4/16/11 severe weather discussion thread (Raleigh, Sanford: live in, building, phones)

[texas_nightowl]

Originally Posted by Sherifftruman

Actually WRAL gave up the ghost. I lost them OTA and on DIRECTV with a tech difficulties slide.

Really? Wow. Though given the studio location, perhaps not surprising. I was having the most trouble with WRAL. WTVD was choppy. NBC17 ended up being the most stable for me. Too bad the other two are my favorites.

[JQ Public]

Reports of 14 fatalities in Bertie County down towards the coast! Sad day.

[jfre81]

Heard from a friend over there that the area got hit pretty hard. Hope everyone's all right.

<3

[davidals]

Originally Posted by Watchman57

We in the Mtns are not suppose to get them as the mtn peaks normally cut the storms to pieces before they can properly form. However over the last 10 yrs or so I've watched that theory steadily erode.

I lived in Boone for 12 years by the way - another semi-mountain guy here!

The tornadoes-and-mountains thing is a myth:

1929, May 2 - The deadliest tornado in Virginia's history struck just northwest of Kingsport TN. There were tornadoes in West Virginia and along the Shenandoah Ridge in VA later the same day.

1933, March 14 - A series of F3 and F4 tornadoes formed near Indian Mountain & Jellico Tennessee. These storms tracked due east, veering back and forth across the TN/KY state line, causing major damage around the Cumberland Gap. Later they crossed the north side of Kingsport and dissipated after veering into Virginia.

1944, June 23 - "The Appalachians Outbreak" hit Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia with a number of F3 and F4 storms. The suburbs of Pittsburgh were hit hard. More severely, one mile-wide tornado cut a path 65 miles long over rugged terrain in WV, destroying one coal town after another. Shinnston, WV was almost completely destroyed.

1974, April 3-4 - "The Super Outbreak". In North Carolina, the worst of the storms were the F4 that struck Murphy and parts of Cherokee County, and a mile-wide F2 that moved through Graham County, before dissipating over Great Smoky Mtns National Park. Other tornadoes touched down near Hendersonville, Morganton and Granite Falls. Farther to the north, a series of tornadoes hit the Beckley, WV area, including one F3 that tracked for 45 miles across parts of southern West Virginia. There was heavy damage from an F3 in Saltville VA (near Abingdon) and a mile-wide F2 tracked into Roanoke and Salem.

1985, May 31 - Outbreak struck Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Ontario. The worst of these supercells formed over flat terrain near Niles, Ohio, but tracked due east for nearly 400 miles, producing one tornado after another as it crossed the Allegheny Mountains - including the only F5 storm in Pennsyalvania history, and a 2.5-mile-wide tornado that tracked for more than 60 miles through the Moshannon State Forest. This is some of the most remote terrain in Pennsylvania.

1987, July 21 - This F4 storm was historic for several reasons. Its damage path was 24 miles long, crossing through the Teton Wilderness in NW Wyoming - there are no roads or structures in the area. The damage path was more than 2 miles wide in many locations, and the F4 rating was based upon the 15,000 acres of timber that was nearly pulverized by the storm (this would be about 10 miles SE of Yellowstone National Park). This tornado - at or near peak intensity - crossed the continental divide at an elevation of over 10,000 feet, making it the highest elevation that a violent tornado has ever been witnessed and documented.

[J. Trent Hicks]

Saturday afternoon we removed 38 trees from 6 roofs south of Penny Road in the 1010/Holly Springs Road area. There are homes that will require several months to repair; and one that I feel pretty confident cannot be repaired. We took 5 trees off four vehicles.

Amazingly, (and thankfully) none of our customers or any of their neighbors reported any injuries and neither did our crews. We and many of our southern Wake County neighbors were blessed today!

[lovebrentwood]

Our power came back on in Brentwood about 40 minutes ago.

We've seen no damage -- not even a fallen limb -- here in the Brentwood subdivision. We are very fortunate.

(Since I wrote that, I learned someone reported a tree down. But that's the worst of it.)

[OpAck]

I'm out in the Wake Crossroads area...its an absolute war zone out here. The edge of the destruction is only about 250 yards behind my house. Needless to say, I feel lucky with only minor damage to my home. The houses behind me (out along Forestville Rd) are anywhere from 20%-90% destroyed. Unbelievable.

It was just like they say...the sound of a freight train barreling towards your home...I'll never forget it.

[bobbis]

So lucky here in the north side of Fuquay. Nothing. We could see the incredible storm to the north hitting Holly Springs. I was on the phone with a friend as it was hitting his block in HS. He was very fortunate...it passed right through his neighborhood and did lots of damage. I don't think there's a tree left standing. Some had the roofs torn off and others had their out-buildings rolled right over. So scary.

[knagy389us]

Thoughts and prayers to everyone affected. We close on our house in WF in a week and a half, wish we were there now to help in some way.

[trlhiker]

89 tornadoes struck our state with 24 dead. very sad and probably a record for both, not sure about deaths though.