October 22nd Chase A Sucess

[Charles-KD5ZSM]

Well we decided to skip calculus class yesterday to go storm chasing within mobile county. We were originally going to head down to Grand Bay near the Mississippi State line and the Gulf of Mexico, but our nowcaster Matt Perkins told us to head down to Bayou La Batre in lower Mobile county because there was a classic supercell 30mins from the coast with a 70 gate-to-gate velocity couplet. We positioned ourselves on an open bridge and waited for the tornado to pass and this is what we got on film: Bayou La Batre Video. You can't see much of the funnel on video but it was there and was just touching down. It intensified to our north and had great structure, sadly we couldn't get the whole structure on video. There were a total of 4 families displaced with completely destroyed mobile homes. luckily no one was killed or injured except for 3 small dogs. Our videos (second video not posted due to copyrights on video) made it onto the evening news along with a free tour of the weather center at WKRG channel 5 station. Last thursday there was also a tornado that touched down just 7 miles from my home in Jackson County. Also luckily no one was injured or killed but homes substained major damage. I was not able to respond to the tornado due to classes but did relay reports to NBC 15 in mobile, alabama. Now we are waiting to see what lays ahead in the future.

[beechsundowner]

QUOTE (Charles-KD5ZSM @ Oct 23 2007, 05:26 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well we decided to skip calculus class yesterday to go storm chasing within mobile county. We were originally going to head down to Grand Bay near the Mississippi State line and the Gulf of Mexico, but our nowcaster Matt Perkins told us to head down to Bayou La Batre in lower Mobile county because there was a classic supercell 30mins from the coast with a 70 gate-to-gate velocity couplet. We positioned ourselves on an open bridge and waited for the tornado to pass and this is what we got on film: Bayou La Batre Video.[/b]

Congrats on the TV feature! Nicely done video for what you could get.

Congrats dude. How close did you guys get to the storm? Also what did it look like to you?

[Charles-KD5ZSM]

thanks yall. well when it fist came across we seen 3 suction vortices which can be lightly seen in the video if can be seen clearly. you can see it on our original copy. after it passed we watched the path of it and it started to intensify and started to cone our really well and the tornado was clearly defined. then we seen debris fly in the air which ended up being 1 of 2 or 3 mobile homes destroyed. it was later rated an ef-1. the damage was clearly tornadic due to the cyclonic turning patter of the debris on the ground. it was exciting for a first. one weird thing which doesn't happen often but does happen is that this was a classic supercell and not rain wrapped. this is what our chase group has done:

443 PM CDT MON OCT 22 2007

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MOBILE HAS EXTENDED THE

* TORNADO WARNING FOR...
EXTREME SOUTHERN MOBILE COUNTY IN SOUTHWEST ALABAMA...

* UNTIL 515 PM CDT

* AT 440 PM CDT...LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT AND TRAINED WEATHER SPOTTERS
REPORTED A TORNADO NEAR CODEN...MOVING NORTH AT 20 MPH.

__________________________________________________ ______
...A TORNADO WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 445 PM CDT FOR SOUTH
CENTRAL MOBILE COUNTY...

AT 429 PM CDT...TRAINED WEATHER SPOTTERS REPORTED WALL CLOUD WITH
THIS THUNDERSTORM...LOCATED NEAR BAYOU LA BATRE...MOVING NORTH AT 20
MPH.
__________________________________________________ __________
...A TORNADO WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 515 PM CDT FOR SOUTH
CENTRAL MOBILE COUNTY...

AT 458 PM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR...STORM
SPOTTERS...AND LAW ENFORCEMENT ARE TRACKING DANGEROUS TORNADO. THIS
TORNADO WAS LOCATED JUST WEST OF LAURENDINE...OR ABOUT 15 MILES
SOUTHWEST OF DOWNTOWN MOBILE...MOVING NORTH AT 20 MPH.

[Charles-KD5ZSM]

I can't find the updated report but here is the first:

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT...CORRECTED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MOBILE AL
1201 PM CDT TUE OCT 23 2007

...PRELIMINARY NWS DAMAGE SURVEY RESULTS OF THE SOUTH MOBILE COUNTY
TORNADO OF 22 OCTOBER 2007...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MOBILE CONDUCTED A DAMAGE ASSESSMENT
OF THE TORNADIC THUNDERSTORMS THAT MOVED ACROSS SOUTH MOBILE COUNTY
LATE MONDAY AFTERNOON...OCTOBER 22ND.

METEOROLOGISTS FROM NWS MOBILE FOUND A TORNADO TRACK THAT WAS 3/4THS
OF A MILE LONG THAT BEGAN NEAR MEMORY LANE NEAR IRVINGTON...AND
ENDED AROUND THE ROY E. RAY AIRPORT. THE DAMAGE PATH WAS 200 YARDS
WIDE...AT ITS WIDEST POINT. DAMAGE TO HOMES AND STRUCTURES ALONG
THE TRACK WAS CONSISTENT WITH AN EF1 ON THE ENHANCED FUJITA DAMAGE
SCALE. TORNADOES THAT PRODUCE DAMAGE AT THE EF1 LEVEL HAVE WINDS
FROM 86 TO 110 MPH. EYEWITNESSES AT THE ROY E. RAY AIRPORT VISUALLY
TRACKED THE TORNADO AT 436 PM CDT.

A TORNADO WARNING FOR THIS STORM WAS ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL WEATHER
SERVICE FOR SOUTH MOBILE COUNTY AT 401 PM CDT ON MONDAY.

A MORE COMPLETE REPORT WILL BE ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL WEATHER
SERVICE LATER THIS AFTERNOON AFTER THE OFFICIAL REVIEW IS
COMPLETED.

[Brett Adair]

I saw the video and was in contact with a few of my buddies from USA while you were all on the storm. Daniel Lamb and Randy Bowers were in constant contact with the NWS MOB durning the supercells life cycle and I believe that Randy was also featured on WKRG with an interview. Good job! We had damaging tornadoes up in the BMX area from that same area of storms that lifted north and brought just enough instability with it.

We got nothing in this area, Brett. I would had thought we would had gotten more in Georgia as there was no CAD, but alas no luck.