UPDATE 7:20 AM, 4/28: Overnight severe weather thread: Serious situation could be brewing for Southwest Virginia
Links: * Latest watches/warnings/advisories * Latest Doppler radar from National Weather Service-Blacksburg * Latest regional/national radar composites
UPDATE 7:20 AM: Here is a link to a CNN iReport of a possible destructive tornado at Glade Spring, exit 29 on Interstate 81. I have seen other unconfirmed reports of fatalities in that area. This was near an area of extreme rotation on radar late Wednesday night/early this morning. Any further information anyone has would be appreciated. END UPDATE
UPDATE 7 AM: The multi-state death toll is up to an incredible 178 over the South from Wednesday’s tornado outbreak, and I’m afraid that’s likely to climb higher. END UPDATE
UPDATE 6:45 AM: The final squall line is pushing over the Blue Ridge now. Once this rather thin but strong to severe line of storms passes, conditions will begin drying out after a stormy night for the region. As of now, no confirmed reports of tornadoes touching down yet in Southwest Virginia, but there were scattered wind damage reports, some very large hail especially in Smyth and Giles counties, and lots of heavy rain (including rock slides that have closed the Pulaski-Giles Turnpike and part of U.S. 460 for a time in Tazewell County). The day may reveal a few other severe weather reports. END UPDATE
UPDATE 2:20 AM: At this time, there are no severe thunderstorm or tornado warnings for the counties in the Blacksburg weather service office’s region. [Soon after I posted this, a tornado warning was issued for Giles and Craig counties.] The intense supercells present earlier have started to fuse together into broader bands and clusters, and overall intensity on radar is much less. Still, with such wind shear present, and unusual warmth and moisture for an early April morning, there remains some risk of severe weather, and the tornado watch will remain until 8 a.m. So the threat is not entirely over — but the higher-end storm outbreak threat appears to be waning. It’s a good thing these storms didn’t roll through at 3 or 4 in the afternoon with peak solar heating instead of late night. END UPDATE
UPDATE 1:25 AM: A strong supercell with an obvious “hook echo” — often indicative of a tornado — is scraping along the Giles/Montgomery county border likely headed up along the Craig/Roanoke County border. The northwest corner of Roanoke County is now under a tornado warning because of this storm, along with parts of Giles, Craig and Montgomery counties, and Monroe County, W.Va.. There have yet to be any confirmed reports of tornado damage in the region, but of course, much of the area is rural and tornadoes touching down in remote areas may not be known yet. END UPDATE
UPDATE 12:30 PM, 4/28: A chain of supercells has been moving through the western portions of our region, generally from Bristol north-northeastward through the I-77 corridor and along the Virginia-West Virginia border. So far, despite several tornado warnings issued for radar-indicated rotation in these storms, there have been no confirmed reports of tornadoes in our part of the state. The most extreme severe reports I’ve seen so far came from Smyth County, where 4.5-inch-in-diameter hail (softball size) and trees blown down were reported. There is a large supercell east of Bristol moving in the general direction of Wytheville that may also affect parts of the New River Valley later. Additional cells in eastern Tennessee will pull through during the night and morning hours. In time these cells may start to cluster together more and perhaps even weaken some, and the major weather threat will shift to heavy rain. END UPDATE
This could be a rough ride overnight. Unseasonable warmth and sticky humidity is providing the fuel for what could be a round of strong to severe overnight thunderstorms, with damaging winds, large hail and tornadoes possible. Warnings are already going up for storms entering southwest Virginia from Bristol north to Bluefiled. I have links at the top with the latest watches, warnings and radar scans, so I won’t try to summarize every one of those on here tonight. Both here with updates and in the comments section I will try to keep everyone fairly up to date on what is developing. The Storm Prediction Center put out a rather strongly worded mesoscale discussion for our region a little while ago indicating that conditions would be “conducive to all forms of severe weather through the overnight. ” Eventually we do still expect a squall line to develop with the advancing cold front and push through the region in the early morning hours, but before then, these individual storms ahead of the line present a risk of some severe weather. Parts of Southside and Central Virginia have already experienced tornadoes (photo here from Goochland courtesy of Andrew Smith, a Virginia Tech storm chaser) earlier this evening, and of course Alabama has been smashed by an extremely deadly outbreak.
Let’s keep a close eye on this. If a tornado warning is issued for your area, go to an interior room in the lowest floor of your home, staying away from windows.
April 27, 2011 - 10:47 PM
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Moving the post I just made in the other thread…
I’m near Atlanta, Georgia tonight… supposed to be heading home tomorrow. The only thing on any station here is weather, weather, weather, since about 9 p.m. I have friends and family in Alabama not far from Tuscaloosa, but I think all are ok and accounted for. Hopefully the storms will stay north of here… reports that Ringgold, Georgia has been completely flattened along Interstate 75, which is near the TN border.
Cells developing from NW NC to east of Wytheville need to be monitored. The southernmost cells are intensifying. These cells could affect the New River and Roanoke valleys later.
Just checked NEXRAD radar (on wunderground.com) and it shows something possibly awful. A t-storm turned into red (possibly severe) and inundated Draper Valley GC and was about to enter the town of Pulaski!!!
Pouring rain and windy in New River now, lots of lightning. Not severe, but a strong storm nonetheless.
WHen I saw my flag standing pointing north, north west, when I woke up Monday morning, I knew something this was going to happen.
WSLS reporting that the severe storm currently threatening the NRV may be weakening as it leaves Tazewell/Smyth Counties
News 7 reporting a death in Halifax resulting from a tornado.
Kevin, have you ever seen anything like this in Southwest VA?
Thunder starting in Blacksburg and rain is starting now.
Supercell storms tend to cycle up and down quite a bit, strengthening and weakening. Hopefully these cells will run into some things that will weaken them as they enter our region.
As I looked at the pictures of the tornadoes in Virginia earlier this evening it struck me that these are not the normal “skinny” tornadoes we usually see in this area. These are HUGE twisters and the storms are supercells. Almost NEVER see that in this area.
New Tornado warning for Giles County just issued
The second cell behind the first that hit Bristol is monstrous.
I’m looking at a Blacksburg radar with 5 different tornado-warned supercells — never seen that here, Brandon.
Heard from a friend near Ironto that they’re getting hail right now.
Indian Valley John, are you on the blog tonight? Get your dogs inside and hug them. Blondie Boy will get hugs in an hour or two once the “bangin’ and clangin’” starts around here. As a matter of fact …. everyone: I don’t care if your dogs spend their entire lives outside, I beg you to bring them inside tonight. Ok, sorry for the mini-sermon. I simply adore dogs.
I am really getting worried…
I’m getting a bad feeling about this next round of weather to the west.
Like Kevin stated above, the Storm Prediction Center’s latest Meso Scale Discussion is bad news bears for Virginia for the rest of tonight and Thursday AM: The air mass from the I-81 corridor east is still very juicy. We are still at 74 degrees 56 depoint with 76% humidity and the wind has been a consistent 20-25 mph from the south all night here in Goochland away from the convective activity.
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/md/md0645.html
MESOSCALE DISCUSSION 0645
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
0912 PM CDT WED APR 27 2011
AREAS AFFECTED…CNTRL/SWRN VA…NWRN NC…SERN WV
CONCERNING…TORNADO WATCH 240…
VALID 280212Z – 280315Z
THE SEVERE WEATHER THREAT FOR TORNADO WATCH 240 CONTINUES.
RECENT RADAR/SATELLITE TRENDS INDICATE SEVERE THREAT HAS BECOME
INCREASINGLY LOCALIZED ACROSS CNTRL VA…WITH A LONE SUPERCELL NOW
IN CULPEPER COUNTY. HOWEVER…LONG-TRACK SUPERCELLS ARE APPROACHING
THE WRN EXTENT OF WW 240 ACROSS SWRN VA/NWRN NC/SERN WV. SURFACE DEW
POINTS CONTINUE TO INCREASE ACROSS THIS REGION JUST AHEAD OF THESE
CELLS. MODIFIED 00Z RNK RAOB SUGGESTS MODEST SURFACE-BASED
INSTABILITY WOULD REMAIN IN PLACE WITHIN A VERY STRONGLY SHEAR
ENVIRONMENT…CONDUCIVE TO ALL FORMS OF SEVERE WEATHER THROUGH THE
OVERNIGHT.
..GRAMS.. 04/28/2011
This is serious stuff headed our way now folks and please take it seriously. Already getting softball size hail in far SW VA and flooding in WV.
One thing that is worth noting: Despite all of these supercells and tornado warnings, as of now there have been on confirmed tornadoes in SW Virginia (Central/Southside a different story earlier this evening) and only a couple of reports of tornadoes in NE Tennessee. That could change of course as more information is available.
The big storms here in VA don’t look any different than the one’s in GA right now.
Robin Reed just said he had never seen anything like this in his 34 years of covering weather in this area. I’ve been here 45 years and have never seen anything like it.
As a weather enthusiast my adrenline is flowing but my fear is also rising. This is truly scary. No way will I be able to sleep for a while.
This is the latest from the National Weather Service at 11:09 p.m.
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BLACKSBURG HAS ISSUED A
.. TORNADO WARNING FOR…
NORTHEASTERN TAZEWELL COUNTY IN SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA
GILES COUNTY IN SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA
BLAND COUNTY IN SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA
SOUTHWESTERN MONROE COUNTY IN SOUTHEAST WEST VIRGINIA
MERCER COUNTY IN SOUTHEAST WEST VIRGINIA
SOUTHERN SUMMERS COUNTY IN SOUTHEAST WEST VIRGINIA
.. UNTIL MIDNIGHT EDT.
.. AT 1108 PM EDT…NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING A TORNADO NEAR
BLUEFIELD…MOVING NORTHEAST AT 55 MPH.
..
Now we have a Flash Flood Warning, glad we’re on higher ground here. Storms are training a bit it appears.
And that cell that went through Bristol that’s near Abingdon looks to project right to my area later tonight, if it holds together…
Asking all to keep comments fairly short tonight — 2 or 3 sentences — since we may have a lot of information to digest in a short time.
Looks like a cell trying to spin up just south and west of Roanoke.
Should people in Roanoke assume a tornado could happen tonight. Should we prepare now?
All the info you need right here from the NWS Blacksburg Skywarn link:
http://www.wx4rnk.org/wx_brief.html
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/sgx/kml/lsr.php?cwa=rnk&lsr=All
Report from Saltville in Smyth Co at 10:32Pm reports of numerous trees down with up to softball size hail of 4.5 inches in diameter.
Also funnel cloud report in Abingdon at 9:55 PM.
This is headed NE at 50-55 mph.
I’m not sure I’ve seen this kind of crazy weather in an area local to where i’ve been. the worst thunderstorm I was ever in happened while I lived in Virginia Beach, maybe 1993 or 1994. My sister and I were at my mom’s house and a storm popped up right over us around 6PM. Lightning struck the house and blew out the TV and cable box, and power went out and was gone until the next day…luckily no fire. It rained like the dickens for a solid 4 hours straight, we got almost a foot of rain in that time, and the entire neighborhood flooded with 3-5 feet of water in all of the streets. The lightning was so intense it was flashing an average of 3 times per second in the storm. You could just about read a book, despite the lack of power, at 9PM because the flashes were darn near constant.
http://forecast.weather.gov/showsigwx.php?warnzone=VAZ012&warncounty=VAC197&firewxzone=VAZ012&local_place1=Wytheville+VA&product1=Tornado+Warning
SEVERE WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BLACKSBURG VA
1136 PM EDT WED APR 27 2011
VAC021-077-173-185-197-280400-
/O.CON.KRNK.TO.W.0039.000000T0000Z-110428T0400Z/
SMYTH VA-TAZEWELL VA-WYTHE VA-GRAYSON VA-BLAND VA-
1136 PM EDT WED APR 27 2011
…A TORNADO WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL MIDNIGHT EDT FOR
NORTHWESTERN GRAYSON…WYTHE…SOUTHEASTERN TAZEWELL AND SMYTH…AND
COUNTIESBLAND COUNTY…
AT 1136 PM EDT…NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR CONTINUED TO
INDICATE A TORNADO. THIS TORNADO WAS LOCATED NEAR MARION
WYTHEVILLE…OR NEAR RURAL RETREAT…MOVING NORTHEAST AT 45 MPH.
This is a cause for readiness, not panic. The conditions are right for the development of some tornadoes with the stronger storms. But it’s highly unlikely that any precise location — such as anyone’s home — will be affected. Just be ready to get to the lowest floor and an interior room if a tornado warning is issued. That is effective in all but the most violent tornadoes, which are not expected tonight in our region.
Crazy lightening, high winds now near exit 109 on I81
11:00 PM hourly observations from Roanoke and North Wilkesboro has surface winds from SE now 17-25 mph ahead of system. NOT GOOD!!!
Thanks, I have small children and I don’t want to over react but then again I don’t want to under react. This is all new to me. I will store flashlights, a radio and blankets in the basement closet just incase.
When will this thing hit Roanoke? Any weather watchers know an ETA?
Kevin…how long into the night/morning should we expect this risk of severe weather? Not much rain here in E. Montgomery but I hear thunder rumbling. Watching that line that stretches from Indian Valley to Pearisburg right now.
There should be some storms in the Roanoke area within the next couple of hours. Whether there are severe or tornadic storms here remains to be seen.
We have been in the thick of things since around 9pm. They have just lifted the tornado warning from Washington Co. We have had continuous tornado warnings since just after 9. The first storm missed Blackwell Chapel but the second one was a dead hit. Serious winds, lots of hail and thunder, lightening and heavy rain. Warnings now in Smyth, Wythe, Bland and Grayson Counties. Storms moving the Roanoke way. Reports of damage in Abingdon with windows out from hail and numerous trees down. No serious damage in my immediate area but hard to see with it being dark. Power still on. All be safe tonight.
Hey Doug,
My dogs are inside with me and they started getting a little nervous about an hour ago. They are my early warning system! Getting seriously windy now but hardly any rain so far this evening but lightning appears to be getting closer. Heading to bed now. Ready to hightail it to the basement if needed.
TWC mentioned the supercell responsible for the Tuscaloosa tornado is still going – 300 miles now and entering NC.
Rain has let up in New River, no wind either. Despite the heavy rains, temps are still hovering near 70.
Here in Rocky Gap we had THREE separate tornado warnings at one point right around 11 PM. Now we just have TWO and the thunder and lightning are returning after the last big cell passed just a bit north and west of us, we just caught the edge of that one. This next one will be more of a direct hit. Supplies, dogs, water, cell and laptop at the ready in the basement bathroom. Satellite starting to go out for the first time since this started. Prayers for all.
Cable TV just went out here in Blacksburg. Yikes.
I’ve been a weather geek all my life. Never remember a night like this! Ugh…..
And rain has resumed, heavily, with more lightning and thunder in eastern Pulaski County. I’m just hoping that maybe this line of storms helps to calm the atmosphere enough to take the punch out of the stuff moving in from TN/NC…
Town siren going off here in Blacksburg?!?
I lived in the Nashville area prior to moving here in 2006. This is like deja vu — I haven’t spent a sleepless night watching weather updates and following doppler radar since April 2006. Crazy stuff.
Margaret – WDBJ just reported that the cells in Wythe County are moving 60 mph, which would put them in the ROanoke area within an hour or so.
Penn State’s RUC Now Cast 21Z run
http://www.meteo.psu.edu/ewall/rucloopse.html
This is the PSU surface plot analysis. Notice the surface wind direction plot ahead of the front is shifting more SSe than SW? http://www.meteo.psu.edu/ewall/SFCSE/last.html
Western Montgomery Co under a tornado warning per NWS until 12:45…looks like that line I was watching is going north of me. I see more lining up to take a shot though. Temp went from 71 to 73 in the last 2 hours.
Could be the VT emergency siren – very loud here about 1.5 miles from campus. Assume they want people to wake up and turn on radio/tv.
I don’t see any tornado warning for Blacskburg right now.
Wind, rain and lightning picking up in Rocky Gap. No hail yet and no severe wind to speak of…was much windier earlier in the day. Still 70 degrees.
Tornado warning is for WESTERN Montgomery County and does not name Blacksburg … but apparently decision has been made to sound the alerts at VT, getting multiple reports of that.
Yes, a friend tells me the VT emergency siren went off & they’re advising people to seek shelter.
vt.edu website is stating a tornado warning for Montgomery Co in effect until 12:45 am. That explains the siren.
Kevin, can you confirm this? I know there is one to the west, around Rocky Gap/I77.
I have been a weather buff most of my life, and I have lived in this area since I was born..I just turned 37 a few days ago….I have never seen anything like tonight..
Thanks for all the good information..
Only the western edge of Montgomery County is included in the warning — but VT has made the decision to sound the siren there as a precaution, apparently.
Warning codes are sent over from the NWS for entire counties even though the red warning polygon (map below) only covers part of the county.
http://www.erh.noaa.gov/rnk/emer/emer.php
VT Alerts went out 11:57. Thunder and rain periodically gets restless. I live in northwest part of the county. My cat is really anxious too.
I was wondering why the bulk of storms seem to ride up from the southwest through West Virginia with the majority of precipitation falling out there. This seems to be the case for snow and rain. Isn’t it going to be tough to get a strong storm to the east of say…New River if the majority of the precipitation and the stronger of the storms are out west?
In this case the system is slowing down some and the upper-level low is “negatively tilting” which means it’s starting to angle more in a NW-SE direction rather than SW-NE. In the short term it means these storms are advancing only slowly eastward. In the longer term, it could mean heavy rain lasts longer when the rain shield/squall line/storm mass finally does move east. That’s why the flash flood watch was issued.
This is sorta similar to April 16 when it took a long time to get the rain/storms eastward but once they did it hung around for a while.
Despite the heavy rains, I went out and took a brief walk around and found that we haven’t even gotten to 0.3″ so far, the rains have all been pretty brief with their heaviest stuff. Still sprinkling with an occasional heavier burst. No wind, but still sticky and warm. Flash flood warning still in effect, with tornado warnings to our west and north. Lots of lightning from every direction.
Heavy rain and wind in Radford. A little bit of lightning and thunder to go along with it as well.
Looked at the Dublin reporting site, 72 with a DP of 66, winds from the south at 12, gusting to 20. With the storms coming generally from the SW, definitely a chance for rotation as they move in.
And that was shortlived. It still feels like the Outer Banks on a muggy July night though.
There has been a funnel cloud spotted with the strong cell south of Wytheville.
Very heavy rain has resumed again, with vivid and frequent lightning, in New River.
Thanks for the heads up Kevin, that’s the cell I’ve been watching, concerned that it would be moving near us as I’ve watched the Radar trends on its trajectory.
Tornado Watch extended until 8:00 AM.
Lost internet. Heavy rain pounding windows here in east montgomery. Slacking off as i type this.Thank goodness for smartphones!
Tornado Warning for me until 130…very vivid lightning going on all around, rain keeps coming and going.
New Tornado warning for Wythe, Pulaski, Radford. Channel 10 is reporting ETA for Pulaski at 1:06 am, Dublin 1:12 am, Radford 1:19 am, Blacksburg 1:29 am. Storm presently between Wytheville & Max Meadows
VT siren going off again. WDBJ7 mentioned a tornado warning for as far east as Radford.
The Weather Channel just said a strong storm capable of producing a tornado will be coming through the NRV. I saw Radford at 1:27AM, Pulaski around 1:11AM, and Blacksburg around 1:49AM. Just a FYI FWIW.
Been hearing sporadic and distant thunder for awhile now here in NW Roanoke. Is there any easterly component to this line? It looked as if that storm around Wytheville could hit Roanoke, but now it looks like it will pass to the west.
Warning siren just went off at Virginia Tech again (12:50 a.m. approximately).
Someone just told me there was an EF3 or EF4 tornado in Wytheville. Last I saw was Kevin’s mention of a funnel cloud @12:37am…they don’t categorize strength right off the bat like that do they?
How is this looking for Roanoke? It appears to keep skirting us to the west, but I am no professional. We are all downstairs for good measure….just in case. It’s pretty windy right now, too.
Horizontal rain outside Carilion.
The Wytheville area cell moving toward Pulaski/Radford is the worst on radar right now. It should move fairly close to Blacksburg later.
Have yet to see ground reports of a tornado with that cell, just the funnel cloud and radar indication of rotation.
Heavy showers/storms are developing eastward along the Blue Ridge and moving into the Roanoke Valley at times. Just got a burst of heavy rain where I live in south Roanoke County
Other storms are back in Tennessee/far SW Va. Those will pull through overnight and in the morning. If they start forming a line as opposed to these individual cells the tornado threat will lessen, but high winds/hail could still occur.
NWS showing 60mph plus winds in Fort Chiswell/Wythe County area.
Tina, tornado intensity is based on surveyed damage by the National Weather Service.
63 mph wind gust at Max Meadows in Wythe County with the big cell now moving through the NRV — appears likely to stay mostly west of the big towns there.
Rain has stopped over here by 460 and prices fork. Lightening and thunder still, low level clouds are whipping through. Went from warm to noticeably colder.
If this system was 4 hours earlier, we would be in a world of hurt. I think we will find that we dodged the bullet in the morning.
Channel 10 just reported a storm moving at 100 mph near Abington va….
Thanks Kevin…I really appreciate you!
Muggy outside with a light breeze and sprinkles of rain in town of Christiansburg. Looking toward Radford, rapid frequent flashes of lightening (almost like fireworks) and distant thunder.
Lightning off that tornado-warned cell is nearly continuous, it’s just a constant state of flashing to my northwest off it. Winds are streaming very strong from the southeast still, gusting pretty significantly. Over a half-inch of rain now, with just a few wind-blown sprinkles right now.
Was just about to mention the 100 mph storm — I’ve never seen that before even in the Plains — 90 mph last year in South Dakota.
Spooky calm in Glenvar, not even a breeze. Rained just enoigh to wet the walk, its half dry now. A few peels of thunder to be heard, lightning in west at 1:20
From NWS
AT 103 AM EDT…WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR CONTINUED TO INDICATE A
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WITH STRONG ROTATION. THIS TORNADO WAS LOCATED
NEAR LONG SPUR…OR 6 MILES NORTHWEST OF PULASKI…MOVING NORTHEAST
AT 50 MPH.
City EM is monitoring in Emergency Operations Center. Tornado Warning for NW Roanoke County now 0120…
Wow…that’s insane. 100 MPH movement? I’ve never heard of that.
ROANOKE IS NOW UNDER TORNADO WARNING
Looks like we’re about to get hit with a cell from NC, it’s showing some signs of rotation according to the WDBJ Radar.
What is the forecast for blacksburg? Please advice.
Listening to police scanner traffic and hearing unofficial reports of tornado damage in Chilhowie.
The tornado warning is only for the NORTHWEST edge of Roanoke County — it does NOT include Salem, Roanoke or the rest of Roanoke County. Warning codes are often sent to include entire counties, and those 3 localities are grouped together. The storm responsible for the warning will pass well west of Roanoke — but there are others to monitor later.
1:30 a.m., northwest side of Blacksburg, 0.7 inches (approx.) of rain so far, continuous lightning, wind picking up in the past few minutes.
Anyone else in Fairlawn hear sirens? It’s been continuous for a while now.
I’m near Fairlawn in New River, but I can’t hear sirens for all the thunder and heavy rain. Our streetlights just came back on, had a lightning strike VERY close to the house.
Seems like all the large strong cells are staying just west of us here in E. Montgomery. What are the chances that they will start migrating east more? Stopped raining for a while here, but it started again, thunder is loud too.
1:50 a.m., northwest side of Blacksburg: heavy rain again; no wind.
I live in Fairlawn, Haven’t heard a thing. Other John i used to live in New River near the post office on Divers road.
@Nate…that’s what I was pretty sure of. Not sure where the EF3 EF4 came from..
This is the 4th time that Comcast has dropped cable/internet here in Blacksburg within a minute of a new tornado warning that has involved Montgomery County. At first it seemed like an annoying, and alarming coincidence. Now, there seems to be a definite (and dangerous) pattern.
Some very big hail reports out of Giles County — 1 to 2 1/2 inches in diameter.
Just saw tech lose power. Lights in Lane are off, looks like anything beyond 460 (towards tech) is off. Wind pickin up heavy. rain too.
Starting to see a lot of the cells start to mush together, and intensities don’t look as heavy to our southwest as earlier — hopefully we’ll be near the end of the supercell-tornado threat soon, though there still will be wind/heavy rain through the night, maybe isolated brief spinup type twisters.
Some big winds gusts rattling the windows where I live in south Roanoke County now.
Rains in Blacksburg just reduced a bit (2:08AM). ARE WE SAFE NOW??
It’s definitely starting to slow down some. There is still some threat of severe weather through the night, but perhaps the supercell/tornado threat is starting to abate.
We are blessed that this hit in the night and not at 3 p.m.
Still, there has been some serious stuff mostly west of Roanoke (and much farther east earlier in the evening). I would not be surprised at all if we learn of a few tornado touchdowns from tonight’s storms.
The night is snarling at us in Rockbridge. We’re going to the basement to let this one pass. Constant lightning.
Thanks to Kevin and all the other bloggers. You get better real-time here than you do anywhere else.
Of course no sooner do I post that there are no current warnings than there is a tornado warning that includes Giles and Craig counties.
Some very heavy rain headed toward the Roanoke Valley. Will wait up a bit and make sure nothing severe flares up in that.
It has been wicked here for the last 20 minutes. Trees are bending over in a scary way with lightning intensity that almost equals the evening of the Pulaski tornadoes. Can’t sleep through this!
Heavy rain, wind, thunder and lightning in the cave spring area.
Seems to be getting worse rather than better in Salem
Nice cool breeze on the back of moderate rain and thunder here at Read Mountain. Say goodnight, Dick…
Just emptied my rain gauge at 6:30. Almost exactly 1.5 inches. Curbside gutters are running like mini-rivulets. But the air is wonderfully clean. At least you pollen sufferers may get a day of relief after this wild night. I cannot list some other rainfall totals because afws.net is being a bad boy again. I hope that all of you made it through the night OK. Sounds like I jinxed any chance of a tornado within 25 miles of Roanoke ….
More than 150 dead in this outbreak. 128 dead alone in Alabama.
Some of the pictures.. I’ve never seen anything like it.
Is there anybody out there who has any information about a possible tornado in the Chilhowie-Glade Springs area down along I-81 to the south?
I’m grateful for NOAA weather radio here in W. Craig bordering on Roanoke Co….took the kids(and the dog; my husband .stayed in bed) to the basement with blankets at 1 due to tornado warning. I found out what great kids we have: they all curled up and went to sleep without much fuss. When I woke up at 4 and was only hearing flash flood warnings, I brought them all back up and sent them to bed. All were out like a light in under 5 minutes. No damage here except the creek is high. Weather radio let me know about the danger and also when it was safe to return.
Haven’t seen anything like this since childhood in the SC mountains.
Kevin: Someone told me about major damage to a Petrol station at work last night. I assume that iReport is legitimate.
Has anyone seen this video yet?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ohIVzIZLuQ
WDBJ:
http://www.wdbj7.com/news/wdbj7-multiple-deaths-reported-from-heavy-storms-in-southwest-virginia-20110428,0,1551371.story
“Department of Emergency Services has confirmed multiple fatalities in the area”
“At least 40 tractor trailers thrown”
Interesting picture from Greensboro taken by a student. It shows the forming of a funnel.
http://ulocal.wxii12.com/_Over-Northwest-Guilford-Middle-School/photo/13704235/51585.html?as=51585
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOnIX04eZBk
Kevin-Could you explain the thinking behind extending the tornado watch until 3PM? What is they expect to develop AFTER the front passes? Won’t this morning’s rains/storms stabilize the atmosphere some?
Don in Fairlawn, we’re just up from the PO there, can see it from our front porch. I’m glad we were able to build there, it’s a nice little community, lots of great neighbors.
We picked up 1.36″ of rain last night, but as I walked around the property this morning, no damage evident anywhere. Even the flowers and blooms on the azaleas escaped, so no hail mixed in with the rain either.
But it’s just awful how destructive these storms were for so many areas. I don’t recall anything quite like this.
Betsy: I think you’ll see that watch further eroded from the west in the hours to come — it likely won’t continue through its expiration time. Still some storms moving up through the western edge of it where you are. As a precaution they’ll keep it until the storm/rain area clears.
http://www.wcyb.com/severestorms9999/27700468/detail.html
7 confirmed dead in Glade Springs (Exit 29 on I-81)
Kevin,
Your first update after 2:20AM is at 7:20AM ? Surprising.
Andy
My first update was at 6:45 a.m. My last comment was 2:35 a.m. I did take the opportunity to get a couple hours sleep when it was obvious the tornadic potential had slowed down.