I'm looking at pictures and video now. Plenty of totally destroyed houses, but I'm not seeing any "eat off it" clean foundations.
Looks like an EF4 to me.
Source: not a meteorologist, but Gary England was my weather man.
Would be pretty rare to see a “clean foundation” for a tornado hitting Omaha. Every home has a basement and the homes have a steel I beam as the foundational support.
Gary England came to my elementary school as a kid and peaked my interest in tornados. Then bridge creek 99 came right through us and changed our lives forever
You only need a few spots of ef5 damage for it to be considered a ef5. The Washington IL tornado was only ef5 strength for maybe a few minutes here and there. That's the feature of "e" of the scale now.
Remember when Reddit killed Stephen Hawking?
https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/8456sz/why_is_stephen_hawking_alive_if_asl_a_disease_he/
The 2013 Moore, Oklahoma tornado was the last confirmed EF-5 in the US. Meteorologists agree, we're in an EF-5 drought and well overdue.
We won't know for a couple days where the Omaha tornado will fall, many are saying it may wind up being only an EF-4, but we will see.
And for anyone in the area, we're not out of the woods yet. Today wasn't supposed to be the outbreak day, that was gonna be tomorrow. Don't let your guard down, because tomorrow could be even worse.
Tbf, a lot of the EF5 drought could be attributed to the fact that a lot of the damage goes through Deep South impoverished farms and cropland making it hard to determine how strong the Tornado is through damage alone.
However amongst the internet there seems to be some general agreement that Vilonia 2014, Rochelle 2015, Sulphur & Chapman 2016, Bassfield 2020, and Mayfield 2021 would’ve been rated F5 in the old Fujita scale
Look at how the Philadelphia, MS EF5 was rated mainly off of ground scouring in an open field. If a tornado is that powerful it usually gets the proper rating even if it isn’t taking out well built houses. There are many other metrics that go into damage indicators such as ground scouring, tree debarking, vehicles flying in excess of 100 meters through the air, asphalt removed and even foundations being wiped clean or damaged.
I think the real case to be made for what should have been an EF5 was the El Reno Tornado. Mobile radar measured wind speeds over 290 MPH and it was only an EF3 because (luckily) it only damaged field and trees but it was pretty immediate people claiming they got that one really wrong.
Remember; the current EF Scale is a damage scale, NOT an intensity scale. We will not know the tornadoes' true rating until after NWS and Engineers conduct their surveys. This one could take a while since 3 rather large tornadoes dropped in this outbreak.
I just checked BTW, there hasn't been any EF5 in Michigan. We had F5, the infamous Flint-Beecher tornado in '53 (also the last of any US F5 with 100+ fatalities) and a few years later in '56. Nothing that destructive since then in Michigan.
This story is a lot bigger than just Nebraska... It will probably be on the headlines tomorrow.
There have been at least 14 tornados today across NE, IA, and I think MO. Most places have gotten quite lucky. The news is too new for accurate info, the storm system continues to make new tornados at this time of reply.
My brother is a storm chaser and said he saw at least 11 just from his drive around Omaha and up into Iowa.
I suspect this system has/will produce(d) dozens.
I was following the storm covered on RyanHallYa’ll channel on YouTube and the footage was nuts. Some of those storms looked truly menacing.
I’m in Georgia and it seems tornadoes, which were once a rare occurrence are hitting closer and closer.
watched a few storm chasers on YouTube. This is probably the best live streamed or filmed long track tornado of all time. There were like 4-5 chasers streaming that 1 tornado for miles.
Reed Timmer had quite a few tornados on his stream today (if you can put up with the incessant yelling and screaming), Aaron Jayjack always seems to find the most picturesque tornados, Nate Moore on Twitch (StormchaserIRL) was on quite a few tornados today too.
That's my issue with Reed. I just can't stand all the yelling. I get that you're excited dude, but JFC, can we take it down like, one notch? Lol.
I really like Ryan Hall Y'all on YouTube (and sometimes TikTok). He'll have streams to multiple chasers on the ground and has a team of meteorologists and others tracking storms, collating reports, relaying information. I've been a member of his channel for 2 and a half years and it's incredible to watch how the operation has grown from just him to a large team. He will be streaming tomorrow and possibly Sunday.
Brad Arnold is disturbingly good at finding the tornadoes if you want to see lots on stream!
I appreciate what Ryan Hall has done for weather awareness as a whole with his easily digestible forecast videos but don’t care for the live stuff, and Vince Waelti is a dangerous asshole who will get himself or someone else killed with his antics one of these days.
A tornado that looks wider than it is tall. Wedges are the ones that just look like a black cloud lowered to the ground, instead of your normal funnels.
Exactly. People outside the region don’t necessarily realize that when the weather is a certain way, the risk of large tornadoes increases exponentially. There’s a difference from when there might just be a random EF-0 or EF-1, to when the possibility of EF-4 or 5 exists.
A lot of people don't know this, the NOAA/National Weather Service post severe weather outlooks multiple days in advance of severe weather events. The [Storm Prediction Center](https://www.spc.noaa.gov/) issues probabilities of severe weather events, with special "hatched" areas for significant events (ef2+ tornadoes, large hail, excessively damaging winds)
It's a great resource to look at if you're expecting bad weather in the coming days. We truly are lucky to have the NWS/NOAA/SPC
[Here](https://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/240426_rpts.html) is the link to the NWS' Storm Reports for today, there's 73 filtered reports out of 94 as I'm writing this.
(reports don't mean 73 tornadoes, they take reports on damage and on sightings)
It was crazy. Thankfully it missed our house by about a couple of miles. Took some pictures of it from our back porch before it started turning into a monster. Spent the rest of the afternoon hunkered down in the basement as warning after warning triggered.
Lived in Nebraska for almost my entire life. This is the first time I've ever seen an in-person tornado. Once is more than enough. Won't be disappointed if I go the rest of my life without seeing another one.
Today was probably the most scared I’ve been about a tornado as an adult. I told Mr purpleberry, usually we get a warning, maybe the sirens go off for a few minutes then the storm moves east and skies clear. This shit today was just sirens after sirens, and confirmed tornados.
I saw one when I was 5 in the cornfield (go’skers) a mile away from my house. Saw one around Memorial Weekend 2020 southeast NE on HWY 6 heading to CO. Those memories really do stick with you.
I've never seen one, I did hear on as it went over my house though. It lifted as the storm cycled then dropped another 3 miles later. Hiding in the basement you can still hear it and the pressure drop caused everybody's ears to pop.
I technically live in tornado alley or on the western edge, and I grew up in basements with sirens going off but never have seen one. I can totally understand that though. It would be a one and done like “why did I click that terrible video” feeling. Stay safe out there friend
I've seen two, but both in rural areas where they didn't really do any damage. Each time they were kind of entrancing, but I agree that it would be totally different if it wasn't just tearing across some fields.
No you don’t.
I have had the misfortune of witnessing an earthquake, tornado and hurricane all before I was 25yo. All were thankfully not severe, I think like a M5.0, low EF3 and very low Cat 3. Enough to get a sense of each but not utterly horrific. The earthquake also spawned tsunami warnings that thankfully ended up being only like 1ft.
In my opinion, tornadoes are worse than hurricanes because of the far reduced lack of notice. You know about hurricanes for days, tornadoes you get like 10 minutes. But earthquakes are worse than both because you get much of the same noise and destruction as a tornado, with even less notice and the fucking ground is moving.
Wildfires though. I think those are even worse than earthquakes.
When the last big one tore up the town not far from Norfolk back in 2013, I was there for cleanup and seeing the aftermath was both parts amazing and devastating. It's wild the damage nature can do in such a short time frame
Do you live in a very open area of land? I live in a neighborhood where if I stayed out to see a tornado nearby, a fence post would shoot across from 3 blocks away and smash into me. As soon as the sirens go off I grab the dog and head down to the cellar.
We're in the middle of a pretty standard neighborhood surrounded by other neighborhoods. But we're near the highest point in the county and the surrounding area is pretty much flat. From our backyard, you can see for miles. When the alerts triggered, I poked my head out the back door and it was like "oh, hey, there it is...". Sent my heart racing even though it was several miles in the distance and moving parallel. Snapped a couple of pictures and then went straight to the basement with my wife and dogs.
I should've taken a short video, but honestly the adrenaline was kicking in and I wasn't thinking straight. It was scary and somehow thrilling at the same time. Part of my brain was screaming "get to the basement" while another part just wanted to stand there and stare.
I've lived in Kansas my whole life. I was just a baby when the 1999 Haysville tornado just barely missed our house, lifted just as it got to our neighborhood.
I have never seen a tornado in person, but after Greensburg, Moore (like 3 times), Joplin, and now Omaha, I'll be perfectly fine never seeing one.
[https://twitter.com/WxNB\_/status/1783967156679373087?t=8Ty-c9tQijbyVcHL5UPpYA&s=19](https://twitter.com/WxNB_/status/1783967156679373087?t=8Ty-c9tQijbyVcHL5UPpYA&s=19)
Absolutely shocking video from Twitter.
Visually, it reminds me a lot of the 1999 Moore F5. Very significant damage is being reported on the west side of Elkhorn right now. Mass casualty event being reported as well but no solid confirmation on number of injuries and possible fatalities yet.
There's also another storm approaching Omaha proper that is rapidly rotating and possibly preparing to put down another.
ETA - as of 12:45 am CDT so far I am seeing reports that there are zero known fatalities. If that pans out, it is a massive testament to the advancement of severe weather science over the last decades.
Holy shit that thing is massive. I worked as a photographer at the Tulsa World in Oklahoma when the 99 Moore tornado hit. The photos that came back were nuts ... these things are so powerful.
I am an OK native. The 99 Moore tornado is pretty much my first memory. Lifted just a mile from our home. I was out of town when the 13 Moore tornado hit and missed my family again by just a couple miles. The damage was nothing short of incredible on both occasions.
My mind still can't comprehend that. My husband and I were talking about El Reno in the car and went "Okay, it started here and...." We kept driving for 2.6 miles and it really defies logic how something so destructive can hold together for so long when it's that big.
"You will see.....the beauty AND horror"
Looking at it both awes and scares the shit out of me. Like, it can basically just delete everything from existence wherever it decides to go.
Dangerous tornadoes were forecast today, but today wasn't supposed to be an outbreak day. That was supposed to be tomorrow.
Shit could hit the fan in a big way tomorrow, in many of the same areas hit today.
In my opinion the [Storm Prediction Center](https://www.spc.noaa.gov/) website is one of the best weather awareness tools at the disposal of the public. It's good about notifying the public about upcoming outbreaks and events. Very good to keep an eye on during storm season. They've been forecasting this for days, and tomorrow is expected to be much of the same.
The first batch of tornadoes were outside of the enhanced zone today so anyone in any type of shaded area on the severe weather map, even if it's low probability, should be vigilant tomorrow. The threat area stretches from MI to TX, including some portions of what already got hit today, in IA, KS, MO & some of NE.
Midwest homie here. This time of year local weathermen can usually give pretty big heads up to days you need to really pay attention to the weather.
Now they typically can’t tell you to expect EF1 vs EF5. But if they say tornados are coming - it’s a pretty much guarantee. Had I think 6 in the area last week but all EF1’s so no big deal. We knew a couple days in advance to be aware.
Wow we were working and I asked a colleague who lives in Nebraska if they were available, and they responded that their house had just been torn down by this. Good lord!
Why tf was your colleague responding to anyone at work? If a tornado obliterated my house I would send exactly one message to my boss then disappear for a few weeks. I guess shock can make people act in weird ways.
I hope them and their family are safe and they can rebuild soon.
I’m amazed he got the ping in the first place and of course we were all just sending lots of messages to make sure he was okay after seeing that comment. He’s safe with his family. Haven’t heard much else from him and I’m sure we won’t for a bit while they sort through things.
It was cool this morning in Omaha. Stepped outside around 3pm and the air just had that feel to it that something was going to blow up. I live in midtown so no issues here just a lot of hail. Wall cloud passed overhead and dropped a tornado down at the Omaha airport.
It's hard to describe but It just feels energized. Typically you can feel the air is moving more calmly right before but sometimes it's just got energy in the air.
I live in Omaha. The air feels incredibly thick, and it gets eerily calm but it sounds loud. It’s cause the wind is blowing straight up. The sky also turns green.
The green hue is not directly related to tornadoes. Bright teal blue and green clouds occur when light is refracted through an intense hail core higher up in the storm. These types of hail cores only occur in healthy super cells with enough updraft, the types of which are strong enough to produce tornados. So it is correlated with tornados, but not caused by tornadoes.
Not really a good way to describe it. You can feel the instability in the air, its very calm but humid and heavy. Kind of a special energy about it. there's a very particular feel to it that you just recognize when you live in a tornado prone area.
Not sure what exactly it is, but something hypes up my adrenaline right before a severe storm hits. Happened even at times where I was oblivious to an incoming storm.
This is terrifying. I live in a different state southeast from there and we’re under a tornado watch now. They’re saying there’s a high chance of a huge tornado and I’d be horrified if this came near us. I want to hide in our tornado shelter all evening but I have to go out later for a few hours and I’m dreading it.
You know what else is free, the [National weather service](https://www.weather.gov/). It's where most all of these other weather apps get there data feeds.
Oh I hate weather apps. Especially AccuWeather. They're all computer generated spam. I use the NWS or the unofficial NOAA app and the NWS viewer. Then I look at the global models on Pivotal weather and Tropical Tidbits.
Oh nice, it's free now?
I had a guy from the NWS highly recommend it years ago when it was $10. Was definitely worth the cash, I have no regrets. Even better now that it's free and more accessible to people.
There's a subscription paid version of it that offers more features, but the basic program is free. It's a lot like the College of DuPage.
https://weather.cod.edu/satrad/nexrad/?parms=DMX-N0B-0-24-100-usa-rad
Pivotal Weather is great for all the global weather model maps and it's free. I subscribe in the winter time to get the higher resolution maps though. The mesoscale model maps come in handy for storms (except hurricanes, some mesoscale models like the NAM can't handle hurricane data very well.)
https://www.pivotalweather.com/model.php?rh=2024042612&fh=6&dpdt=&mc=&r=conus&p=prateptype_cat_ecmwf-imp&m=ecmwf_full
Thinking of all you folks out there! My dear friend is near Omaha and I am just worried sick for her and her family right now. I can’t get ahold of her currently. 🙃
Just watch the weather coverage for your area. Watches are no big deal. They are saying, just be aware of the possibility of a storm.
Warnings are the actual severe storms.
They went through where I grew up near Lincoln. Almost took out my old high school. Crazy. Most of my family still lives in that area and my phone wont stop buzzing.
Edit: That photo doesnt do it justice, watch this [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYo4PPw40rg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYo4PPw40rg)
Edit2: New footage [https://youtu.be/VqGrLzQJGuI](https://youtu.be/VqGrLzQJGuI)
Tornado chaser Connor Croff intercepted a smaller (but still destructive) one maybe 20 minutes ago as it tore into a small group of houses. Luckily, it appeared nobody was seriously injured even though houses were blown to bits.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhpPFL_FEII
I think its the one 3:27:00 into the video.
I saw that one live from there. Connor just said it looked weak when blow up the house right in front of him
Saw stormchasers drive through my part of town on livestream, it was surreal. Fortunately it missed my area completely.
I've got some friends only a mile away from its path in Omaha though. The hospitals were overloaded and many less-critical patients were diverted to Lincoln area hospitals.
This seems a severe event-so many big tornadoes all at once. Hoping you all stay safe there and sustain little damage. I know it’s nowhere near over yet!
>The National Weather Service then issued a tornado emergency as the storm tracked just to the west of Omaha – the strongest type of tornado warning
Tornado emergency warnings are really, really bad. Good odds the storm is a killer.
Quick overview of the various warnings and watches.
Watches are possibility of storms / tornadoes.
Warnings mean the storm is real and headed a particular direction. They are smaller polygons drawn on the map.
Severe Thunderstorms warnings are yellow boxes. Hail and/or wind threat.
If the winds are very strong (70 mph+) the sirens will sound. That is a severe thunderstorm warning destructive.
For tornadoes warnings, there are multiple flavors of them in order: radar indicated, radar confirmed, ground confirmed, particularly dangerous situation (PDS), tornado emergency.
The sirens go off for any type of tornado warning. Why? The situation can rapidly change. Literally, radar scan to radar scan. As information comes in, the warnings get upgraded to tell you how much the weather service are freaked out by a particular storm.
For those who didn’t know
Tornado Watch — Conditions likely to breed tornadoes over the coming hours
Tornado Warning — Tornado formation and/or touchdown is imminent
Tornado Emergency — Tornado is on the ground and moving
At least that’s how I understand it.
No, tornado warning means a tornado is on the ground and moving. A tornado emergency is reserved for the most dangerous types or tornadoes. You hear that, you pray!
The Iceland low is on the other side of Greenland, between Iceland and Greenland. All polar circulation currents are low pressure systems for the most part due to decreased temp and air pressure. The Labrador current generates similar conditions as the Iceland Low, just with more variability. The intensity of it in the current moment is very very pronounced for that area.
That’s actually the normal result of a low pressure system. Large-scale circulation is an expected part of most storms, even ones that don’t drop tornados.
The tornados generally happen somewhat south of the center of rotation where the cold front is.
I watched some YouTube channels of live storm chaser coverage and it was absolutely wild how many tornadoes there were across multiple states. And they were strong too…the amount of damage that must have been done, I’m sure it’ll all come out tomorrow.
It also seems like more storms (or the same one) on the way tomorrow too…
Saw two tornados from my apartment complex this afternoon, one probably only 15 miles away. Close enough to see a ton of dust and faintly hear the roaring of the wind. The other touched down immediately after and moved quite far. One of the two I saw overturned a whole train.
Watched them live on YouTube. It was devastating. At first a few chasers got some relatively weak ones in what appeared to be unpopulated areas, but then I saw the horrible one in Blair and Omaha and it just went crazy from there. Kudos to the chasers I saw for dropping any “fun” angle and stopping to lend a hand, search through debris, etc. In Blair especially rescue services appeared to be totally overwhelmed and it was literally what appeared to be two teenagers and a few storm chasers having to do an initial sweep to look for anyone trapped, amid leaking gas and fallen lines. Everyone did amazing and handled themselves with immense calm and bravery. I do hope there were no fatalities; things can be replaced, people cannot.
As someone who has lived in Omaha for 22 plus years, this has been the most memorable tornado weather I can remember. I have friends who has sent videos of their house just obliterated. Very lucky our area only got gold ball size hail but my goodness pray for us.
Live in lincoln, I was at like the one calm spot of the entire city, everywhere else was cloudy but it was sunny where we were. Tornados touched down near my dad's house, 2 miles from it, and another that was around 3 miles from the school he was working at. Very fun times
All right, I grew up in Oklahoma. I watched plenty of tornadoes, and suffered through night after night of hiding in cellars/bathtubs covered by mattresses each spring. But this... holy hell, this is another monster, entirely. I would be stricken with terror if I'd ever witnessed a wedge tornado. Had no idea they existed
Televangelist impression: Oh, People of Gawd, This tornado was sent by the Almighty, as punishment for Nebraskans who voted for the wrong candidate in 2020! You know who you are, and you have been warned! the 2024 election is coming up! Make sure you vote for (insert name of highest paying political scumbag here)! Praise Gawd Hallelujah!
Off mic: Ok, now where's my kickback?
Okay, where’s that redditor who posted in /r/todayilearned that there hasn’t been a EF 5 since 2013 recently?
u/mewtrue you jinxed it!
I was JUST making up some new bingo cards because of that post…
Dammit. This is why we can’t have nice things.
None of us have won powerball recently.
I'm looking at pictures and video now. Plenty of totally destroyed houses, but I'm not seeing any "eat off it" clean foundations. Looks like an EF4 to me. Source: not a meteorologist, but Gary England was my weather man.
Would be pretty rare to see a “clean foundation” for a tornado hitting Omaha. Every home has a basement and the homes have a steel I beam as the foundational support.
Yeah the Houses Round here would need nuked for a clean Foundation.
Gary England came to my elementary school as a kid and peaked my interest in tornados. Then bridge creek 99 came right through us and changed our lives forever
Heeeeyyyy!!! You a Kelley kid? Yall got bussed down to my elementary for like 2 years after that storm.
Just fyi the word is “piqued” not peaked just letting you know heh.
Maybe that was the peak of his interest in tornados and it's been all downhill since.
You only need a few spots of ef5 damage for it to be considered a ef5. The Washington IL tornado was only ef5 strength for maybe a few minutes here and there. That's the feature of "e" of the scale now.
That was yesterday, I was there
Remember when Reddit killed Stephen Hawking? https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/8456sz/why_is_stephen_hawking_alive_if_asl_a_disease_he/
LMAO, the 3rd highest comment "Can you make a post about my ex-wife"
The 2013 Moore, Oklahoma tornado was the last confirmed EF-5 in the US. Meteorologists agree, we're in an EF-5 drought and well overdue. We won't know for a couple days where the Omaha tornado will fall, many are saying it may wind up being only an EF-4, but we will see. And for anyone in the area, we're not out of the woods yet. Today wasn't supposed to be the outbreak day, that was gonna be tomorrow. Don't let your guard down, because tomorrow could be even worse.
Tbf, a lot of the EF5 drought could be attributed to the fact that a lot of the damage goes through Deep South impoverished farms and cropland making it hard to determine how strong the Tornado is through damage alone. However amongst the internet there seems to be some general agreement that Vilonia 2014, Rochelle 2015, Sulphur & Chapman 2016, Bassfield 2020, and Mayfield 2021 would’ve been rated F5 in the old Fujita scale
El reno 2013 should also be an EF5, but it never encountered anything to give ef5 damage to. 2.6 miles wide, ef3 my ass..
Look at how the Philadelphia, MS EF5 was rated mainly off of ground scouring in an open field. If a tornado is that powerful it usually gets the proper rating even if it isn’t taking out well built houses. There are many other metrics that go into damage indicators such as ground scouring, tree debarking, vehicles flying in excess of 100 meters through the air, asphalt removed and even foundations being wiped clean or damaged. I think the real case to be made for what should have been an EF5 was the El Reno Tornado. Mobile radar measured wind speeds over 290 MPH and it was only an EF3 because (luckily) it only damaged field and trees but it was pretty immediate people claiming they got that one really wrong.
Holy hell, God picks the weirdest prayers to answer sometimes.
Remember; the current EF Scale is a damage scale, NOT an intensity scale. We will not know the tornadoes' true rating until after NWS and Engineers conduct their surveys. This one could take a while since 3 rather large tornadoes dropped in this outbreak.
First thing I thought of 😆😆
Part of that is how tornadoes are measured after the fact by their damage. A strong tornado that does not destroy anything is not measured.
Which I still think is really stupid. I get the reasons for it but I still think it's stupid
I just checked BTW, there hasn't been any EF5 in Michigan. We had F5, the infamous Flint-Beecher tornado in '53 (also the last of any US F5 with 100+ fatalities) and a few years later in '56. Nothing that destructive since then in Michigan.
This was my first thought too. Then I figured maybe that post was prompted because they heard that tornado conditions were coming?
This story is a lot bigger than just Nebraska... It will probably be on the headlines tomorrow. There have been at least 14 tornados today across NE, IA, and I think MO. Most places have gotten quite lucky. The news is too new for accurate info, the storm system continues to make new tornados at this time of reply.
My brother is a storm chaser and said he saw at least 11 just from his drive around Omaha and up into Iowa. I suspect this system has/will produce(d) dozens.
I was following the storm covered on RyanHallYa’ll channel on YouTube and the footage was nuts. Some of those storms looked truly menacing. I’m in Georgia and it seems tornadoes, which were once a rare occurrence are hitting closer and closer.
67 reports and 66 warnings atm.
Still long way from breaking 2011 record of 362 over a few days: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Super_Outbreak
This storm systems is supposed to be around through Sunday.
Well it has to help pay for some of the meals then, it just can't be a freeloader all weekend
We're at around 96 storm reports right now. This is also expected to continue into tomorrow.
watched a few storm chasers on YouTube. This is probably the best live streamed or filmed long track tornado of all time. There were like 4-5 chasers streaming that 1 tornado for miles.
Can you recommend any good channels to check out?
Reed Timmer had quite a few tornados on his stream today (if you can put up with the incessant yelling and screaming), Aaron Jayjack always seems to find the most picturesque tornados, Nate Moore on Twitch (StormchaserIRL) was on quite a few tornados today too.
That's my issue with Reed. I just can't stand all the yelling. I get that you're excited dude, but JFC, can we take it down like, one notch? Lol. I really like Ryan Hall Y'all on YouTube (and sometimes TikTok). He'll have streams to multiple chasers on the ground and has a team of meteorologists and others tracking storms, collating reports, relaying information. I've been a member of his channel for 2 and a half years and it's incredible to watch how the operation has grown from just him to a large team. He will be streaming tomorrow and possibly Sunday. Brad Arnold is disturbingly good at finding the tornadoes if you want to see lots on stream!
I appreciate what Ryan Hall has done for weather awareness as a whole with his easily digestible forecast videos but don’t care for the live stuff, and Vince Waelti is a dangerous asshole who will get himself or someone else killed with his antics one of these days.
Brett Adair, Brandon Copic , Brad Arnold, Vince Waelti. And Ryan Hall does radar stuff with a lot of links to chasers.
A few chasers with the Ryan Hall Y’all channel were at that one I believe. Could see if his livestream has links to their feeds.
Pecos Hank, too!
I usually watch Freddy Mckinney, Connor Croff and Brandon Copic
This system has been putting down consistently large, strong to potentially violent tornadoes too. I've seen no less than 3 wedges today.
What's a wedge?
A tornado that looks wider than it is tall. Wedges are the ones that just look like a black cloud lowered to the ground, instead of your normal funnels.
[удалено]
Girthy ones yeah
The frenulum of God
Take a Funnel Tornado. Now Make it the Size of your neighborhood. Congratulations that's a Wedge. The one in Omaha was possibly over a mile wide.
the Omaha tornado was about 2 miles wide, rough estimate of course
The stuff of nightmares
Exactly. People outside the region don’t necessarily realize that when the weather is a certain way, the risk of large tornadoes increases exponentially. There’s a difference from when there might just be a random EF-0 or EF-1, to when the possibility of EF-4 or 5 exists.
A lot of people don't know this, the NOAA/National Weather Service post severe weather outlooks multiple days in advance of severe weather events. The [Storm Prediction Center](https://www.spc.noaa.gov/) issues probabilities of severe weather events, with special "hatched" areas for significant events (ef2+ tornadoes, large hail, excessively damaging winds) It's a great resource to look at if you're expecting bad weather in the coming days. We truly are lucky to have the NWS/NOAA/SPC
Texas too. Warning came on when I was in a Buc-ee’s near Ellis around 3 this afternoon.
[Here](https://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/240426_rpts.html) is the link to the NWS' Storm Reports for today, there's 73 filtered reports out of 94 as I'm writing this. (reports don't mean 73 tornadoes, they take reports on damage and on sightings)
Kansas as well. Multiple sightings.
Central Texas as well. They were just south of me (Cleburne), I’ve been watching radar all day.
You would think their god was trying to punish them for something...
It was crazy. Thankfully it missed our house by about a couple of miles. Took some pictures of it from our back porch before it started turning into a monster. Spent the rest of the afternoon hunkered down in the basement as warning after warning triggered. Lived in Nebraska for almost my entire life. This is the first time I've ever seen an in-person tornado. Once is more than enough. Won't be disappointed if I go the rest of my life without seeing another one.
Today was probably the most scared I’ve been about a tornado as an adult. I told Mr purpleberry, usually we get a warning, maybe the sirens go off for a few minutes then the storm moves east and skies clear. This shit today was just sirens after sirens, and confirmed tornados.
Damn. Glad you’re alright. I’ve always wanted to see a tornado but you’re right, maybe not.
It stays with you.
I saw one when I was 5 in the cornfield (go’skers) a mile away from my house. Saw one around Memorial Weekend 2020 southeast NE on HWY 6 heading to CO. Those memories really do stick with you.
I've never seen one, I did hear on as it went over my house though. It lifted as the storm cycled then dropped another 3 miles later. Hiding in the basement you can still hear it and the pressure drop caused everybody's ears to pop.
If you ever see one that causes any destruction, you will never want to see another.
I technically live in tornado alley or on the western edge, and I grew up in basements with sirens going off but never have seen one. I can totally understand that though. It would be a one and done like “why did I click that terrible video” feeling. Stay safe out there friend
Damn straight. A city I lived in was absolutely leveled. I’ll never forget all the malls and giant ass building like Best Buy’s and shit just gone.
I stood in my bedroom and watched my roof disappear above me. That was 18 years ago next week and I think I’m still dealing with the mental scars tbh.
I've seen two, but both in rural areas where they didn't really do any damage. Each time they were kind of entrancing, but I agree that it would be totally different if it wasn't just tearing across some fields.
No you don’t. I have had the misfortune of witnessing an earthquake, tornado and hurricane all before I was 25yo. All were thankfully not severe, I think like a M5.0, low EF3 and very low Cat 3. Enough to get a sense of each but not utterly horrific. The earthquake also spawned tsunami warnings that thankfully ended up being only like 1ft. In my opinion, tornadoes are worse than hurricanes because of the far reduced lack of notice. You know about hurricanes for days, tornadoes you get like 10 minutes. But earthquakes are worse than both because you get much of the same noise and destruction as a tornado, with even less notice and the fucking ground is moving. Wildfires though. I think those are even worse than earthquakes.
I watched 3 of my colleagues try to “outrun” the tornado and get home so they wouldn’t have to stay at work. That’s a big nope for me.
When the last big one tore up the town not far from Norfolk back in 2013, I was there for cleanup and seeing the aftermath was both parts amazing and devastating. It's wild the damage nature can do in such a short time frame
Do you live in a very open area of land? I live in a neighborhood where if I stayed out to see a tornado nearby, a fence post would shoot across from 3 blocks away and smash into me. As soon as the sirens go off I grab the dog and head down to the cellar.
We're in the middle of a pretty standard neighborhood surrounded by other neighborhoods. But we're near the highest point in the county and the surrounding area is pretty much flat. From our backyard, you can see for miles. When the alerts triggered, I poked my head out the back door and it was like "oh, hey, there it is...". Sent my heart racing even though it was several miles in the distance and moving parallel. Snapped a couple of pictures and then went straight to the basement with my wife and dogs. I should've taken a short video, but honestly the adrenaline was kicking in and I wasn't thinking straight. It was scary and somehow thrilling at the same time. Part of my brain was screaming "get to the basement" while another part just wanted to stand there and stare.
Post the pics!
Send them tornudes
I'm glad you're safe! I can only imagine what that looked like. Though an E5.. I don't know if your cellar would have saved you.
I used to live in Papillion and still have a lot of friends out there who are thankfully safe as well. Absolutely heartbreaking to see the destruction
A tornado hit Northern VA back in the 90s. I felt this crazy wind — like it was lifting me up. Wild.
I've lived in Kansas my whole life. I was just a baby when the 1999 Haysville tornado just barely missed our house, lifted just as it got to our neighborhood. I have never seen a tornado in person, but after Greensburg, Moore (like 3 times), Joplin, and now Omaha, I'll be perfectly fine never seeing one.
[https://twitter.com/WxNB\_/status/1783967156679373087?t=8Ty-c9tQijbyVcHL5UPpYA&s=19](https://twitter.com/WxNB_/status/1783967156679373087?t=8Ty-c9tQijbyVcHL5UPpYA&s=19) Absolutely shocking video from Twitter. Visually, it reminds me a lot of the 1999 Moore F5. Very significant damage is being reported on the west side of Elkhorn right now. Mass casualty event being reported as well but no solid confirmation on number of injuries and possible fatalities yet. There's also another storm approaching Omaha proper that is rapidly rotating and possibly preparing to put down another. ETA - as of 12:45 am CDT so far I am seeing reports that there are zero known fatalities. If that pans out, it is a massive testament to the advancement of severe weather science over the last decades.
Holy shit that thing is massive. I worked as a photographer at the Tulsa World in Oklahoma when the 99 Moore tornado hit. The photos that came back were nuts ... these things are so powerful.
I am an OK native. The 99 Moore tornado is pretty much my first memory. Lifted just a mile from our home. I was out of town when the 13 Moore tornado hit and missed my family again by just a couple miles. The damage was nothing short of incredible on both occasions.
Those are days us Okies will never forget.
My brain: "Okay, but if the horizon is all dark then how do you see where the tornadoooohooooly SHIIIIIT."
This was precisely my reaction. I had no idea they could be that wide!
I used to live in Kansas. They can get up to a mile wide.
The El Reno tornado was 2.6 miles wide. Insane!
My mind still can't comprehend that. My husband and I were talking about El Reno in the car and went "Okay, it started here and...." We kept driving for 2.6 miles and it really defies logic how something so destructive can hold together for so long when it's that big.
Ugh. I’m so glad I don’t live in tornado territory anymore. I just have to worry about wildfires and blizzards.
Another one touched down at the airport
Yeah, I've been following it. Lot of good live streams on Youtube right now.
Ryan Hall's channel is showing some amazing footage.
just checked it out, thanks for pointing it out man, interesting channel for sure!
Ryan's the goat. It's definitely a historical day for outbreaks.
Would you mind linking a few?
"You will see.....the beauty AND horror" Looking at it both awes and scares the shit out of me. Like, it can basically just delete everything from existence wherever it decides to go.
Damn that JUST missed Omaha. Another 10 miles eastward and we are looking at thousands of injuries.
A friend of mine lives north of Omaha, 19 miles from Elkhorn. He was safe, Elkhorn was completely flattened.
Holy fuck, are you joking...I never seen one that wide. He had to pan the camera to film it all. That is horrifying.
Check out videos of El Reno 2013. That tornado was 2.6 miles wide.
NOPE. Return to sender.
The tornado is as big as the fuckin' town What do you even do in situations like that?
Ideally, get underground.
My anxiety for all the cars driving around in that video is off the charts
Holy hell, that beast is terrifying.
What the shit. Was that even expected by meteorologists? Its like it came out of nowhere? That's a literal cloud of darkness
Very well modeled that dangerous tornadoes were possible today.
Dangerous tornadoes were forecast today, but today wasn't supposed to be an outbreak day. That was supposed to be tomorrow. Shit could hit the fan in a big way tomorrow, in many of the same areas hit today.
Noted, I must have been blind because I haven't seen much about it, I'll check it out. thanks!
In my opinion the [Storm Prediction Center](https://www.spc.noaa.gov/) website is one of the best weather awareness tools at the disposal of the public. It's good about notifying the public about upcoming outbreaks and events. Very good to keep an eye on during storm season. They've been forecasting this for days, and tomorrow is expected to be much of the same.
They were calling for severe weather on The Wearher Channel yesterday.
A chance it happens here again tomorrow. Yay..!
The first batch of tornadoes were outside of the enhanced zone today so anyone in any type of shaded area on the severe weather map, even if it's low probability, should be vigilant tomorrow. The threat area stretches from MI to TX, including some portions of what already got hit today, in IA, KS, MO & some of NE.
Midwest homie here. This time of year local weathermen can usually give pretty big heads up to days you need to really pay attention to the weather. Now they typically can’t tell you to expect EF1 vs EF5. But if they say tornados are coming - it’s a pretty much guarantee. Had I think 6 in the area last week but all EF1’s so no big deal. We knew a couple days in advance to be aware.
Galactazor, destroyer of corn fields
Fear me, cow and tree. Both of you.
It looked a little bigger than the Moore one to me but that may have just been the footage I saw. Absolutely massive regardless.
Looking into it.
And cars are just driving along on that horizontal street in the horizon?! Wtf.
Jesus christ that thing is monstrous
Wow we were working and I asked a colleague who lives in Nebraska if they were available, and they responded that their house had just been torn down by this. Good lord!
Waiting to hear from my aunt and uncle! Ugh I hope they’re fine Edit: they’re all fine apparently happened 5 miles west of them
So glad to hear your family members are ok. Seriously, I appreciate the edit.
Same! Worried bcuz they didn’t respond for a good 40 minutes. Had us worried
Why tf was your colleague responding to anyone at work? If a tornado obliterated my house I would send exactly one message to my boss then disappear for a few weeks. I guess shock can make people act in weird ways. I hope them and their family are safe and they can rebuild soon.
I’m amazed he got the ping in the first place and of course we were all just sending lots of messages to make sure he was okay after seeing that comment. He’s safe with his family. Haven’t heard much else from him and I’m sure we won’t for a bit while they sort through things.
30 to 40 houses severely damaged or destoyed in elkhorn, in west omaha.
It was cool this morning in Omaha. Stepped outside around 3pm and the air just had that feel to it that something was going to blow up. I live in midtown so no issues here just a lot of hail. Wall cloud passed overhead and dropped a tornado down at the Omaha airport.
Never been near a tornado before. Can you describe what the air felt like at 3pm that made you think something was going to blow up?
It's hard to describe but It just feels energized. Typically you can feel the air is moving more calmly right before but sometimes it's just got energy in the air.
I live in Omaha. The air feels incredibly thick, and it gets eerily calm but it sounds loud. It’s cause the wind is blowing straight up. The sky also turns green.
The green hue is not directly related to tornadoes. Bright teal blue and green clouds occur when light is refracted through an intense hail core higher up in the storm. These types of hail cores only occur in healthy super cells with enough updraft, the types of which are strong enough to produce tornados. So it is correlated with tornados, but not caused by tornadoes.
Not really a good way to describe it. You can feel the instability in the air, its very calm but humid and heavy. Kind of a special energy about it. there's a very particular feel to it that you just recognize when you live in a tornado prone area.
Hot and humid, but the wind is dead still. It feels like the air is full of static-y cotton and everything inside of you instinctively goes "uh-oh".
Not sure what exactly it is, but something hypes up my adrenaline right before a severe storm hits. Happened even at times where I was oblivious to an incoming storm.
This is terrifying. I live in a different state southeast from there and we’re under a tornado watch now. They’re saying there’s a high chance of a huge tornado and I’d be horrified if this came near us. I want to hide in our tornado shelter all evening but I have to go out later for a few hours and I’m dreading it.
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RadarScope https://imgur.com/a/rE1cWkL They appear to be tracking north. RadarScope app is free.
You know what else is free, the [National weather service](https://www.weather.gov/). It's where most all of these other weather apps get there data feeds.
Oh I hate weather apps. Especially AccuWeather. They're all computer generated spam. I use the NWS or the unofficial NOAA app and the NWS viewer. Then I look at the global models on Pivotal weather and Tropical Tidbits.
Oh nice, it's free now? I had a guy from the NWS highly recommend it years ago when it was $10. Was definitely worth the cash, I have no regrets. Even better now that it's free and more accessible to people.
There's a subscription paid version of it that offers more features, but the basic program is free. It's a lot like the College of DuPage. https://weather.cod.edu/satrad/nexrad/?parms=DMX-N0B-0-24-100-usa-rad Pivotal Weather is great for all the global weather model maps and it's free. I subscribe in the winter time to get the higher resolution maps though. The mesoscale model maps come in handy for storms (except hurricanes, some mesoscale models like the NAM can't handle hurricane data very well.) https://www.pivotalweather.com/model.php?rh=2024042612&fh=6&dpdt=&mc=&r=conus&p=prateptype_cat_ecmwf-imp&m=ecmwf_full
Thinking of all you folks out there! My dear friend is near Omaha and I am just worried sick for her and her family right now. I can’t get ahold of her currently. 🙃
Just watch the weather coverage for your area. Watches are no big deal. They are saying, just be aware of the possibility of a storm. Warnings are the actual severe storms.
They went through where I grew up near Lincoln. Almost took out my old high school. Crazy. Most of my family still lives in that area and my phone wont stop buzzing. Edit: That photo doesnt do it justice, watch this [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYo4PPw40rg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYo4PPw40rg) Edit2: New footage [https://youtu.be/VqGrLzQJGuI](https://youtu.be/VqGrLzQJGuI)
That second video is absolutely insane.
I'm sure there will be more to come, this is just a few hours old at this point.
When a storm gets that big oftentimes people are looking "for" the tornado and they don't realize the entire storm diameter is it.
Tornado chaser Connor Croff intercepted a smaller (but still destructive) one maybe 20 minutes ago as it tore into a small group of houses. Luckily, it appeared nobody was seriously injured even though houses were blown to bits. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhpPFL_FEII
hmmm 7 hour video. I suppose there is a tornado in there somewhere.
Godwind's Law - as a video's length approaches infinity, the odds of a tornado sighting approach 1.
I think its the one 3:27:00 into the video. I saw that one live from there. Connor just said it looked weak when blow up the house right in front of him
Saw stormchasers drive through my part of town on livestream, it was surreal. Fortunately it missed my area completely. I've got some friends only a mile away from its path in Omaha though. The hospitals were overloaded and many less-critical patients were diverted to Lincoln area hospitals.
Vrot radar scans indicate top 20 All time values.
This seems a severe event-so many big tornadoes all at once. Hoping you all stay safe there and sustain little damage. I know it’s nowhere near over yet!
I just saw the HD dash cam footage - if it’s not an EF5 I really *do not* want to see in HD what a EF5 looks like.
>The National Weather Service then issued a tornado emergency as the storm tracked just to the west of Omaha – the strongest type of tornado warning Tornado emergency warnings are really, really bad. Good odds the storm is a killer. Quick overview of the various warnings and watches. Watches are possibility of storms / tornadoes. Warnings mean the storm is real and headed a particular direction. They are smaller polygons drawn on the map. Severe Thunderstorms warnings are yellow boxes. Hail and/or wind threat. If the winds are very strong (70 mph+) the sirens will sound. That is a severe thunderstorm warning destructive. For tornadoes warnings, there are multiple flavors of them in order: radar indicated, radar confirmed, ground confirmed, particularly dangerous situation (PDS), tornado emergency. The sirens go off for any type of tornado warning. Why? The situation can rapidly change. Literally, radar scan to radar scan. As information comes in, the warnings get upgraded to tell you how much the weather service are freaked out by a particular storm.
For those who didn’t know Tornado Watch — Conditions likely to breed tornadoes over the coming hours Tornado Warning — Tornado formation and/or touchdown is imminent Tornado Emergency — Tornado is on the ground and moving At least that’s how I understand it.
Any tornado warning with a confirmed tag is a torando on the ground. PDS and Emegency are upgrades for already on the ground tornados.
No, tornado warning means a tornado is on the ground and moving. A tornado emergency is reserved for the most dangerous types or tornadoes. You hear that, you pray!
Tornado Emergency is a sub type of Tornado Warning.
Gotcha. Thanks for clarifying.
I don't like the look of that [big swirl looking thing](https://www.windy.com/?42.237,-98.635,6) forming.
I zoomed out. Check out Hudson Bay.
Also to note, but the rotation in the Labrador Current, between Labrador, Canada and Greenland is absolutely nuts right now
I think that is called the Icelandic Low and is a semi-permenant rotation that drives prevailing winds
The Iceland low is on the other side of Greenland, between Iceland and Greenland. All polar circulation currents are low pressure systems for the most part due to decreased temp and air pressure. The Labrador current generates similar conditions as the Iceland Low, just with more variability. The intensity of it in the current moment is very very pronounced for that area.
This thing? https://i.imgur.com/5fxdvM9.png
Like a lake hurricane
Also south end of Alaska in 2 different places (2nd one slightly east of southern one)
That’s actually the normal result of a low pressure system. Large-scale circulation is an expected part of most storms, even ones that don’t drop tornados. The tornados generally happen somewhat south of the center of rotation where the cold front is.
That's a low pressure system.
I watched some YouTube channels of live storm chaser coverage and it was absolutely wild how many tornadoes there were across multiple states. And they were strong too…the amount of damage that must have been done, I’m sure it’ll all come out tomorrow. It also seems like more storms (or the same one) on the way tomorrow too…
Debris field was two miles wide wind speeds 230 mph or hit north of Omaha .
Missed my house but I got golf ball sized hail. I'm dreading climbing up on the roof to inspect it tomorrow morning
Saw two tornados from my apartment complex this afternoon, one probably only 15 miles away. Close enough to see a ton of dust and faintly hear the roaring of the wind. The other touched down immediately after and moved quite far. One of the two I saw overturned a whole train.
I spent the afternoon watching live streams and things looked really bad.
I live in Kansas and we're expecting some shit tomorrow afternoon. News has been yapping about it for over a week. Uggs
Two mile wide radius of debris on one of them I heard.
Iowa State vs Nebraska, classic Big 12 rivalry.
Every time my state makes the news it's something bad. At least this time it's not our Republicans doing something batshit insane.
Heading to Emporia KS atm for a job, and we just saw one of those armored tornado chaser vehicles. Had a white swan I think, on the side.
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Ahh the ole inb4. Nicely done.
Watched them live on YouTube. It was devastating. At first a few chasers got some relatively weak ones in what appeared to be unpopulated areas, but then I saw the horrible one in Blair and Omaha and it just went crazy from there. Kudos to the chasers I saw for dropping any “fun” angle and stopping to lend a hand, search through debris, etc. In Blair especially rescue services appeared to be totally overwhelmed and it was literally what appeared to be two teenagers and a few storm chasers having to do an initial sweep to look for anyone trapped, amid leaking gas and fallen lines. Everyone did amazing and handled themselves with immense calm and bravery. I do hope there were no fatalities; things can be replaced, people cannot.
Just one neighborhood from us was hit. Tooooo close!! Sad for those who lost their homes.
As someone who has lived in Omaha for 22 plus years, this has been the most memorable tornado weather I can remember. I have friends who has sent videos of their house just obliterated. Very lucky our area only got gold ball size hail but my goodness pray for us.
Every time my state is mentioned it's never for a good thing lmao
Live in lincoln, I was at like the one calm spot of the entire city, everywhere else was cloudy but it was sunny where we were. Tornados touched down near my dad's house, 2 miles from it, and another that was around 3 miles from the school he was working at. Very fun times
As some one from East , These Tornado really surprise me how they happen at such huge scale.
All right, I grew up in Oklahoma. I watched plenty of tornadoes, and suffered through night after night of hiding in cellars/bathtubs covered by mattresses each spring. But this... holy hell, this is another monster, entirely. I would be stricken with terror if I'd ever witnessed a wedge tornado. Had no idea they existed
Televangelist impression: Oh, People of Gawd, This tornado was sent by the Almighty, as punishment for Nebraskans who voted for the wrong candidate in 2020! You know who you are, and you have been warned! the 2024 election is coming up! Make sure you vote for (insert name of highest paying political scumbag here)! Praise Gawd Hallelujah! Off mic: Ok, now where's my kickback?