulled up eather.

Justin in Lafayette.

Anonymous said...

There it works :)!!!

Justin in Lafayette.

Anonymous said...

We were at Indiana Beach yesterday when the storm came in. Pretty bad driving back to Lafayette. By the time we got home we had a very large branch and swing on top of our pond and porch. And another one in my flower bed. My inlaws live next door said it sounded like a tornado came in between our houses. I was not expecting to come home to have to clean my yard up.

Anonymous said...

Justin, you are the best, I was upset when I read the rude comment from anonymous, I am the one that wrote in your defence!!! You know who I am, the doggie sunscreen lady!

Enjoy your pool today, it is wonderful out side.. keep posting dude!!! your friend

Anonymous said...

A friend and I were on I-65 northbound about 1/2 mile from the Remington exit when we ran into this mess. I pulled over to the side of the road and we abandon the car and jumped into the nearby ditch for safety - face first in the mud. The roar of the wind as it was whipping over our heads is a sound that I will never EVER forget. We both have a few cuts and scratches but are fine otherwise. We saw the funnel - this wasn't just a windstorm.

Anonymous said...

WOW everyone has all these stories to tell about the storm and all I can say is we were very lucky because we did not see anything that bad thank goodness again all we had here was just some high winds that only lasted about 20-to 25 min and some rain only 0.25 so we were lucky!!!

Justin in Lafayette.

Anonymous said...

I am kind of curious why the weather radios and indy tv stations never reported a possible tornado in clinton county lastnight. my family was listening on the scanner to state and local police as well as the skywarn spotters, they all reported possible funnels , at least 3, and one possible touching down with in a 25 minute period,. The Tornado Sirens in frankfort did go off. just curious if this is the type of glitch still in out weather teams relays or what ? i was shocked to never see a tornado warning officially issued on tv or with the national weather service. the police are still reporting today of the possible touchdown lastnight near frankfort around 7 pm. in the local frankfort newspapaer < ( frankforttimes ). Just surpriseing is all i guess specially this day in age, when technology is so impressive. I know the unpredictability of weather. i have been chasing and watching storms myself for a few years, as well as been to the county weather classes once a year. again, i am shocked, dumb founded, and so glad that the possible tornado and funnels didnt do any damange in frankfort, the loss of life could have been unbearing, do to lack of communication i am guessing. Thank goodness Frankfort was on it and blew the sirens ! Just wondering what you at wlfi think about this situation ? thanks Brandon ( indianapolis )

Anonymous said...

I have two neat pics that I took in the parking lot of walmart on 26 right before it hit. Maybe I should e mail them to Mike.