• Hello, please take a minute to check out our awesome content, contributed by the wonderful members of our community. We hope you'll add your own thoughts and opinions by making a free account!

May 2021 Discussion Thread

Chazwin said:
The May 1989 outbreak had unseasonably warm temperatures in the days leading up to it... much like what is being indicated next week
Click to expand...

I don't even want to think about May 5th, 1989 at 8:32pm in Winston-Salem that day.
 

A Look Back at the Western Carolina Violent Tornado Outbreak of 5 May 1989

www.weather.gov

This is a pretty good look into the 1989 outbreak as well as other strong tornadoes that have affected the western Carolina's. Just goes to show that we're definitely not immune from strong/violent tornadoes. We have just gotten lucky. 2011 could have been equally as bad if the timing of that system would of slowed down, literally a few hours later we would have been the epicenter of that outbreak.
 
NickyBGuarantee said:
Can you explain what EML does in regards to the formation and maintaining of severe storms
Click to expand...

Didn’t see this answered, two things;

One, dry air aloft in base terms allows the surrounding air to cool as warm parcels rise through it. Pretty much the same thing as evaporative cooling. With a strong EML you get much better lapse rates.

Two, helps weed out weaker convection. Usually the EML comes in with dry and warm air aloft.
 
Arcc said:
Didn’t see this answered, two things;

One, dry air aloft in base terms allows the surrounding air to cool as warm parcels rise through it. Pretty much the same thing as evaporative cooling. With a strong EML you get much better lapse rates.

Two, helps weed out weaker convection. Usually the EML comes in with dry and warm air aloft.
Click to expand...
Awesome and easy way of explaining it, just recently did I learn the term and still always learning.
 
ryan1234 said:

A Look Back at the Western Carolina Violent Tornado Outbreak of 5 May 1989

www.weather.gov

This is a pretty good look into the 1989 outbreak as well as other strong tornadoes that have affected the western Carolina's. Just goes to show that we're definitely not immune from strong/violent tornadoes. We have just gotten lucky. 2011 could have been equally as bad if the timing of that system would of slowed down, literally a few hours later we would have been the epicenter of that outbreak.
Click to expand...
It should also be pointed out that this particular outbreak proved you don’t have to have a full day of sunshine to heat things up to get violent storms here. It poured rain for basically the entire day with that outbreak... in fact KCLT’s daily rainfall record for that date is still 1989.
 
ryan1234 said:

A Look Back at the Western Carolina Violent Tornado Outbreak of 5 May 1989

www.weather.gov

This is a pretty good look into the 1989 outbreak as well as other strong tornadoes that have affected the western Carolina's. Just goes to show that we're definitely not immune from strong/violent tornadoes. We have just gotten lucky. 2011 could have been equally as bad if the timing of that system would of slowed down, literally a few hours later we would have been the epicenter of that outbreak.
Click to expand...
I missed the Union County tornado by about five minutes as I was returning from my dinner break back to work at the United Carolina Bank Operations Center(now Southern Piedmont Community College) on Old Charlotte Highway. As I was driving back to the Operations Center through downtown Monroe, a light rain was falling and the sky was greenish in color, which was amplified by the sun peaking through the clouds. I started noticing leaf and branch debris on the highway as I got near Airport Road. When I made the turn into the driveway of the Operations Center, I noticed the the trees and lamp posts that lined the driveway were damaged. My supervisor, who was outside at the time, told me that a tornado had hit the building. The windows in several of the offices were blown out. Some of my co-workers who were eating dinner in the cafeteria when the storm hit said a whirling mass of white came across the parking lot and hit the corner of the building. They ran to the double wooden doors to exit the cafeteria to seek shelter in the hall, but the suction made it impossible for them to open the doors, so they dove under the tables for protection. Some cars in the parking lot had their windows blown out. I was always puzzled why the Operations Center and Charlotte Pipe & Foundry, located across the highway, sustained damage that seemed to be confined to that general area; whereas the destruction from the F4 tornado was further up the road between Sun Valley and Indian Trail, but then I read that strong tornadoes sometimes have smaller tornadoes that dance around the main circulation. It was probably a smaller tornado(F1) swirling around the parent tornado that hit the Operations Center and Charlotte Pipe & Foundry. A F4 tornado along that same path through Western Union County would be catastrophic today with all the growth that has taken place in that area over the past thirty years. On a side note, my brand new Jeep lucked out that day, but the luck ran out in September that year with Hurricane Hugo.
 
We better get a decent storm within the next 7 days. This weather is downright miserable. No storms to track, no rain, horrific pollen levels. Del Rio seems like a good move at this point. It's like an endless conveyor belt of severe storms! #jealous
 
Eric said:
I missed the Union County tornado by about five minutes as I was returning from my dinner break back to work at the United Carolina Bank Operations Center(now Southern Piedmont Community College) on Old Charlotte Highway. As I was driving back to the Operations Center through downtown Monroe, a light rain was falling and the sky was greenish in color, which was amplified by the sun peaking through the clouds. I started noticing leaf and branch debris on the highway as I got near Airport Road. When I made the turn into the driveway of the Operations Center, I noticed the the trees and lamp posts that lined the driveway were damaged. My supervisor, who was outside at the time, told me that a tornado had hit the building. The windows in several of the offices were blown out. Some of my co-workers who were eating dinner in the cafeteria when the storm hit said a whirling mass of white came across the parking lot and hit the corner of the building. They ran to the double wooden doors to exit the cafeteria to seek shelter in the hall, but the suction made it impossible for them to open the doors, so they dove under the tables for protection. Some cars in the parking lot had their windows blown out. I was always puzzled why the Operations Center and Charlotte Pipe & Foundry, located across the highway, sustained damage that seemed to be confined to that general area; whereas the destruction from the F4 tornado was further up the road between Sun Valley and Indian Trail, but then I read that strong tornadoes sometimes have smaller tornadoes that dance around the main circulation. It was probably a smaller tornado(F1) swirling around the parent tornado that hit the Operations Center and Charlotte Pipe & Foundry. A F4 tornado along that same path through Western Union County would be catastrophic today with all the growth that has taken place in that area over the past thirty years. On a side note, my brand new Jeep lucked out that day, but the luck ran out in September that year with Hurricane Hugo.
Click to expand...

Thank you for sharing! I love hearing personal stories, especially when it pertains to weather. Sounds like you got lucky! 5 minutes could have been a matter of life and death. I really wish people (aka... the general public) would realize the mountains don't protect us from tornadoes. I can't tell you how often people think that.
 
ryan1234 said:

A Look Back at the Western Carolina Violent Tornado Outbreak of 5 May 1989

www.weather.gov

This is a pretty good look into the 1989 outbreak as well as other strong tornadoes that have affected the western Carolina's. Just goes to show that we're definitely not immune from strong/violent tornadoes. We have just gotten lucky. 2011 could have been equally as bad if the timing of that system would of slowed down, literally a few hours later we would have been the epicenter of that outbreak.
Click to expand...
That was a rough evening from near Gainsville GA northeast to Winston-Salem NC. Chesnee SC and north Cleveland county in NC really hit hard. If I remember right Union county NC also had a tornado earlier that day along with the big one later that evening.
 
Chazwin said:
It should also be pointed out that this particular outbreak proved you don’t have to have a full day of sunshine to heat things up to get violent storms here. It poured rain for basically the entire day with that outbreak... in fact KCLT’s daily rainfall record for that date is still 1989.
Click to expand...
Yep very little sun that day here and a batch of storms just after noon. All we got here from the big line was about 10 minutes of very heavy rain with little lightning and no wind. None at all.

Kind of makes me wonder what would have happened with full sun that day. Not sure if we had a CAD boundary nearby or not that day.
 
Eric said:
I missed the Union County tornado by about five minutes as I was returning from my dinner break back to work at the United Carolina Bank Operations Center(now Southern Piedmont Community College) on Old Charlotte Highway. As I was driving back to the Operations Center through downtown Monroe, a light rain was falling and the sky was greenish in color, which was amplified by the sun peaking through the clouds. I started noticing leaf and branch debris on the highway as I got near Airport Road. When I made the turn into the driveway of the Operations Center, I noticed the the trees and lamp posts that lined the driveway were damaged. My supervisor, who was outside at the time, told me that a tornado had hit the building. The windows in several of the offices were blown out. Some of my co-workers who were eating dinner in the cafeteria when the storm hit said a whirling mass of white came across the parking lot and hit the corner of the building. They ran to the double wooden doors to exit the cafeteria to seek shelter in the hall, but the suction made it impossible for them to open the doors, so they dove under the tables for protection. Some cars in the parking lot had their windows blown out. I was always puzzled why the Operations Center and Charlotte Pipe & Foundry, located across the highway, sustained damage that seemed to be confined to that general area; whereas the destruction from the F4 tornado was further up the road between Sun Valley and Indian Trail, but then I read that strong tornadoes sometimes have smaller tornadoes that dance around the main circulation. It was probably a smaller tornado(F1) swirling around the parent tornado that hit the Operations Center and Charlotte Pipe & Foundry. A F4 tornado along that same path through Western Union County would be catastrophic today with all the growth that has taken place in that area over the past thirty years. On a side note, my brand new Jeep lucked out that day, but the luck ran out in September that year with Hurricane Hugo.
Click to expand...
I work in that area near Sun Valley High School and it is an absolute nightmare to imagine an EF4 hitting there now.
 
JHS said:
Yep very little sun that day here and a batch of storms just after noon. All we got here from the big line was about 10 minutes of very heavy rain with little lightning and no wind. None at all.

Kind of makes me wonder what would have happened with full sun that day. Not sure if we had a CAD boundary nearby or not that day.
Click to expand...
Looking at the temperature and wind observations at KCLT that day it look like there was a wedge boundary in place across the area that was likely the trigger point for the Union County tornado during the day. The winds shifting to a gusty SW direction late afternoon and put the whole region in the warm sector to set up the evening tornadoes. It does look as though there was a fairly strong cold front coming through as highs the following day at KCLT were only around 60 and if memory serves me correct I even think there some flurries in the mountains that day.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top