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Wikiproject Severe Weather Newsletter (March 2008)
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Welcome[edit]Welcome to the second edition of the WikiProject Severe weather newsletter. In this edition of the newsletter we will detail the upcoming severe weather season, touch on last month's tornado outbreaks, and look at a new proposal for formatting tornado outbreak articles. New project articles[edit]
Featured story[edit]This month's featured story has two parts, the first part detailing the upcoming severe weather season, and the second part will detail a new proposal for tornado outbreak articles. With numerous outbreaks already, this season may very well be one of the worst ever. First, a review of past seasons. Last year's severe weather was mainly focused on the western High Plains, with no classic Oklahoma tornado outbreaks. Most of the outbreaks last season had supercells forming along either a cold front or dry line in western Kansas and the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas. Most of these storms moved due north or northeast, producing flooding problems. The severe weather season was especially boring farther east in the Midwest where only an occasional squall line moved through. I personally missed the Greensburg tornado because I went to Saint Louis on May 5 to watch a baseball game. I can still remember seeing the high risk in Kansas on the monitor in the rest stop. 2006 was a little bit more active and widespread. As always, the NWS and SPC did an amazing job of forecasting the storms. Back to the future (ha!) the CPC outlooks are saying warmer and drier than normal in tornado alley. However, it looks to be a bit more exciting severe weather season for people farther east in the Midwest (including me) with warmer than normal temperatures and equal chances of being above and below forecast values, which usually means normal amounts. As local TV stations have pointed out, we should all be prepared. I know we have all heard it, but it still needs to be repeated. Two words: Weather Radio Everyone should have a tone-alerted weather radio, SAME if you perfer to not be woken up for a flash flood watch 50 miles from you. Weather radios will also go off if your local emergency management agency requests a statement be issued by the National Weather Service for things such as evacuations. (Note: Even though there was a gas leak in my town with evacuations, a prodcut was not issued by the National Weather Service, even when they are issued to request people to stay off roads.) If you are under a tornado warning or a high end severe thunderstorm warning (i.e.: 70 m.p.h. winds +) go to an interior room on the lowest floor of your building, preferably a basement. Stay away from windows and any other hazardous objects. I may not have included it all, so obey the safety rules in warnings from the National Weather Service. Spotters should call the NWS immediately upon observing severe weather. If the event was borderline severe, use E-Spotter (If your office uses it). Remember the #1 thing: Stay Safe this season anywhere you are, from chasing in Oklahoma to watching it unfold on TV in Ohio. New Standards[edit]With the upcoming severe weather season, User:Southern Illinois SKYWARN has proposed new standards for tornado outbreak articles. Overview States the number of tornadoes, fatalities. Briefly describes any strange events and records set. (Required) Meteorological synopsis Describes weather leading up to the outbreak and SPC products issued.(Required) Confirmed tornadoes Tornado table, no text besides that in the table (Required, should be split into list if very large) Significant storms (Variable name) Describes the most significant storms and tornadoes (Required) Aftermath Describes aftermath in detail, should also include disaster declerations (Required) Non-thunderstorm effects/Non-tornadic effects Use the first if snow or other non-thunderstorm events occurred (Optional) The latter should be standard on all pages describing effects from a squall line, hail, flash flooding, or other non-tornadic effects (Required) Oddities/Records Only used if necessary (Optional) References (Required) See also Should always link to at least List of North American tornadoes and tornado outbreaks (Required) External links External links should only go to news stories or NWS pages (Required) These standards have been developed for tornado outbreaks where a lot of information is available. Older outbreaks should include as much information as possible. Readers are encouraged to express their opinion at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Severe weather/Tornado. Wikiwork statistics[edit]Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Severe weather articles by quality statistics Members section[edit]New members[edit]
Featured member[edit]This month's featured member is User:JForget The following text is from User:Southern Illinois SKYWARN's nomination This user has started numerous articles on older, significant tornado outbreaks that met notability requirements. JForget recently received a barnstar (even if it was from me) for his work in WikiProject Severe Weather. JForget is one of the most tireless contributors to the project and deserves to be this month's featured member. Note: Readers of this newsletter are urged to check the newsletter page for nominations for featured member and featured story. Significant storms[edit] Obviously the first order of business for this section is the massive, devastating tornado outbreak on February 5, or Super Tuesday. 82 tornadoes and 59 fatalities were confirmed in association with this outbreak. This was the deadliest outbreak since the United States-Canadian Outbreak in 1985 which killed 88. Tornado watches, many of them Particularly dangerous situation watches at one point extended from the Ohio Valley to the Gulf Coast. Instability and shear values were extreme, especially for February. This was a very well forecasted and warned event, despite media reports of people receiving no warning. I am sorry, but I am going to rant a little about this. The National Weather Service field offices and the Storm Prediction Center did an amazing job of warning of this event despite the speed of the storms. Many National Weather Service offices held at least one conference call with emergency managers, media, spotter groups, and other interested parties. I am outraged that the media reported this as if the forecasters were asleep at the wheel, while this really was one of the best forecasted events ever. Now while we will have to wait for the likely service assessment to come out, I believe that all numbers from the false-alarm rate to the probability of detection were above national averages. Now that I am done with my little editorial, I will get back to the outbreak. A high risk was issued by the Storm Prediction Center on the morning of February 5 for most of Arkansas, the first such issuance in February since 1998. Later in the morning, it was further was extended to include western Kentucky, northwestern Mississippi, the Missouri Bootheel, West Tennessee, and Far Southern Illinois (Close to where I live, Yikes!). A moderate risk surrounded this area, where the squall line was the main problem. A massive squall line developed in the Great Plains prompting only a few warnings at first, but when it came into the area where the cap had broken and unfortunately supercells went through, it exploded producing strong winds, hail, and a few tornadoes. Now for the supercells. Supercells began to develop late in the day in Arkansas and Missouri after the cap broke much later than expected. These supercells began to move north and east and then became tornadic. A record five tornado emergencies were issued in association with this outbreak. One supercell developed to the southwest of Memphis and devastated eastern and southern suburbs. Other notable supercells had tracks of over 200 miles and produced several tornadoes. For more information about its non-tornadic effects see the article and the upcoming WikiProject Non-Tropical storms newsletter.
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I noticed you signed up to receive the newsletter, but did not sign up as a member of the project. I encourage you to do so by signing up at this link. Southern Illinois SKYWARN (talk) 18:26, 3 March 2008 (UTC)