We are currently tracking strong & severe thunderstorms mocing through portions of North Central Indiana. Radar shows a cluster of storms between Lafayette and Marion.

These storms will slide to the East Southeast and likely impact areas along and North of I-70 in the Miami Valley between 4 and 7 p.m. Damaging winds, hail and frequent lightning will be the main threats.

Temperatures in Dayton as of 2:00 p.m. were around 93 and with a little more heating we will likely get close to 95 or 96. Excessive Heat Warnings remain in place for Montgomery County and the City of Dayton and a Heat Advisory is in effect for the rest of the Miami Valley through 8:00 p.m.

Stay with 2 News and Storm Team 2 throughout the afternoon for the latest on the severe weather.

Brandon Redmond
Brandon.Redmond@WDTN.com

Temperatures are already creeping up this morning. As of 12:00 p.m. the temperature at the Dayton International Airport was 83 and I’m forecasting a high temperature this afternoon of 93.

With plenty of moisture still in place, it will feel “muggy” out there today and the dewpoints combined with temperatures in the lower 90′s will once again lead to high heat index values. By the middle to late afternoon hours, heat index values should climb back into the upper 90′s to near 100. For that reason, the National Weather Service has the entire Miami Valley under a Heat Advisory except Montgomery County and Dayton where an Excessive Heat Warning remains in effect.

More showers and thunderstorms are possible this afternoon as a weak disturbance and boundary remains laid out across the Ohio Valley. As temperatures heat up by the mid to late afternoon hours, the atmosphere will again become unstable and thunderstorms will be possible. Any of the storms that do form could be strong or severe with damaging winds, hail and frequent lightning. For that reason, the Storm Prediction Center has placed the entire Miami Valley in an elevated risk for severe thunderstorms.

If you have pictures of damage from yesterday’s storms or the clean up process today, don’t forget you can always share your pictures with us via Facebook, Twitter or ReportIt.

Stay with 2 News and Storm Team 2 throughout the afternoon for the latest on the heat and potential additional severe thunderstorms.

Brandon Redmond
Brandon.Redmond@WDTN.com

As of 12:00 p.m. the temperature had already climbed to 92 degrees in both Dayton and Springfield with the heat index already near 100 across much of the Miami Valley.

Strong and severe thunderstorms are developing across Northeastern Illinois where several severe thunderstorm warnings are already in effect. A severe thunderstorm watch has been issued just West of our viewing area for much of Northern and North Central Indiana until 7:00 p.m.

Stay with 2 News and Storm Team 2 throughout the afternoon for the latest on the severe weather and dangerous heat! Stay cool!

Brandon Redmond
Brandon.Redmond@WDTN.com

The heating will cause the atmosphere to become very “unstable” and with the weak cold front near by, there will be the potential for afternoon and evening showers and thunderstorms. The National Weather Service has placed the Miami Valley under an Elevated Risk for severe weather with the potential for large hail, damaging winds and frequent lightning.

Heavy rainfall will also be possible due to very high dewpoints and plenty of moisture in place. Any rain that does fall will likely be heavy in nature and fall in a short amount of time, but with the drought conditions we are currently experiencing, any rain is better than no rain.

Today will be another hot day across the area with temperatures climbing into the middle to upper 90′s. Tara is calling for a high of 97 this afternoon with heat index values climbing above 100. A Heat Advisory is in effect for the entire Miami Valley with an Excessive Heat Warning in effect for Montgomery County and the city of Dayton through this evening.

Stay with 2 News and Storm Team 2 throughout the day for the latest on the potential severe weather.

Brandon Redmond

The EF5 tornado rapidly strengthened as two storms merged as the storm approached Joplin. As the tornado approached the Southwest side of Joplin at approximately 5:40 p.m., the tornado strengthened to an EF4 mile wide tornado.

(Image Courtesy BaseHunters)

Radar shows extremely strong and even violent rotation as the storm approached the city. A large debris ball is also evident.

Here’s the path of the tornado, showing that the tornado cut right through the center of Joplin, producing EF4 and EF5 tornado along it’s path.

Here’s a neat graphic explaining the tornado from the National Weather Service:

From the National Weather Service: “It’s been one year since a supercell thunderstorm produced an EF-5 tornado over Joplin, Mo. The storm resulted in 158 fatalities and more than 1,000 injuries. The Joplin tornado is the deadliest since modern record keeping began in 1950 and is ranked 7th among the deadliest tornadoes in U.S. history. 2011 was the fourth deadliest tornado year in U.S. history.”

Storms are developing across portions of Illinois and these storms are expected to increase in coverage and intensity as they spread into portions of Indinaa. The Storm Prediction Center is monitoring the outlined areas (portions of Illinois and Western and Southern Indiana) for a potential Severe Thunderstorm Watch.

Our latest run/update of one of our high resolution forecast models has a line of thunderstorms, likely strong or severe, knocking on the Indiana/Ohio line by 7:00 p.m. this evening. This line will spread across the Miami Valley during the mid to late evening hours with a threat for damaging winds and possibly large hail. The atmosphere also has plenty of moisture to work with, so heavy rainfall is definitely a possibility.

Stay with 2 News & Storm Team 2 throughout the afternoon & evening for the latest on the severe weather and of course we’ll bring you the latest watches & warnings at WDTN.com.

Brandon

The worst of the outbreak would begin to unfold on April 27th, 2011. The Storm Prediction Center had issued it’s rare high risk for portions of Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia. A moderate risk and slight risk was outlined for a large area stretching from Arkansas and portions of Florida all the way to the Miami Valley and even up into portions of New York.

A very powerful weather system developed and moved towards the Ohio and Tennessee Valley by the morning of April 27th. An unusually strong jet stream combined with the strength of this system and very warm and moist air out ahead of the system would lead to an unusually dangerous atmosphere, particularly across portions of the South.

A strong squall line with embedded tornadoes impacted a large portion of Alabama and Mississippi during the early morning hours of April 27th, 2011. This intense squall line left thousands of people without power and also knocked out power to numerous outdoor weather warning sirens in the area (this is why we believe so strongly in having multiple methods of receiving weather warnings). This line of storms also took out telephone lines and caused several NOAA weather radio transmitter sites to go offline.

As the squall line shifted out of the area by mid morning hours, the atmosphere had ample time to heat up and destabilize. By the mid afternoon hours, the atmosphere was a ticking time bomb across portions of Mississippi. Storms began developing as early as 2:00 PM and there was so much rotation and wind shear in the atmosphere, every storm began to rotate and take on a hook echo characteristic. You can see that visually by looking at this radar loop from later in the day as tornado producing storms moved towards Central Alabama.

By 3:00 PM CDT, the tornado outbreak was in full progress with a large damaging tornado, later rated an EF4, moving into the City of Cullman, Alabama. The tornado did extensive damage in Cullman, a city with nearly 20,000 people. The tornado in Cullman damaged 867 residences and 94 businesses! Here is a picture of the tornado as it moved into Cullman captured via local television outlet’s tower cam.

As if one large violent tornado hitting a large population center was not enough, the day would only get worse with a very long tracked and long lived supercell producing violent tornadoes in Tuscaloosa, Birmingham and tracking all the way into North Carolina. This violent supercell originated in Newton County, Mississippi at 2:54 PM CDT and traveled 380 miles before finally weakening in Macon County, North Carolina at 10:18 PM CDT. Here’s an amazing image with radar captures overlaid of the entire track of that intense supercell.

The National Weather Service Offices did an amazing job on April 27th, 2011 issuing hundreds of tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings stretching from New York all the way to the Gulf Coast. Here is a look at the most concentrated portion of the outbreak and the numerous warnings that were issued across portions of the South. Red boxes indicate tornado warnings, yellow severe thunderstorm warnings and green flash flood warnings.

The multi day tornado outbreak left 346 people dead, 325 of those deaths being caused by tornadoes. The April 27th tornado outbreak was really a worse case scenario with multiple large and violent, long lived tornadoes impacting large metropolitan areas.

Could another large tornado impact the Miami Valley or impact a large metropolitan area in Ohio? The answer to that is that it is absolutely possible. At some point in time, another large tornado will strike a metropolitan area in the Ohio Valley. That is why self preparedness is so important. We learned valuable lessons following the April 27th tornado outbreak, and one of the most important lessons was that all of us need multiple methods of receiving weather warnings. We can’t just rely on outdoor weather warning sirens, we can’t just rely on NOAA weather radios. A combination of multiple devices and methods to receive weather warnings is the best practice. If you don’t own a NOAA weather radio, they can be purchased at most retail stores and they can and do save lives!

Brandon
www.Facebook.com/BrandonWx
www.Twitter.com/IndianaWxOnline

A light band of rain showers is currently moving through the Western portions of the Miami Valley. This area of rain is associated with the warm front which is currently moving into the Miami Valley. Warmer air can be seen behind the front across portions of Central Indiana.

Temperatures across Indiana have climbed into the 60′s with 70 degree readings showing up across far Western Indiana and Illinois. In Fact as of 1:00 PM, Terre Haute, Indiana had climbed to 72 degrees. As the warm front lifts north, the low clouds will give way to some temporary sunshine and temperatures should continue to climb into at least the middle 60′s and possibly the upper 60′s depending on how much sunshine and heating we are able to get.

As temperatures begin to warm this afternoon, the atmosphere will become unstable across portions of Illinois and Indiana and showers and thunderstorms will begin to develop. These storms will push into the Miami Valley late this evening and overnight tonight. While the threat for severe weather does exist with any storm that develops, a few of the factors needed for severe weather are not quite coming together as earlier thought and therefore the severe weather threat does not appear to be as great as earlier thought. The main threats with any strong or severe storm will be the potential for gusty winds and hail.

Chief Meteorologist Brian Davis will have the latest on the storm potential on 2 News at 5 p.m. and of course we’ll have any watches and warnings posted online at WDTN.com.

Brandon
www.Facebook.com/BrandonWx
www.Twitter.com/IndianaWxOnline