Whoa! This occurred in Poland, apparently*, August 15:

Thanks to The Inquisitor

*It's sometimes hard to verify these things, and I take just about everyone on YouTube with a grain of salt.

Posted by Carl at 8:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It appears that a tornado hit New Orleans during some severe weather early Tuesday; 1 person has died, 30 were injured and 20,000 people are without power in LA. There's an AP story here, and CNN has a story and some video coverage here.

Posted by Carl at 2:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As Alert Reader Mark mentioned in his comment, State College is actually under the gun for some severe weather - maybe even a tornado or two. Just to explain how weird it gets at a weather company in this sort of situation, I asked Henry is we were going to get a tornado and, without missing a beat, he replied "I hope so!" Of course, that doesn't help me prepare a whole lot. Alert Garbage Chaser Tammy is on duty at home watching our uncollected trash for any signs of movement.

Here's a quick snap of the AccuWeather.com radar from 12:25pm today:

The arrow show the movement of the storms, and the little boxes are 15 minute intervals. The letters/numbers are storm cell identifiers, and I'm at the star. We might see some fireworks in an hour or two. If Henry gets really excited I'll probably just head down to the basement.

Posted by Carl at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's a good page on tornado safety; everyone should take a look at this, but particularly those in areas vulnerable to severe weather and tornadoes.

Posted by Carl at 9:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I can't believe it's Thursday already. I took the trash out today. This was big news because I had cleaned out the basement this past weekend and so had produced (as if by magic!) bags of trash. I won't say how many, but we've put our neighbors - nay, our entire development - to shame. In my defense I do have the "unlimited trash plan" and so I figure, Hey! Bonus Trash Hauling! (Being the conscientious trash patron I am, I did call before taking it all out there. You know, just to make sure.)

Tornado videos seem to be a dime a dozen this week. Here's another one. I never get tired of watching them. Just an amazing thing.

Speaking of tornadoes, the Storm Prediction center actually has an area of "High Risk" on their map. You can find the map here: Link to the map I'm talking about (you know, with the High Risk) A High Risk is very unusual and probably extremely bad news. But in addition to the High Risk, there's a fairly large moderate risk area as well. If you live in the midwest, and particularly in western Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma or eastern Iowa, MIssouri or Arkansas, make sure you have the radio on and all of your plans set in case of severe weather. But really, everyone in the midwest should be prepared. You can find severe watches and warnings here and radar here.

Everyone stay safe out there.

Posted by Carl at 1:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

And this school cam held up really well. Whoever manufactures this equipment should turn this into some sort of commercial.

Video available via KFVS 12. Scroll down on the home page for some other amazing videos.

Posted by Carl at 1:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Doing what tornadoes do: being naughty, and flinging debris here and there. This was from an F3 tornado back on March 12 at Bentonville, Ark. Here's the link. I can't play it because it's from the FeedRoom and "optimized" not to work on Macs.

Posted by Carl at 6:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Alert Reader KRK sent in this URL on the German Tornado, which leads to an article that is in German. But she also provided this translation:

"On Monday evening a tornado in Hamburg cost two people their lives, and left masses powerless and in devastation. According to the police and firefighters, the tornado moved through Hamburg shortly after 7 PM. At a construction site in the Harburg district three to four cranes fell in a row on the building. The crane operators were still sitting in two of the cranes, and fell to their deaths and were lost."

Posted by Carl at 2:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A so-called "funnel cloud" went after some inflatible playground equipment, complete with kindergarteners, at Central Fellowship Christian Academy in central Georgia on Friday. (What's with the tornadoes all of a sudden?) The equipment apparently weighs 800 pounds and was staked to the ground. It traveled the length of two football fields (I assume that's 200 yards.)

It sounds like those hurt are doing okay, although one child was admitted. Article here.

Posted by Carl at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Two people were killed in Hamburg, Germany by a rare tornado. Reuters has the oddly-worded article here. I say "oddly-worded" because it's not clear if two people died or four people. The way I read it - four people died; two in Hamburg and two in Harburg. But is that Harburg a typo? If so then two people died. It's early in the story cycle; I'm sure this will be cleared up by later this evening, and I'll post an update.

UPDATE 1: I suspect that Harburg is a part of Hamburg, which means that the two people killed in Hamburg are the same two people killed in Harburg, which would make everything make sense. I think. I tried a few Google searches (don't really have time right now) and everything is in German, and all I know in German is Vie Gehts!

Posted by Carl at 2:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well THAT'S weird:

This photo was taken at 4:45 p.m. on Sunday local time. The tornado was only on the ground briefly. You can find more here via the Maui News.

Posted by Carl at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Not exactly gripping TV, but still interesting to watch a tornado form on live TV. Take a look at the video here.

Posted by Carl at 2:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The NWS has a report of a tornado in Texas this evening:

You can find the report here although this is a page that updates frequently, so this link may not be good after a while.

Folks in Texas should have their radios on and a plan ready in the event of severe/threatening weather. There's a pretty solid line of severe weather crossing the state, which you can track on this AccuWeather.com radar. San Antonio will get hit soon (it's 12:52 am eastern as I write this and no I don't know why I'm still up.)

Posted by Carl at 2:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)