Good Wednesday, bloggers —
We had quite a stormy morning in the area with a tornado in Nevada, Missouri, and a possible tornado in Ballard, Missouri, east of Butler.
Here is a look at the velocity on radar from Nevada that occurred around 7:40 a.m. You can see the tight circulation.
Red is wind blowing away from the radar with green blowing toward it. You can see the red and green bent around each other. The red is wind blowing southeast while the green is blowing northwest. They are right next to each other, so a strong sign of strong rotation.
Since there was a thunderstorm located there, the thunderstorm was rotating. Not all rotating thunderstorms produce tornadoes, but a tornado-producing thunderstorm needs to rotate.
Here is the radar image. You can't see the classic hook as it is a bit far away from the radar sight, so the tornado may be wrapped in rain.
There was a funnel — or tornado — reported around 7:05 a.m. in Ballard. Here is a look at the radar (wind velocity) from around 7:05 a.m. Wednesday when the tornado/funnel occurred.
Red is wind blowing away from the radar with green blowing toward it. You can see the red and green bent around each other east of Butler. The red is wind blowing southeast while the green is blowing northwest. They are right next to each other, so a sign of rotation. You can see it is not as tight as the Nevada circulation.
On radar, you can sort of see a hook, but it is not well defined.
Here is a pic from Ballard taken by Jim Sublette. You can see a funnel through the rain.
Today, there will unfortunately be a lot of rotating thunderstorms that produce tornadoes. Some of the tornadoes may be long-track and EF3 or greater.
The locations that are in a level 4/5 of 5 risk today will be seeing that scary weather. The 3 of 5 area may see that as well.
Also, there will likely be a major flooding event in these locations. Some spots may see over 10" of rain today-Sunday.
BTW, flooding kills more people per year than tornadoes and lightning combined. Six inches of flowing water can float an SUV: turn around don't drown.
What does this active weather pattern mean for our area?
Details on that, the tornado from this morning in Nevada, the possible tornado from Ballard, and the significant weather set up to the south and east are in the 6-minute video below.
Have a great rest of your week and weekend.
Stay healthy.
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