TornadoVideos.net - Extreme Storm Chasers Reporting on Weather Events

TVN intercepts tornado in extreme northwest North Dakota! Chasing tomorrow!

dick.mcgowan@gmail.com (Dick McGowan) — Thu, 24 May 2012 01:51:42 +0000

TVN made an all night grind, leaving Norman, OK at 8 p.m. Monday night and stopping only for gas--eventually chasing a tornadic supercell in northern Divide county, North Dakota and intercepting the first of 5 tornadoes! It was evident that the tornado threat would reside along an occluded boundary/ warm front very near the Canadian border in northern North Dakota, where low-level shear was maximized and dewpoints/ cloud bases were lower. We watched 4 other tornadoes, 2 of which crossed into Saskatchewan, Canada within just a couple of miles! We, unfortunately, could not cross the border and had to watch them from the border crossing! Check out our video below!

Tomorrow has the potential for numerous tornadic supercells for much of Wisconsin, extreme southeastern MN and the extreme southern upper peninsula of Michigan! TVN is surging eastward tonight and will be in position for tomorrow! Sign-up for the webisode launch now at http://TVNweather.com

One-year anniversary of the devastating Joplin, Missouri tornado

heidi@tornadovideos.net (Heidi Farrar) — Tue, 22 May 2012 19:02:19 +0000

Today marks one year since thousands of lives were changed by the weather in and around southwest Missouri. On May 22, 2011, the city of Joplin was taken apart in graphic fashion by one of the most violent tornadoes ever to impact a community in the United States: an EF-5, nearly a mile wide. Over 150 were killed; the injured, almost too many to count. The damage left behind: staggering.

Below is a summary of the event, courtesy of the National Weather Service office in Springfield, MO, along with the Weather Service's assessment report. As the Weather Service explains,

"Service Assessments provide a valuable contribution to ongoing efforts by the National Weather Service to improve the quality, timeliness, and value of our products and services. Findings and recommendations from this assessment will improve techniques, products, services, and information provided to our partners and the American public."

As such, this is a must-read:

Joplin, Missouri tornado assessment

Joplin, Missour tornado event summary

Below is the video of the Joplin tornado, captured by TVN's Basehunters chase team. Isaac Pato, Scott Peake, Kevin Rolfs and Colt Forney found themselves among the first to enter the disaster scene, and subsequently remained for over an hour in search and rescue mode:

Potential exists for several days of severe weather beginning today in the northern Plains and lasting potentially into early next week; Reed and the Dominator crew will be chasing today in North Dakota (follow along live HERE). With the busy Memorial Day weekend looking to be an active severe weather day, and with the Joplin story still fresh in our minds, we want to underscore importance of monitoring local weather conditions and having a plan in place before severe weather strikes.

Upcoming severe weather, Yazoo City tornado anniversary

dick.mcgowan@gmail.com (Dick McGowan) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 22:30:58 +0000

Starting on Thursday, the chances for severe weather across the Central plains will increase, with a decent chance for tornadoes for northeast Colorado, southwest Nebraska and western Kansas. The map, left, depicts the current severe weather probabilities issued by the Storm Prediction Center for Thursday.

Thursday, a shortwave trough will make its way across the desert southwest and should reach the High Plains by Thursday evening. With the gulf moisture recently being scoured out by an upper-level low, there are uncertainties whether low-to-mid-60 dewpoints and quality boundary-layer moisture will return in time for Thursday. Nevertheless, cyclogenesis will take place, and instability will pool along a w/nw - e/se warm front and further south along a dryline in SW KS into western OK/ Texas panhandle region or further east along the strongly-capped warm front. Storms should fire first under the upslope regime in northeast Colorado (extreme southeast Wyoming as well), southwest Nebraska, and possibly northwest Kansas by late afternoon/evening. It's unclear, at the moment, if storms will fire further south along the dryline into SW KS into OK/TX panhandles. Any storm that does initiate on Thursday, will have the potential for very large hail, damaging winds and isolated tornadoes.

For Friday, the models are still in disagreement, but the GFS is hinting towards a decent potential for tornadic supercells for Eastern Kansas and Western Missouri. TVN is planning on chasing every setup from here on out, so be sure to follow Reed's Facebook Fan Page for real-time updates and our new LIVE streaming network, where we will be streaming the Dominator's intercepts all season! And don't forget to sign-up for our new launch of TVNWeather.com as well!

Also, today marks the two year anniversary of the deadly Yazoo City, Mississippi EF-4 tornado--a day that will forever be remembered from all of us that were there that day. Hopefully, the town has recovered and the residents are healing from that dreadful day. Check out our video, below, from that day.

Update from the April 14, 2012 tornado outbreak

heidi@tornadovideos.net (Heidi Farrar) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 21:47:39 +0000

Saturday and early Sunday proved to be the violent conclusion to several days of nearly unprecedented preparation and predictions, as a massive tornado outbreak swept across northern Oklahoma and Kansas, with parts of Nebraska and Iowa being impacted as well. Among the hardest hit was the town of Woodward, Oklahoma, where over 100 homes and businesses were heavily damaged or destroyed by a (preliminarily-rated) EF-3 tornado that struck just after midnight early Sunday; sadly (and amazingly), this was also the only killer tornado of the outbreak. Damage is still being assessed across southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma, but so far several tornadoes have been assigned a strong to violent rating, with at least one rated as EF-4. Below are the current updates from the forecast offices in charge of conducting damage surveys; we'll update again as new information on the current tally of 135 tornadoes becomes available; Reed will of course post updates on his Facebook and Twitter pages as well.:

EF-4 near Kanopolis Lake, EF-3 Conway Springs -- Will Campbell and Dan Castro of the Omaha Twister Chasers live streaming teams got some amazing photos of the EF-4 tornado as it moved near Marquette, KS, pictured at the top of this post. (What a monster!)

Two separate EF-3s near Macksville, St. John and Hudson.

Damaging EF-2 Creston, IA tornado

As anticipated, storm chasers were out in full-force over the weekend, and several TVN teams captured some pretty compelling video on Saturday (of note, TVN website moderators JCPalmer and DougNKC were chasing and tracked down some tornadoes in Kansas as well!!!). The Dominator team covered storms in southern and central Kansas, eventually documenting tornadoes near Hesston, as well as the after-dark tornadoes near Wichita. TwisterData.com's Dave Demko and I started off chasing in south-central Kansas, but when storms re-initiated in northwest Oklahoma in the early evening, we opted to leave the storms near Arlington and Kingman, KS (which eventually produced the tornadoes near Hesston) and dropped south toward the Alva, OK area. We arrived in Cherokee, OK, area just as a large cone was touching down southwest of town, and soon another tornado developed to its east, resulting in two simultaneous tornadoes! We ultimately positioned ourselves for an up-close and personal encounter with the rope-out of the initial tornado, which dissipated roughly 100 yards south of our position, and offered us a "unique" opportunity for documentation! Thunder Entertainment's Curtis McDonald, Matt Chatelain, Daniel Betten and Thomas Spence were on this same storm and documented the rope-out from another wild angle, and eventually tracked it all the way into the Wichita metro. A prolific tornado producer, it put down several wedge tornadoes along the way.

Multi-day severe weather outbreak on the horizon

heidi@tornadovideos.net (Heidi Farrar) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:48:10 +0000

Residents across the entire southern and central Plains region are urged to take time now to prepare and be mindful of severe weather this weekend. The threat begins this afternoon, when tornadoes, destructive hail and damaging thunderstorm winds are possible; the threat will continue through at least Sunday, as a very potent storm system makes its way across the Great Plains. Today's focus will be on the Texas and Oklahoma panhandle region, north into western Kansas. If storms are able to fire, strong directional shear and moderate instability will provide an environment conducive for strong tornadoes this afternoon into the late evening. As the storm system progresses gradually eastward Friday, much of Oklahoma and Kansas will be under the threat of severe weather, along with northwest Missouri into southeast Nebraska and southern Iowa; all modes of severe weather will be possible. The "main event" at this point appears to be Saturday, with the threat shifting very little as compared to the previous day. Forecast models have continued to show the wind fields and instability associated with this storm system coming together to support a widespread tornado outbreak scenario, with supercell thunderstorms a possibility along a warm front that is likely to be oriented across central Iowa and southeast NE, and extending south along a dryline that will stretch from around Grand Island, NE into northern and central Texas. The Storm Prediction Center has highlighted this area as a rare "Day 3 Moderate Risk"; the last issuance of such an outlook was in association with the devastating April 27 outbreak in the southeast United States last year. As always, we encourage everyone to monitor local media for updates, have a NOAA weather radio with fresh batteries, and a plan to find an adequate underground shelter or safe room (highway overpasses DO NOT qualify! Of note, check out this article about shelters along the Kansas turnpike). Reed will be providing updates from the field via Facebook and Twitter, and the live streaming page will of course be very active as well.

TVN sees 4 tornadoes yesterday, one up-close!, Severe Weather outbreak possible this week!

dick.mcgowan@gmail.com (Dick McGowan) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 22:37:30 +0000

Yesterday, TVN (Chad Cowan, Chris Chittick, Shay Phillips and myself) chased NW OK, with hopes for just some large hail, but we ended up seeing several tornadoes, including one up-close! Having no data the entire day, we chose a target of Beaver, OK, where the first towers of the day exploded. We time-lapsed the towers going up for about an hour near a wind farm just north of Ft. Supply, OK and went after the northern cell after it showed signs of strengthening. We were just north of what would be the dominant supercell of the the day, as the towers exploded just to our west, but left it for the northern one, initially. Upon catching the northern one, it was clear that the storm was linear and was beginning to go outflow dominant, so we blasted south towards Woodward.

We set up just south of Woodward, OK, where we witnessed our first brief tornado of the day to our west, which was cone-shaped and lasted maybe a minute. We then blasted back to the west and then south, watching an elephant trunk tornado develop (and briefly touch down) along with baseball size hail falling at our location. Approaching from the north, the RFD surge was intense and we could tell that something big was about to happen, so we continued south punching through it, and heading back east where multiple vortices were present. The tornado, at the time, was multi-vortex, or so we thought, with rapid right to left motion moving just above the ground and strong westerlies at our back. The tornado seemed to be stationary for a good 5-10 minutes, spinning up vortices and occasionally putting a full condensation down of various shapes. Looking back (and seeing other video/photos), it seems we were on the outer circulation of the tornado, with the vortices being underneath the main condensation funnel--which was not visible due to our location directly beneath it! It was an incredible day, but unfortunately, Reed could not chase due to other obligations.

Tomorrow, could potentially be a big day, dependent on moisture return, and tonight's expected MCS/storm clusters, which could hinder moisture transport to SE CO and NE NM. Starting Thursday, a threat will exist from W KS through the TX panhandle, where large hail and tornadoes seem likely. Thursday, Friday and Saturday have the potential to be HUGE across the Plains as well, so stay tuned! Don't forget to follow Reed's Facebook fan page and Twitter account, for real-time updates during the chase!

Below, is the video from yesterday!

Dallas / Fort Worth Tornadoes!

dick.mcgowan@gmail.com (Dick McGowan) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 20:00:17 +0000

On Tuesday, April 3rd, things came together perfectly, in the morning/early afternoon, for supercells capable of producing strong tornadoes across the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. The picture, left, is courtesy of Aaron Tuttle and depicts all of the ingredients that came together for this event. The night prior, TVN determined that the wind shear was weaker than the prior day's "bust" and made the mistake of not analyzing things early in the AM! What you can never predict, are mesoscale features, such as outflow boundaries, 18-24 hours out.

From the prior night's convection, an outflow boundary was situated along I-20 including the DFW area, with an unstable environment along and south of the area, with high CAPE values. A gravity wave (induced from the prior night's convection) help bring cooler air aloft which helped erode the cap, by 12 p.m. A line of storms from the west of DFW, along a pacific front, were present, but two supercells emerged ahead of this line and rooted along this outflow boundary. An outflow boundary, if supercells can latch on to them and do not contain a lot of cool air, can enhance wind shear along them, making conditions ripe for tornadoes--and that's what happened.

The two radar images show both supercells, one south of Fort Worth near Kennedale and the other south of Dallas, near Lancaster. These were headed in a north/northeasterly direction straight for the DFW metroplex and the NWS had issued several tornado warnings early on to alert residents within the path. They did an outstanding job as well as local TV stations showing helicopter footage as well as trained weather spotters and storm chasers reporting the tornados with exact locations and it resulted in NO loss of life--which was truly a miracle. The most damaging tornado of the day was near Forney and Royse City, TX where a large cone tornado destroyed several buildings/houses and was rated an EF-3. Again, no loss of life happened! The Arlington, TX tornado was rated an EF-2 on the enhanced Fujita as well.

Check out this AMAZING video of the Kennedale, TX tornado shot by David Horner as it crossed US 287! Watch some of the cars as they are oblivious to the tornado and nearly drive into it!

The chances of severe weather are very small through the middle of next week for much of the country, but it looks like another powerful trough will make its way to the plains by late next week, so stay tuned!!!

Official rules for TVN Weather Signup Contest!

reedtimmer@gmail.com (Reed Timmer) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 23:02:01 +0000

TVN Weather Signup Contest:

2012 storm chasing tour with Extreme Tornado Tours, LLC

Tour information provided on the Extreme Tornado Tours website. (Check them out on Facebook and Twitter!)

Official Rules

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. PURCHASE WILL NOT IMPROVE CHANCES OF WINNING. OPEN TO ANYONE 18 OR OVER. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.

1. CONTEST SPONSOR. The contest is sponsored by Extreme Tornado Tours, LLC ("the SPONSOR").

2. HOW TO ENTER. Signup with your email address on TVNWeather.com. Winners will be chosen at random from emails received. You will be granted an additional entry for each person you refer who signs up using the referral or "Share Link" you are provided after signup. They must signup using this link in order for you to receive your additional entry. This link is also included in your confirmation email, if you have lost this link you can access it again by entering your email address again at TVNWeather.com, this action will not count as another entry. Information is gathered and tracked to prevent multiple signups, signing up using a different email address will disqualify you from the contest. Entries can be received until April 30th 2012 at 11:59PM Central Standard Time. Entrants may also mail entries to Extreme Tornado Tours, LLC; attn: TVN Weather Signup Contest at P.O. Box 722048; Norman, OK 73070 . Mailed entries must include the contest name, subject line, a valid email and postal address, and any other specific entry information requested in the contest announcement and are subject to the same entry period and rules as emailed entries.

3. ELIGIBILITY. The Contest is open only to individuals who are age 18 and over. Any individuals who have, within six (6) months prior to the start date of the Contest or thereafter, been employed by or performed services (including but not limited to as employees, consultants, independent contractors or interns) for Extreme Tornado Tours or any of its subsidiary, affiliated or successor companies, and immediate family and household members of such individuals, are not eligible to enter or win. Extreme Tornado Tours reserves the right to verify and confirm entrants' ages and compliance with other eligibility requirements. Entrants may be required to submit further information to assist in the judges' verification of eligibility.

4. WINNER SELECTION. The winner will be chosen by random via a software script executed by Extreme Tornado Tours on May 1, 2012. The winner will be contacted via email and will have 15 days to respond. Failure to respond shall mean that the winner forfeits the prize. Extreme Tornado Tours is not required to award elsewhere any prizes forfeited by the chosen winner.

5. PRIZE. Prize includes the cost of a 10-day storm chasing tour with Extreme Tornado Tours, LLC as defined on ExtremeTornadoTours.com. ETT prize includes the $3500 standard tour fee and lodging. As stated on ExtremeTornadoTours.com, guests are responsible for their own meal costs and travel to the origin city of the tour (Oklahoma city or Denver as on tour schedule of ExtremeTornadoTours.com). Winner must sign liability waiver to participate in the tour, just like regular ETT guests. Tour director Chad Cowan will email the winner with all relevant tour information, as well as the available tour dates that currently have seats available. If the winner has schedule conflicts with these available dates they will receive a voucher good for the following year.

6. WINNER'S NAME. For the name of the contest winner, available after May 1, 2012 please send a separate self-addressed, stamped envelope to Extreme Tornado Tours, LLC; attn: TVN Weather Signup Contest; P.O. Box 722048, Norman, OK 73070. Responses will be provided to all requests made prior to August 1, 2012.

Wednesday's Chase, Upcoming Chase?

dick.mcgowan@gmail.com (Dick McGowan) — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 18:40:12 +0000

On Wednesday, TVN headed out to chase with an initial target of Salina, KS and watched a dual warm front, separated by about 50 miles in northern Kansas, lift northward where towering cumulus was present. As the northern warm front washed out, a weak disturbance, helped form a surface trough from Wichita to Salina and helped add an area of moisture convergence and kicked off supercells from Topeka to south of Emporia. TVN blasted east and then south to Council Grove, KS where we experienced a storm producing quarter size hail.

After watching a left-split race north of Emporia (and had an amazing anti-cyclonic wall cloud), it was evident that the southern storm would be the most isolated of the three and right along a boundary. As we approached the town of Madison, KS, we were getting golfball size hail and the sirens were sounding (even though there was not a tornado warning, spotters reported a funnel cloud west of town, which was verified through their photos). We drove east of town a couple of miles, then south and witnessed a striated supercell with amazing structure and a rapidly rotating wall cloud directly overhead. Inside the hook, we were also watching baseball size hail periodically falling and Reed took a hit from a golfball to his arm, where it left a welt! For the next two hours, we watched several occlusions develop with wall clouds and funnels (possibly a brief touchdown) as this nearly stationary supercell spun almost in place! We maybe moved 5 miles within 2 hours, giving us a beautiful viewing until about 10:30 p.m. as the supercell gradually weakened. Check out the video below!

Models continue to look worse and worse for a possible chase on Monday, with nearly straight line hodographs and keeping the best shear west of the instability in the W OK and NW TX region. Regardless, TVN plans to chase this setup and will be shooting our new webisodes! If you haven't already, sign up and spread the word about TVNWeather.com! Exciting new things are in the works of being launched!

TVN is chasing today in Kansas!

dick.mcgowan@gmail.com (Dick McGowan) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 14:31:30 +0000

Based off of last nights model runs, today's looking like a decent chase day, with moderate instability in place across KS along a retreating front, lifting throughout the day from Central KS from 18z slowly northward to northern KS by 0z. While shear is not the greatest, it looks like subtle impulses will be embedded within the zonal flow along this warm front and should help erode the cap (along with strong surface heating) by 21-22z. It looks like the NAM is trying to fire storms near Salina to the Nebraska border by 21z and shows a nice SE mover by 0z. 500 temps are at -15 C and with MLCAPE on the order of 1500- 2000 j/kg, and will result in extremely large hail with initial supercells. As the low level jet increases towards evening, the tornado threat should increase with any isolated cells, with the LCL's lowering, and there could be a tornado or two around dusk. The map depicts the Storm Prediction Center's risk for tornado, and (not shown) also a threat for significant hail. We will be out in D2 shooting more webisode content for the launch of TVNWeather.Com, so don't forget to sign up today!

Don't forget to check out our LIVE streaming page for other chasers in the area and be sure to follow Reed's Facebook fan page and twitter account for real-time updates in the field!

Check out our latest two videos below-- a classic from the past and an AMAZING time-lapse sequence made from Extreme Tornado Tours' director, Chad Cowan!

TVN witnesses their first tornado of 2012 near San Antonio! Deadly tornado today in Illinois

dick.mcgowan@gmail.com (Dick McGowan) — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 03:55:43 +0000

After blowing a forecast on Sunday and missing out on tornadoes in Western Oklahoma, the TVN team redeemed themselves on Monday evening near Lytle, TX--just southwest of San Antonio, TX. The day began in Norman, departing at 10 a.m. after only sleeping a few hours from the night before. A cold pool had developed into southern Oklahoma into southwest TX and we began to wonder if tornadoes were possible for that day. Luckily, as we headed south from Alvarado, TX, we noticed some storms trying to form on a weak dryline southwest of San Antonio on the mexican border. They were moving extremely slow, and were within reach, so we blasted south on I-35. We initially thought that the storms forming west of Austin along a cold pool, which seemed to be washing out, could potentially produce, and after witnessing a tornado-warned one near Llano, TX, we immediately dropped those for the ones SW of San Antonio. After getting around San Antonio, and onto I-35, we witnessed power flashes back to our north and turned back around--witnessing a developing tornado that started out as a cone, then morphed into an elephant trunk, and finally widened into a stout stovepipe--and lasted approximately 10 minutes. The National Weather Service in San Antonio rated this tornado an EF-2 where it did damage very near Lytle, TX.

A deadly tornado struck Opdyke, IL today , where one was killed and two others were injured. An upper-level low was responsible for these low-topped supercells, where numerous tornadoes, most brief and weak, were reported. All eyes are shifted towards this Monday for portions of South Dakota and Northern Nebraska for severe weather. Stay tuned!

Also, if you haven't already, sign up for the new TVNWeather.com, there will be HUGE announcements coming up in the near future. TVN is going back to our grassroots. Don't miss out!

Check out our latest videos, below, of the San Antonio tornado and another video of a thrilling intercept and INTENSE behind-the-scenes look at the Wakita, OK tornado that nearly took out our medic vehicle!

Severe weather possible for the Plains!

heidi@tornadovideos.net (Heidi Farrar) — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 18:19:47 +0000

The month of March (and 2012 in general) has already seen an abundance of severe weather--sometimes rather unexpectedly and/or in unusual places (see Wednesday's tornado event in southeast Michigan). So far, the Great Plains has yet to experience a more classic severe weather event this year, but that appears set to change starting tomorrow, as a large, powerful storm system will sweep into the region. Southerly flow throughout the past week has allowed an unseasonably moisture-rich airmass to become established across most of the central U.S. Meanwhile, forecast models have continued to show a strong mid/upper-level trough digging into the western Plains beginning tomorrow afternoon. As this western trough crashes into the high Plains tomorrow--and moreover, if the atmosphere can "recover" enough in the wake of convective activity earlier in the day--the potential would exist for a somewhat widespread severe weather event along a dryline extending roughly from the Goodland, Kansas area south into the southern Texas panhandle and western Oklahoma. As the storm system advances east, the potential for severe weather will exist for central and eastern Oklahoma, northern and central Texas, and parts of Arkansas on Monday into Tuesday; heavy rains will also be of particular concern for these areas, with some models predicting precip totals in excess of 5" of rain for some areas where the ground is already quite saturated from a wet Winter/early Spring.

TVN will be chasing throughout the event. You can follow along with updates and video blogs from Reed through his Facebook and Twitter feeds.

In other news, check out the latest webisode trailer! These are coming soon to TVNWeather.com!

One last note: Happy Birthday to Reed, the St. Patrick's Day baby!

March 2, 2012 Storm Chase webisode (beta version)

reedtimmer@gmail.com (Reed Timmer) — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 10:57:06 +0000

Deadly tornadoes February 28-29, Potential outbreak on Friday

dick.mcgowan@gmail.com (Dick McGowan) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 04:36:57 +0000

Starting around 9 p.m. last night, in Harveyville, Kansas, tornadoes swept across Kansas and Missouri, and continued through the night into Illinois, killing at least 13 people and injuring dozens of others. The town of Harveyville, Kansas was hit around 9 p.m. and fortunately, no one was killed in this tornado, but it did damage a majority of the town--this tornado was rated an EF-2 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale and did not have a tornado warning issued at the time. The reason for this, after analyzing radar data, was because the tornado had formed and dissipated between just 3 radar scans, showing the power of mother nature and how quickly tornadoes can form with little advanced warning.

The next tornado, affected Lamar, MO where it damaged several businesses and continued to Buffalo, MO, where it hit a mobile home park, killing one and injuring over a dozen more. It then trekked through Lebanon MO, but thankfully no serious injuries or deaths have been reported in Lebanon, MO. Another tornado affected the infamous town of Branson, MO where it did damage to hotels and music theatres in it's entertainment district--thankfully no injuries or deaths were reported and it was assigned an EF-2 rating.

The most significant tornado of the night/morning was in Harrisburg, IL where it struck early at around 5 a.m. and, unfortunately, took the lives of at least 10 people. This tornado was preliminarily rated an EF-4, with wind speeds up to 170 mph and was 200 yards wide. Tornadoes continued into today and more damage and injuries were reported in Kentucky and Indiana. If anyone would like to donate or help the victims of these tornadoes, please contact the Red Cross.

Friday has the potential to be an even bigger event for a big chunk of the country, anywhere from Illinois to Ohio and south to Mississippi and Alabama. TVN is planning a chase and will go into further detail in a later blog. Above, is tonight's NAM run for EHI values at 3 p.m. for Friday, and these areas could see tornadoes, some possibly strong. Check back soon for more updates or follow Reed's Facebook fan page and Twitter account for real-time updates!

Severe Weather Likely Tomorrow for Plains-Ozarks, Never Stop Chasing 2012 Video

dick.mcgowan@gmail.com (Dick McGowan) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 00:16:12 +0000

For tomorrow, February 28th 2012, there is a slight risk of severe weather for portions of the Central Plains during the afternoon in northern Kansas and southern Nebraska, and a risk for supercells, including tornadoes, for the evening/overnight hours for much of northern and central Arkansas, eastern Oklahoma, southern Missouri as well as areas adjacent to those regions. The photo above depicts the Storm Prediction Center's day 2 risk of severe weather and the probabilities assigned for them.

Lower 50 dewpoints will advect northward beneath a strong low-level jet advancing northward to a developing surface low in extreme southern Nebraska during the early morning hours tomorrow. Clouds will linger in the morning, but a mid-level dryslot should help push them out and allow strong surface heating beneath -20 to -25 C 500 mb temperatures associated with the upper low across southern Nebraska and northern Kansas--and allow a nose/narrow corridor of steep low-level lapse rates to occur, resulting in moderate 0-3 km CAPE. Timing of the potent, upper level trough will greatly impact the amount of severe coverage as well as the threats for severe weather. At this time, (18z model runs) this timing appears to be off by ~ 3-6 hours and the main threats should be small hail and gusty winds, with low-topped supercells possible in a highly-sheared, low CAPE environment. Should the timing happen better than forecasted, brief tornadoes can not be ruled out, but the threat should remain low for all types of severe weather. Current surface obs show lower 50 dewpoints as far north as the Red River in Texas, so moisture seams feasible on the NAM as the low-level jet cranks up late tonight into tomorrow.

Further south, along the dryline/pacific front into KS/OK, storms should fire sometime between 0-5z (6-11 p.m.) and be elevated due to surface based parcels being capped along the front until past sunset. The main threats should be damaging winds and large hail, but should any storms become surface based, with strong shear in place and somewhat-curved hodographs, an isolated tornado threat will exist. Further east, during the same time frame into eastern OK and into AR, very strongly-curved hodographs show the potential for supercells/bowing segments, should any storm become surface-based along a pre-frontal confluence line ahead of the dryline/pacific front, but CINH is extremely high, so expecting a line of storms to produce large hail/ damaging winds well into the early morning hours of Wednesday as they race east through southern Missouri and Arkansas.

Below, is the latest video from TVN, entitled, "Never Stop Chasing in 2012!" Enjoy and be sure to check out our LIVE streaming page and follow Reed's Facebook Fan Page and Twitter account for real-time updates as severe weather events unfold!

Tornado Watch issued for SE LA & SE MS, TVN Weather Webisodes

dick.mcgowan@gmail.com (Dick McGowan) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 18:28:45 +0000

A tornado watch has been issued for SE LA and extreme SE MS until 3 p.m. Central; there has already been one report of a tornado today near Rayne, LA and the threat will shift east with time to the coastal counties of Alabama and portions of the western Panhandle of Florida. The tornado threat seems highest right now around New Orleans and east/northeast of there into extreme SE MS. Stay tuned for updates on Reed's Facebook fan page!

Below, is the latest chase with the Dominator on February 3rd in NC Texas. Coming soon, are new webisodes with the Dominator on TVNWeather.Com....stay tuned for more.

Reed to appear at the 2012 International Roofing Expo

heidi.farrar@gmail.com (TVN News) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 23:01:20 +0000

Reed will be making an appearance at the 2012 International Roofing Expo® [IRE] later this month in Orlando, Florida. Alongside the Dominator, he’ll be on hand to sign copies of his book, Into the Storm, on Thursday, February 23 from 1:00 pm until 5:00 pm in the TornadoVideos.net booth on the show floor.

This annual tradeshow brings together buyers and sellers in the roofing construction and maintenance industry together for three days of products, education and networking.

“The International Roofing Expo is the perfect venue for Reed Timmer as we have a built-in audience who is very interested in weather conditions,” said Lindsay Roberts, Director of the IRE. “Our attendees and exhibitors will get a real kick out of seeing him and the Dominator in person.”

The 2012 International Roofing Expo will take place February 22-24, in South Hall A at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida USA. Visit www.TheRoofingExpo.com/attendee to register for the event, as well as find details about exhibitors and the educational conference.

For more information about the IRE, please visit www.TheRoofingExpo.com/attendee or call 972-536-6415 or 800-684-5761. Additional show information can be found on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/RoofingExpo, LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1963938 and Twitter http://www.twitter.com/RoofingExpo. Twitter users can follow the show using #RoofingExpo or @RoofingExpo.

About International Roofing Expo

The International Roofing Expo is the must-attend event for commercial and residential roofing professionals to stay abreast of market directions, trends and cutting-edge technology. Formerly owned by NRCA, the show was sold to Hanley Wood Exhibitions in May 2004. The official show sponsor is NRCA; the official show publication is Roofing Contractor; and the official residential publication is Replacement Contractor.

Andy Gabrielson: 1987-2012

heidi@tornadovideos.net (Heidi Farrar) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:44:17 +0000

Last Saturday, February 4th, we lost a part of the TVN family.

While en route to his home in Minnesota after chasing in Texas and Oklahoma the previous two days, Andy Gabrielson was the tragic victim of a vehicle accident outside of Tulsa. I am unable to adequately describe the way in which these terrible circumstances have affected those who knew and loved Andy. It has been a difficult time for many, to say the least.

Since word of the tragedy spread last Saturday evening, the extended chaser and weather enthusiast community has come together in a big way. The outpouring of support for Andy's friends and family has been considerable, and a fund has been set up to benefit his young daughter, Reegan (more details found here).

Today, February 9, 2012, the TVN online store is holding a benefit as well, with 100% of the sales going directly to Andy's memorial. As explained on a recent post to Reed's Facebook page, we felt this was an easy way to help out, for those wanting to contribute in even a small way. It should be noted that Andy's incredible 2010 DVD is offered through the store, in limited supply. I watched several chapters of this DVD in Reed's living room last year while he and Andy had a ridiculous argument about whether the Wilkin County, MN, tornado should have been considered a waterspout for some of its lifespan. - It's obvious that Reed will never get over missing that tornado!

There are others whose posts you're used to seeing here who considered Andy among their best friends. They'll share their thoughts when they're ready. I'm not the best person to offer an adequate account of who Andy was as a person, but what I can say about Andy is that, simply put, he was a storm chaser, one with an unsurpassed drive for being there, for seemingly every storm, day or night, high risk or see-text. In 2010 alone, he saw over 80 tornadoes--an unfathomable number for a few months' worth of effort--and captured what many consider as some of the most amazing, extraordinary video of all time. He was also very dedicated to storm reporting, as anyone who has Spotter Network knows, and served as an in-field correspondent for The Weather Channel's Tornado Hunt. He was the best there was at what he did, and was one of the most humble people you could ever meet. That's what I admired about him the most.

Andy's friends and family appreciate your continued support through this most difficult time. I'll leave you with these links where you can help with his memorial, as well as a video that hopefully shows how much fun he was to be around. We'll sure miss him.

Contribute to Andy's Memorial Fund.
TVN Store Benefit: February 9, 2012 -- 100% of sales to be directed to Andy's fund.
Andy's website.

Severe weather 2/2 - 2/3, Much needed rain for the Plains coming, Who stole the Dominator?

dick.mcgowan@gmail.com (Dick McGowan) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:07:18 +0000

Today kicked off the start of the first of several days of severe weather for the southern Plains/ MS River Valley. It began across Arkansas, where a Severe Thunderstorm Watch is currently in place for SE AR, N. LA and extreme NW MS--where an 86 mph wind gust was recorded at the Stuttgart, AR airport earlier!

More severe weather is possible, starting tomorrow afternoon/evening for portions of NW TX and SW OK. Early tomorrow, moisture will begin advecting northward where a stalled-out cold front will retreat northward, as a warm front, across Central TX. A potent shortwave will then begin to move across the slight risk area, issued by the Storm Prediction Center, and should reach NW TX and SW OK by 0z (6 p.m.). At the moment, it looks as though the cap may hold until after dark, but should convective temps be reached and stronger forcing makes its way faster, the cap could break across the area, and supercells are likely with large hail, damaging winds and even isolated tornadoes are possible. The more likely scenario is for storms to fire after dark and be ongoing throughout the night.

On Friday, an upper-level low will move across NC OK and SC KS and strong mid-level flow will rotate around it into KS down into Northern/Eastern Texas. Heavy rain and ongoing storms are possible during the morning hours, and may continue developing during the day in these areas. IMO, the best shot at tornadoes will be closer to the cold-core low where 500 mb temps will be -18 to -22 C, and a forecasted mid-level dry slot could clear out the areas--leading to extremely low-level lapse rates and strong surface vorticity, where low-topped supercells and isolated tornadoes will be possible. Further south, across southern OK and northern TX, damaging winds and large hail should be the main threats. At the very least, this system wil dump much needed rain across drought-stricken TX, OK and KS, where it will be welcomed!

TVN will be out chasing this event with, at least, D2 and possibly D1 on Friday, so be sure to follow Reed's Facebook fan page and Twitter page for updates in real-time! And don't forget to check both days on our LIVE streaming page where there will be numerous live video streams covering this severe weather!

Lastly, check out this hilarious Youtube video, created by Bosch, of the Dominator getting stolen!

Mid-South braces for 2012's first severe weather event

heidi@tornadovideos.net (Heidi Farrar) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 20:20:28 +0000

A powerful Winter storm system currently making its way into the Ozarks and middle-Mississippi Valley region will interact with an unseasonably warm, moist Gulf airmass later this evening, prompting what is likely to be the first large-scale severe weather episode of 2012.

Forecast models continue to suggest that strong, southerly wind-fields in the lowest levels of the atmosphere will readily transport this uninhibited current of Gulf moisture well into the Mid South and lower Ohio Valley, allowing dewpoints in the mid to upper 60s to migrate potentially as far north as the Missouri bootheel by sunset or just thereafter; this should provide plenty of fuel for thunderstorms that are likely to develop ahead of a cold front that will sweep across Arkansas later this afternoon. Low and mid-level wind shear is very favorable for thunderstorms with sustained rotating updrafts; any storms that are able to develop along and ahead of the front will have the potential for strong, possibly long-lived tornadoes, especially, and unfortunately, after dark, as the low-level wind shear is forecast to intensify in conjunction with the arrival of the most abundant moisture from the Gulf. The possibility of a nighttime tornado event presents an especially dangerous situation for residents of central and Eastern Arkansas, west Tennessee, northern Mississippi. As always, persons in the outlined areas are strongly urged to have their severe weather plans in place, monitor local media and, above all, heed warnings when they are issued--NOAA Weather Radios with fresh batteries are a must for events such as these. Numbers of storm chasers will be in the field as well; their activities can be monitored by following our Live Page. Stay tuned, as Reed will be providing updates as possible, from Twitter and Facebook, as the day unfolds.