Updraft: February 6, 2008 Archive

Tornado tragedy

Posted at 7:01 AM on February 6, 2008 by Paul Huttner

Daylight will only begin to reveal the magnitude of the tragedy today in the southern states.

The numbers cannot tell the whole story, but they are remarkable. These numbers will change over the coming hours and days, but it's already apparent that we are looking at a "Super Tuesday Tornado Outbreak" that is as historic as it is tragic.

68 tornadoes
44 dead

Damage surveys will confirm the numbers and paths of the tornadoes, but there are reports that at least one of the tornadoes may have been a "long track" tornado, on the ground for more than an hour as it crossed the Mississippi River from Arkansas into Tennessee. These tornadoes are usually very strong (EF3 or stronger) spawned by well organized monster supercell thunderstorms. These are often the killer tornadoes, and can be more than a mile wide on the ground in places.

So far this year we've seen over 200 tornadoes in the U.S. The 3 year average for all of January and February is just 59.

SPC storm reports

Let's hope the trend of an active tornado year for 2008 eases up before tornado season here in the Upper Midwest.

PH

Cold weekend coming up....may be our last....

Posted at 10:33 PM on February 6, 2008 by Mark Seeley

The forecast for the weekend favors very cold temperatures around the state with daytime highs below zero F in many places, and just in the single digits even in the southern sections and urban heat islands. Climatology suggests that around the second week of February is often the last episode of arctic air from the high latitudes. Granted even in the Twin Cities record we can find occasions when the daytime high remains at zero F or below all day on dates in late February (the 21st in 1963 and the 24th in 1967), and even on March 1st (1962). But these are rare indeed. We can take comfort in two climatological facts: daytime highs climb into the 25 to 40 degree F range with great frequency during the second half of February; and daylength and the sun's elevation angle begin to change much more with each passing day. Something to look forward to.........as most Minnesotans begin to anticipate spring.