Mother's day weather thread

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Chipper

Well-Known Member
Dec 8, 2008
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I was flipping between 8 and 13.

8 seemed to do a better job of zooming in and focusing more on potential tornado's. Then all off a sudden right before the tornado warnings in Johnston start sounding 8 decides it's a good time to do some regular news. WTF

13 did a good job and I like their app better. They also seem to dumb it down for the 95% of the world (including me) that don't get impressed when you start rattling off a bunch of meteorologic terms/conditions.

5 They are just getting word that a storm is moving in from Nebraska last night.

Yeah - that was odd. It was almost like John needed an emergency potty break.
 

FDWxMan

Well-Known Member
Jan 31, 2009
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Des Moines
Thanks for staying on when the other stations went away. Kind of hits home when the real warning is so close where you live.

Thank you. It was a pretty nasty looking storm on radar, combined with the nighttime tornado aspect, and it was clear it wasn't something to ignore or leave strictly on 13.2
 

NickTheGreat

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Jan 17, 2012
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Central Iowa
I have Mediacom cable and they were pushing NWS alerts, which I had never seen before. Even when we were watching stuff On Demand.

The part that really chapped my hide was I was trying to watch Channel 13's detailed coverage, but Mediacom would interrupt with their robo-voice and blank screen. Seemed really stupid to me :realmad:
 

HiltonMagic

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Apr 12, 2006
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The radar was my main problem with the app as well. Last night I downloaded the Weather Underground app and it seems promising, I also bought the NOAA Hi-Def Radar app, it was like $1.99.

The WU app is awesome! They recently upgraded/updated it along with their website, and it kicks ***.
 

ArgentCy

Well-Known Member
Jan 13, 2010
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Their radar on TV was about 5 minutes behind.

I was watching their coverage for awhile and their radar was not behind. They just had no idea where their reporter was really at. It was starting to drive me crazy but they still had pretty good coverage. Although they had that big appendage on the radar, about 1-2 miles max from their reporter, and none of them had any idea of what was really happening. It really just showed how dynamic and fast these situations are and that standing outside in the middle of it is really stupid.
 

3TrueFans

Just a Happily Married Man
Sep 10, 2009
59,132
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Ames
I have Mediacom cable and they were pushing NWS alerts, which I had never seen before. Even when we were watching stuff On Demand.

The part that really chapped my hide was I was trying to watch Channel 13's detailed coverage, but Mediacom would interrupt with their robo-voice and blank screen. Seemed really stupid to me :realmad:
Pretty sure all cable companies have to do that when the NWS issues an alert.
 

SerenityNow

Well-Known Member
Dec 4, 2009
3,717
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Central Iowa
The sirens went off in Altoona around 1030, but we really didn't get much more than a brief thunderstorm about 25 min later. Of course, I'd rather they err on the side of caution; it actually kept me up for awhile just to be sure we didn't need to bring the family into the basement.
 

CyBroncos

Well-Known Member
Aug 5, 2010
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West Des Moines
NWS storm survey results, EF-2 tornado with 16.7 mile track from south of Guthrie Center across Lake Panorama to near Yale.

i went out to the Booneville exit off 80 and had a good high up spot to watch. I kept thinking I was seeing a rotation off to the north/NW which would be up by Panora but couldn't tell for sure. I'm pretty sure now after finding out there was a twister, I did see it.

It was my first time out looking for storms. I got about 15 minutes of calmness until the winds suddenly went nuts out of nowhere and I knew it was time to leave
 

CYvilEng

Member
Aug 20, 2012
456
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Des Moines
I have Mediacom cable and they were pushing NWS alerts, which I had never seen before. Even when we were watching stuff On Demand.

The part that really chapped my hide was I was trying to watch Channel 13's detailed coverage, but Mediacom would interrupt with their robo-voice and blank screen. Seemed really stupid to me :realmad:

I agree how stupid it was that I was getting worse info from the alert. I'm also ****** that all my recordings got screwed up every time it happened.
 

4dyceclone

Member
Oct 23, 2013
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DSM
Polk City 1 1038 pm.jpg Polk City  1038 pm.jpg Two pictures facing North in Polk City around 10:30pm last night. Shortly after KCCI said they had rotation by Grimes but then never talked about it again because they were worried about the storm by ames.
 

wxman1

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Jul 2, 2008
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Cedar Rapids
What are some things they look for when they are out surveying the sites?

When "grading" a tornado it all surrounds what was damaged. What was damaged? How badly damaged was it? What was the quality of the build? What was it made from? To what extent was it damaged?

I am on my phone or I would post the exact criteria.
 

FDWxMan

Well-Known Member
Jan 31, 2009
3,047
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Des Moines
Sorry this is way late, but here is how the damage indicators work.

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/ef-scale.html

If you click on the number left of each building type, it will list the different damage indicators and how they are "scored."

Similar types of damaged can be rated a bit differently, depending on what types of construction are involved.