WWU082- Yes, that was a tornado.

Good evening Weenies.

I want to do a short recap of what happened last week.

WWU082

That's why it's called a 'forecast'

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Weenies, I promise the Birmingham weather forecasters did not intentionally mislead you.

So um. That wasn't supposed to happen.

Let's recap.

At about 3:20pm on Thursday, February 26th a storm formed over Gardendale. This was when the storm first received a Severe Thunderstorm Warning.

This storm went on to product strong straight line winds in Pinson, and later a short-lived tornado in Trussville.

And plenty of hail.

Let's look at the radar:

I don't usually get to show you current radar. We only ever cover models.

How exciting.

This is my personal favorite Weather Weenie radar, GR2Analyst.

You can see it kind of hook around on the far southwestern corner, but every storm that day was trying to. Looking at the velocity, the tornado had to spin up between scans. There are no indicators of anything but straight-line winds.

What about the hail? That was the most interesting part until the tornado happened.

Here is the hail core of the storm. Still pretty wild for us. We had a 5% chance of hail from the SPC that afternoon.

I want to look at all of the products for the day.

These are all the latest products produced for that day.

Issued just before the tornado dropped.

(About an hour if we want to be specific)

First is hail.

Then wind.

Then tornado.

And the overall convective outlook.

#RespectTheGreen

So as you can see, there shouldn't have been any tornadoes.

But there was one. And it was where we are.

That's why it's important to stay weather aware, especially of the conditions where you currently are.

A forecast is the future. A window is now.

If it looks bad, go inside and get away from windows.

A few more notes because Facebook has made me want to cry lately.

1. Do not depend on sirens. They are activated by people. People activate them for tornado warnings. The people are not members of the NWS or local news stations.

2. There was no tornado warning for this storm because it didn't show enough proof it was trying to spin. If they would have warned that storm, they would have had to warn every other storm that day.

3. NO STORM is proven to be a tornado, gustnado, or straight-line winds until the NWS survey team comes to survey the damage. Again, unless your root source is NWS Birmingham, it is speculation.

This storm was a scary reminder of how unpredictable weather can be, and as we begin meteorological spring, this is your annual warning to keep an eye on the skies.

If they're green, go inside.

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Be safe and stay Weather Weenie Aware

KR4BZF

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I have my resources on a page here - I'm working on adding all of them. The most important ones are already on there - check them out!

During the event make sure you keep tabs on what is going on with your favorite local weatherman.

Whether that's James or Wes. I don't care.

I have to be completely honest, that was such a cool storm to watch form and it produced so much lightning and hail. I want to paint every room in my house that tornadic sky green.

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I hope you have enjoyed today's weather weenie update.

Stay Weather Weenie Aware.

Kaila - Weather Weenie - KR4BZF