Good afternoon everyone. Many of you have been tweeting me or emailing me asking about how you can help in the aftermath of Friday’s deadly tornado outbreak. We now have your answer…
Here’s the full information from WKYT.COM :
We know Kentucky Cares and are looking for ways to help in the aftermath of yesterdays tragedy. WKYT, WYMT, WBUL and The Herald-Leader are coming together to work with the Red Cross relief efforts for the Kentucky tornado and storm victims. We need your help to get the word out where to send donations to help those in need. Let everyone know via email and social media to donate. For all Twitter fans use the following hash tag – #KyCares.
Donations Points:
Via Cell Phone – Text “Red Cross” to 90999 for a $10 donation
In person- at all Central Bank locations – campaign “Kentucky Cares”
Online – American Red Cross
Via phone – at 1-800-RED-CROSS
Thanks to our Partners:
There are thousands of people in need, so give whatever you can give to help your neighbors.
In terms of the actual weather:
– The NWS continues to survey the damage across the state and will be determining just how strong these tornadoes were.
– Colder air is filtering into Kentucky tonight and Sunday.
– A clipper dives in from the northwest with a swath of accumulating snow Sunday night. The GFS is pretty aggressive with snow totals…
That certainly looks interesting and is something I will be updating later tonight. Have a great rest of your Saturday and take care.
Hard to imagine a snow fall two days after a historic tornado breakout. Will be donating to the relief efforts. Thanks to all who have shared pictures . Looking forward to hearing more about calmer weather, Chris. Today is a gorgeous one. Prayers going out to all affected.
While we don’t want any more destruction, we are only entering peak severe wx season in KY/TN. Peak months are April, March and May in that order.
The Gulf waters will continue to be very very warm and moist.
If (a big if) La Niña ends by this April, that could relax the jet stream patterns somewhat and lower the chances a bit for bigger twisters. However, as very strong as the jet stream was the last few days, the next month or so at least could be volatile.
Anyone else have issues with EMS issued emergency radios in Madison county / Richmond not working? Mine was plugged in and the lights indicated “ready”. Alarms were sounding off and lighting up all around but some radios never went off. A few friends experienced this as as well, while others living the same area with the same county issued EMS radios were ringing for hours. Having radios issued by EMS and them not working is scary – false sense of security to say the least. The sirens go off county wide but the radios as supposed to be more local and accurate.
Any thoughts, suggestions or advice?
Mike,
Not sure what kind of radio they issue, but I know we have one that is NOAA certified. It does require a SAME code to be entered in to work. That way it will only go off if your particular area is under a warning, and not just the whole county. I would start by checking to see if it takes a SAME (or FIPS) code. If so, make sure the right code is entered. For the list of 6 digit codes go to: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/indexnw.htm
Hope that helps…
When the EMS issued them to us they worked. Nothing changed. Some in the neighborhood went off while others didn’t. I will call EMS on Monday…
The f2 rating in laurel count is absurb. Houses lifted off foundation is f4 plus. My community was catastropic. Everthing mowed down
These can be preliminary ratings.
Destroyed property can also be subject to deeper study. There have been cases of homes completely swept off foundations, but closer inspection revealed the homes had little or – believe it or not – no anchoring.
All NWS offices are of course having to do a lot of storm surveys. I wonder if inspections had been fully finished from the Feb 29 tornadoes.
Thanks for all you do, Mr. Bailey, and welcome back to Lexington. I’m sure your heart is still with your friends and family in your hometown as you come back to Central KY. Thank you for this blog, and for keeping us up to date even though I am sure your mind is elsewhere. Though I myself came through the storms without a problem, my thoughts, prayers, & sympathy go out to everyone who was affected in life-changing ways by yesterday’s weather.
I am sick and tired of people leaving me messages that I’m a piece of trash because I enjoy the wonders of nature. NEVER do I wish for death and destruction. In fact, I did everything I could to warn people what was coming yesterday. As of right now, I have family members who are unaccounted for too. Next time I get hate messages, I’m going to start finding addresses…and I’m not talking about email or IP addresses.
Now… Thank you to Chris and all the folks at the NWS and my friends in the media. You all did a great job yesterday in this tragedy. Let’s remember all the families affected and try to help.
WXman….Mother nature will unleash her fury somewhere everyday! We as people can’t control what happens with the weather. I too love snow and strong storms and love to track them as well. I live in Lou. and we were very lucky that the two supercells that moved through Southern IN. did not come 25 miles futher to the south or Metro Lou. would have been in the middle of it. I alerted my family members early in the morning that there would be violent TStorms and Tornaodos on Friday. Told each of them to be prepared for the worst. That is all anyone can do in the situation we were in.
Just because we love to see the fury weather brings we would never wish for a moment that someone’s house or lives are destroyed from it. It is just a fact of the matter. We can’t control the weather but, we can all stay alert to what is happening and take precautions to be safe during the worst of times.
Thanks to all the media outlets who covered yesterdays storms. They all did a wonderful job of keeping everyone up to date on the situation.
God bless everyone who was in the path of these storms.
Hope you hear from your family members soon. Even though I don’t comment much, I read everyday. I appreciate what Chris does and I appreciate your thoughts as well. Past few winters, you’ve hit the nail on the head for our area. The weather is a very fascinating force. I have always been amazed at it’s strength, doesn’t mean that we wish for lives and homes to be lost. But the truth is, how would we ever be warned if someone didn’t study the weather and give a heads up on what to expect. Please don’t get too discouraged, if you didn’t care about people you wouldn’t be trying to warn them. I appreciate the warnings. Will keep your family in our thoughts and prayers.
What do you plan on doing with addresses? This is getting silly. Giving silly people time with these types of comments enables and encourages them. The world and the blog is full of silly people. We need not give them encouragement. Thank them for the opinion and move on to something useful.
Sounds like you turned into a celeberty good thing not all celeberties who are spoken about badly don’t talk about finding peoples addresses. Sorry peeps have been rough on you but you gotta just chill like the others.
Couldn’t say it better. I’m sick of hearing about it.
I don;t know about everyone else, but the upcoming snow just doesn’t excite me. Too much violet weather lately to get excited. I am “weather exhausted.” I pray for all those who are picking up the pieces today. Chris, thanks for your part in trying to warn all of us of the storms. ALL the meteorologists in the area yesterday deserve a lot of credit. Without all of you firing out the constant warnings and updates, the loss of life surely would have been greater. I look forward to seeing your reports on WKYT. Welcome home!
I need to proofread better. I meant to type VIOLENT, not “violet”. “Violet” weather would be interesting, that’s for sure.
I agree. As nice as snow is, it certainly won’t help those folks nearby that are still trying to find a clue about their missing loved ones.
Here in Chris’ hometown of Salyersville, life will NEVER be the same….it’s surreal to view the destruction first hand….I don’t know how our community can ever recover. Just to show how easily a tornado can wipe out anyone, the twister that roared through here only missed Chris’ parents’ home by a few hundred feet!
No one wants death and destruction for anyone concerning the weather..But death and destruction has been on earth since humans has walked the planet..Sad to see it happen but the reality is it wont be the last time we see casualties from weather events..All one can do is help his fellow neighbor and hope the wounds and heartache heal for everyone involved in this tragic event..
I just wanted to share that the little 2 yr old girl found in a field last evening in Salem, IN is still in critical condition, but moreso, she is the lone survivor of her family,. Her parents, 3 yr. old brother, and 2 mo. old sister were all killed.My heart goes out to not only this little child, but to everyone in IN/KY/OH/TN/AL/NC?GA that all lost a piece of their lives in some way during yesterday and today’s storms. May they find comfort in knowing that God is with them in their time of need.
Did anyone in Bell or Harlan County see any tornadoes or anything with that first storm Friday night that tracked right along the VA/KY line. That had a very well defined hook echo on radar around the county lines, thought it looked like debris showing up at one point. Was worried it might take a right turn across the state line into Lee in VA. Seen just one wind damage report in HC from the SPC and a report of a funnel cloud sighting in Pineville in a media article. Of course it appeared to move across a rural part of the counties too though. Just was curious if anything came of it.
Per NWS Jackson KY webpage, there are two possible paths in that area, no confirmed touchdowns to date. Paths based on strong radar signatures, as you touched on. I’m sure NWS Jackson and NWS Morristown are looking into possible touchdowns. I understand NWS can be given access to funds for aerial surveillance of remote rugged terrain.
Morristown radar is now dual-pol, so it would have somewhat better ability of seeing any debris balls and clarifying hook echos than Jackson.
Jackson radar won’t be upgraded to dual-pol until this fall.
The brief debris ball was showing up on some of our local TV stations radars along with the very impressive looking hook echo. One of the long time local mets said he had never seen such a well defined signature in this area before.
There were two confirmed touchdowns in the southern track on Morristown’s side. One in Claiborne County TN in Harrogate and the other in Lee County VA (county in which I live). The upper track was the storm I was referring to. It might have dropped a tornado in the northeastern part of Lee but nothing confirmed yet. I was just curious about that first one but I’m sure Jackson will probably look into it.
I’ve saw a picture of a tornado that was photographed around the Wallins community of Harlan County. Very large hail went through the area at the time as well.
I’ve wanted a good snow storm this entire winter… until now. I don’t think I’ve ever found myself hoping so much that the much dreaded KY Snowdome take over and keep this stuff away. I’m in Lexington and of course snow at this time would have little effect on any of us, but it’s easy to see that none of these communities devastated by the storms yesterday need to have to deal with even a dusting at this point. So go ahead Snowdome, do your stuff!
Yea, the weight of the snow could bring down tornado damaged structures, impede travel and recovery efforts, etc.
Good thing is any snowcover will be very short lived, as a rapid warmup will follow.
Our prayers continue to go out to those effected by these storms. This is the preliminary findings from the national weather service on the tornado that went through West Liberty, Ky.
EVENT DATE: MARCH 2 2012
EVENT TYPE: EF-3
TORNADO ESTIMATED PEAK WINDS: 140 MPH
INJURIES/FATALITIES: 2 FATALITIES IN MENIFEE COUNTY AND 6 FATALITIES
IN MORGAN COUNTY
EVENT START TIME/LOCATION: 539 PM EST AT 37.905022N/83.614639W
EVENT END TIME/LOCATION: YET TO BE DETERMINED
DAMAGE PATH LENGTH: 34 MILES IN MENIFEE AND MORGAN COUNTIES
DAMAGE WIDTH: MAXIMUM 1 MILE WIDTH
From Morgan County, the twister continued into Lawrence County and then even into Wayne County WV. NWS Charleston WV covers these two counties, including Lawrence County KY, so the Charleston office would be doing those surveys.
after yesterdays destruction, I just can’t get excited by snow.
I was a daily follower of you on your WSAZ blog. I am sorry that your first day back in KY was such a tragic weather day for so many. Our prayers go out to all. Here in Nicholas County, WV, we were briefly under a tornado warning, but it was cancelled rather quickly. Can’t imagine the horrible devastation in areas that were hit. May God comfort and bless all!
Our prayers continue to go out to those effected by these storms. This is the preliminary findings from the national weather service on the tornado that went through Salyersville, Ky.
EVENT DATE: MARCH 2 2012
EVENT TYPE: EF-3
TORNADO ESTIMATED PEAK WINDS: 160 MPH
INJURIES/FATALITIES: 2 FATALITIES IN JOHNSON COUNTY
EVENT START TIME/LOCATION: 651 EST AT 37.717317N/83.219967W
EVENT END TIME/LOCATION IN KENTUCKY: 738 PM EST 37.832617N/82.403883W
DAMAGE PATH LENGTH IN KENTUCKY: 45 MILES
DAMAGE WIDTH: MAXIMUM WIDTH 0.75 MILES
The 12z nam looks impressive for a clipper system. This system would be great if it was January. Actually this storm could be helpful because it will keep temperatures warmer. Because the sky will not be clear. I doubt it will cause many driving problems due to the warm ground.
Not only because I was without power during the last snow storm, but also because of the many people who are trying to put their lives back together after the tornadoes, I hope we have NO SNOW!
Does the KY Care Red Cross donations, it says you put in your local zip code, so if we use a lexington area zip code, will the money go to the tornado victims, this is very unclear.
It sounds like it will go to our local chapter that is not affected for something in the future and will not benefit the rest of the state, anyone have any comment on this?