Severe Weather (Roanoke: home, neighborhood, high school)

[mjay11]

So...
while watching the weather channel today, they had footage of a tornado that touched down in Roanoke, if I'm not mistaken.
Is this weather typical for your area at this time of year?
Anyways, I hope you are all OK over there!

[seanpecor]

Summer thunderstorms are common but its pretty unusual to have such severe wind damage. I'm over the mountain range south of Roanoke about 10 miles as the crow flies and I could tell it was a significant storm given the lightning flashing over the mountains.

I had driven through the neighborhood in the storm footage 2 hours before the storm hit to bring home a daughter's friend. I'm amazed nobody was injured (that we know of) because those downed trees were monsters. Alot of 200+ year old oaks in that area.

Sean

[Erma]

Originally Posted by seanpecor

Summer thunderstorms are common but its pretty unusual to have such severe wind damage. I'm over the mountain range south of Roanoke about 10 miles as the crow flies and I could tell it was a significant storm given the lightning flashing over the mountains.

I had driven through the neighborhood in the storm footage 2 hours before the storm hit to bring home a daughter's friend. I'm amazed nobody was injured (that we know of) because those downed trees were monsters. Alot of 200+ year old oaks in that area.

Sean

Illinois is experiencing the same, lots of water too. A friend of ours had a downed tree 2 weeks ago from a storm here in VB, had the trimmers come and clean it up. Only good thing is that we have plenty of firewood.

[vamtncat]

The NWS has called the tornado an EF-0, with 70-80mi. winds went 1 1/4 miles and lasted for 3 1/2 minutes. These events ARE few and far between.

[mjay11]

maybe I don't watch the weather enough but, I didn't realize that Virginia even got tornadoes.
is this a case of global warming?

[Steve Turner]

I've lived in Roanoke for over 50 years and can count on 2 fingers the number of tornadoes we've had. There have been isolated instances in surrounding counties, where the fields are open, but usually Roanoke is protected by the surrounding mountians - precisely why they call it the Roanoke Valley! Thunderstorms YES, but then again you can't hide from them anywhere.

[whynot?]

I grew up even farther up in the SWVa mountains, and a tornado peeled the roof off of our (new) high school gym in the '70s. The phenomenon isn't new, it's just rare.

[Diamond Dave]

Originally Posted by mjay11

Is this weather typical for your area at this time of year?

No.

I'm just glad it rained.

[breeze823]

Originally Posted by Steve Turner

I've lived in Roanoke for over 50 years and can count on 2 fingers the number of tornadoes we've had. There have been isolated instances in surrounding counties, where the fields are open, but usually Roanoke is protected by the surrounding mountians - precisely why they call it the Roanoke Valley! Thunderstorms YES, but then again you can't hide from them anywhere.

This is good to know! Definately won't miss the tornadoes when we move!