Tornadoes Were Deadly, Some Lucky, Some Not...

I remember the April 4,1974 Xenia, Ohio tornado that killed 32 people.  I was working at WDTN TV2 in Dayton some 25 miles to the NW.  It was a wide track tornado wiping out whole neighborhoods.  yesterday's tornadoes had long tracks, but they were not real wide.  look at some of these scenes that show one house totally gone while the neighbor's seemed OK.

We have learned over the years that within a tornado funnel can be smaller "suction vortices" that have the highest wind speeds. That's why you often see one house with severe damage while next door has little damage.  I'm glad we don't often have to deal with these destructive storms.   But SPC is indicvating it could happen again on Sunday.

They have a level 3 risk around Memphis with the bullseye of heavy rain (2-4") with it.  That is not good news as because of all the recent rains up north, the crest on the Mississippi here has increased to 15 feet on April 5th.

Fortunately no rain is falling there now, but you can see the next system snowing over the Rockies.  The cold front barely sneaked by us this morning, but it's already retreated back to the north this afternoon. We will stay in the warm, humid air this weekend with another front trying to stagger through late Sunday.

You can see how our dew point is back above 70 while north Louisiana has DPs in the 40s.  Note NYC is in the lower 80s as the warm air has brought Spring to the NE.  Satellite views show clear skies just to our north with the stalled frontal boundary keeping us in the clouds.

Until the western upper trough shifts to over the eastern states, fronts will have trouble getting through us.  You can see numerous upper swirls within that trough each bringing unsettle weather.  Models indicate by Thursday of next week a real front will plow through finally taking away the clouds & humidity.

Until then, get use to the warm temperatures and the muggies.  We are not done with cold fronts, but in April they don't have the same kind of temperature drops like in March.  Stay tuned!