About those tornadoes .. again.

[DemoTex]

I posted this last night. Intellicast/WSI ( http://www.intellicast.com/National/Weather.aspx ) had forecast "dry lines" coming over the affected area almost 24 hours before the events. The WSI Surface Analysis had the dry lines clearly depicted, and marching out of TX/OK/KS toward the states that got hit so hard.

"Dry Lines" are what the tornado chasers look for. Dry lines are like chum lines to shark fishermen. Blood in the water. Guarantee of action.

I love the NWS. I really do. They are basically very accurate. I hate AccuWeather, although I use their excellent radar products (subscription). But neither NWS nor AccuWeather picked up on the dry lines (or didn't mention it if they did). WTF? A dry line in February should be a red flag.

I did not check in on WeatherUnderground (I like it for the name .. need a hat!) or Weather Channel.

Comments welcome from anybody that knows a little more than me on dry lines. I've had some university level meteorology courses (Georgia Tech) and 40+ years experience as a military, corporate, and airline pilot. But I'm still guessin' the weather.

[Fovea]

1. Do you ever hit the noaa special products page?

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/compmap/

[DemoTex]

2. Yes. Lapse rates. Skew T /Log Ps .. etc.

But it's not out front on a public page.

[calimary]

3. What are "dry lines"? Stretches of no rain near the suspected target area?

[karlrschneider]

5. It is just the boundary between moist air and dry air. Dry air is more dense

(it's heavier) so it tries to 'squeeze under' the moist air which forces it up where it cools, releases heat and condenses into rain or other precipitation.

[karlrschneider]

4. I wasn't doing research last night but was watching carefully, the storms all started around here.

The local teevee wx guys all mentioned the dry line but it passed us after most of the precip was over (I guess that sounds like a tautology but for other readers, it doesn't necessarily have to work that way)

We had heavy rain all day but nothing severe - I knew that would be just barely to the east of us <because of
the dry line location>. The temp was right for storms here (was 80F) but not quite enough juice in the atmos
until about the Arkansas border just 40 miles away.

[DemoTex]

6. Thanks for checking in on this Karl.

I guess this means we have to start watching the summer charts in the winter: Lifted Index, Skew-T/Log-Ps, etc.

That reminds me. Have you ever flown a sailplane? My guess is that you have. I ran a glider-port south of Atlanta in my post-Vietnam days (1972-74). That was my best flying job .. ever!

Mac

[karlrschneider]

7. I flew a Bergfalke III once. For about 20 minutes I guess...I made hundreds of -tows- though

at Harvey Young in Tulsa and hung around with all the glider guys a lot. :D

Here's my one sailplane flight story - 100% true: I had been towing gliders for a couple years using an old L-5
with a 300 Lycoming radial in it (don't even ask)...but somehow never got around to flying in one myself! One day
I and Lou Simmons (one of my dear friends from those days, a captain with Central Airlines who later died giving
dual in a 150 of all things grr) were bumming around out at the airport and he said "It's time you flew the glider
Schneider! you've been towing us every day now it's your turn!"

I said, "Lou, there's nobody to fly the tow plane or run the wing" He said "Bob is over at the hangar, I'll get him
and we can just have him take up the slack and we can pick up the wing with ailerons after we get rolling"

So long story short we get hooked up, Bob lights up the L5 and starts dragging us down the runway, Lou in
front, me in the back seat - and I notice we're heading off toward the barb-wire fence at a rather alarming pace.
"Where the hell are you going???" I shouted up to Lou...
"ME? I thought YOU were driving!" he replied. We somehow got the damn thing back near the middle and
up to 2000 ft. I don't even remember much of the flight. :D

That was my soaring career.

[DemoTex]

8. L-5? Stinson? RADIAL engine? More details, glider rider Schneider!

More details required!

[ChoralScholar]

9. While my heart certainly goes out to the victims

(the tornado destroyed a church in my childhood hometown, about 1000 feet behind my dad's house)

I am also very fascinated by the weather phenomena in play here. I told my kids yesterday morning there would be tornadoes, and that we needed to have a tornado drill.

NWS is offering a storm spotter class in my hometown next week - I'm gonna go and get my spotter certification.