Tornados and the severe thunderstorms

watching those trailers fly thru the air definitely show you the power of a tornado

at the same time, you dont know where to run or hide because it can kill you in one spot and completely miss you 50 yards away

 

Sounds like someone never learned risk assessment. That, or you're up for a Darwin award one day. I know it's kind of cliché, but there really isn't any load worth your life or career, especially if you're a company driver. I know the 'manly' thing to do is continue on, but running into a ditch because you went full supertrucker on solid ice isn't really good business practice. Same thing, if you decide you're manly enough to handle 60mph+ winds and get blown over, that really isn't conducive to on time delivery.

 

We had three tornadoes a couple of weeks ago come through southern middle Tennessee. Almost in the same path. I was heading home on hwy 64 west. My wife called said there was a tornado on the ground heading for Kelso,Tn. I was only about 6 miles away heading in that direction. The wind was bad, but by the time I could find a place to turn around. The wind had gotten so bad I figured real quick what was up ahead. Needless to say, I had the pedal to the metal heading back east. It took a good 3 miles heading back east to get out of the strong winds
The real damage and large tornado path that went across hwy 64 was only about a 6 minute drive from where I turned around. Glad my wife made the call when she did. The Lord was definitely looking out for me that evening.

 

The Red Cross has a Tornado warning app that you can download to your smartphone.

 

There is so much misinformation in this post it is not even funny. storms DO NOT just pop out of nowhere. The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma forecasts severe weather outbreaks as much as a week in advance. 48-72 hours before, they have a better idea of when, where and how bad and tweak their forecasts.

The SPC provides convective outlooks for the current 3 day period at any given time. These outlooks provide a technical summary as well as a picture summary of where severe weather is expected to strike and the threat risk (slight, moderate, high).
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/

You can check for any active watches here
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/watch/

Watches/Warning Map here
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/wwa/

for those of you with Android Phones, use pykl3 radar
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.MyPYK.Radar.Full

for those of you on iphones use RadarScope
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/radarscope/id288419283?mt=8

Checking the forecast for your current, route stops and final destination SHOULD BE a part of your day before you start doing your driving. Know what you're driving into. It's too easy NOT to do it. Takes 5 minutes to do it.

Typically...most storms don't initiate till the afternoon, 1pm or later, as the daytime heating of the atmosphere provides the needed energy for the storms to become severe and sustain themselves. Sometimes though, storms can be nocturnal or in the morning, but not usually.


as for thunderstorm production...evaporated moisture condenses into the form of cumulus clouds, which then converge where the dry cold air is, forming thunderstoms and supercell thunderstorms (cumulonimbus clouds) which can then produce tornadoes, hail, damaging winds, and torrential rains. They don't just come out of nowhere.

 

on the bright side, at least Mother Nature found a productive use for a Schneider truck and trailer....flingin' em around like Tonka Toys. lol.