Wednesday, November 5, 2008

3 years ago never forget The Evansville/Henderson KY tornado tragedy

Nov 6th 2005 a day that changed many people;s thoughts on Tornado Saftey and Night time and fall Tornadoes.

* This is one of the four Tornado Outbreaks I will discuss.
* This is more than just a really bad fall outbreak and is probably the worst Tornado Outbreak to hit Western Ky/Southern Indiana since the Lower Ohio River Valley Tornado Outbreak of 1990.

The Setup- The atmosphere set up was typical for some type of severe weather to occur generally speaking. But generally across West Ky the storm prediction center convective outlook listed a slight risk across all of western ky and parts of western and northwestern portions of Middle Tennessee. A powerful strongly sheared low was moving though around the quad cities area with a powerful cold front moving along. A cap held throughout the day across Western Ky till finally on the morning of Nov 6th just after midnight the cap broke. Despite it being in the late night/early morning hours the capped warm sector finally was realized and a squall line full of very damaging supercells and bow echos formed. Despite the night time CAPE values and Instability were greater than forecast around 1500 j/kg there was a local area where shear and the instability were greater across Northwest Ky and Southwest IN this is where the mos destructive Tornadoes occurred.

The Effects- In an enhanced zone of shear and instability around 1:30am supported the development of two supercells which I will refer to as the Northern One( Evansville/Henderson) and the Southern One ( Crittenden/Webster County Ky) Around 1:30am the NWS Paduach issued Tornado Warnings for both these supercells. The problem was many people were asleep because it was 1:30am and didn;t have a noaa weather radio to wake them up, and to add to the unfolding drama some of these people were in moblie homes very unsafe places to be in an effect of a tornado or damaging straight line wind event. The Northern Supercell started it;s destruction in a small community in Henderson County called Smith mills where it damaged a house and left it;s tracks on floodplains in the area. This Tornado then broke a common myth by crossing the Ohio River into Indiana, Then it crossed back into Northern Henderson County were it had it;s site on Ellis Park which will become the first Horse Racing stadium to be damaged by a tornado. 8 injuries occurred here and several horses died because of there injury. The most destructive part of the Tornado was Southeast of Evansville the tornado caught many people in their sleep despite the lead time, and the Tornado became one of the deadliest in the region in many years, then it went through Newburgh IN and across several more miles. In the end a tragedy was revealed 8 million dollars worth of damage in Henderson County Ky and across Southern Indiana 25 people lost their life as they went to sleep and never got back up. Think aobut this the next time severe weather hits always have a NOAA Weather Radio encourage your friends to get one. I feel sorry for all the victims in this tragedy and i hope we all learn from it. The southern Supercell went though Crittenden and Webster County Ky luckily no deaths but several injuries and homes damaged in this event. Also winds up to 120 mph were observed in Paris Tennessee causing a few injuries and heavily damaged homes and businesses

- Significance
* People in the region and Nationwide started to understand Fall Outbreaks
* I learned it;s doesn't take a bunch of instability to start a wicked Tornado outbreak with good shear and all the other factors marginal to moderate shear could be all you need
* The Importance of NOAA Weather Radio's was known this led to me getting one and also Indiana passing the groundbreaking CJ's Law
* In these events you learn not to take life for granted live each moment like it is your last.

Resources
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/pah/?n=top10of2005
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/051105_rpts.html
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/archive/2005/day1otlk_20051105_2000.html
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/watch/2005/ww0844.html- T-storm Watch
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/watch/2005/ww0845.html Tornado Watch

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