Severe weather swiped though the heart of the Brazos Valley with a plethora of damage. Headlining the severe damage was a tornado that dropped in Snook around 6:45PM. Several radar images illustrated the possibility of several weak twisters with one larger, stronger tornado. The following in the radar reflectivity from 6:45PM this past Friday.
Where you see the pink area to the northeast of Snook is where intense rain is falling at that time, and large hail, up to 2.25" in size (egg sized). Notice that the pink area on this image is hooked around Snook. This is not a "classic" hook echo that you see during tornadic thunderstorms, but within this storm is a fair amount rotation. Not only was there strong rotation at the surface, but in the mid and upper levels as well to support a tornado. Unfortunately I do not have the velocity image (wind direction and speed) available, but there was a good indication of a tornado that could have been on the ground for several miles. The National Weather Service informed me that they will survey the damage tomorrow (Monday). From pictures that I have seen, especially with reports that the FedEx building was ripped apart, we could be looking at a possible EF-2 tornado. Check out this photo album on Facebook for additional damage photos in Snook: http://www.facebook.com/KAGSweather#!/media/set/?set=a.10150546833730003.387416.629160002&type=1.
The following image will display where the tornado touched down and its possible path. Remember, this all will be official once the National Weather Service surveys the damage.
Besides the extreme damage in Snook, hail was a major player as well. 2"+ sized hail was reported in several areas across Burleson and Brazos counties. Lightning lit up the sky on a dark evening and when we though it was all over when the tornado threat diminished, the night just got started.
This storm over Burleson County slowly crawled across the Brazos River into Brazos County, dumping multiple inches of rain in such a short period of time. Additional heavy rain cells popped up in Milam and Robertson counties as well. From tornadoes and hail, this quickly became a flooding situation. In just a 90 minute time span, Easterwood Airport recorded over 4" of rain, with localized regions picking up 5"-6" of the wet stuff. Texas Avenue in Bryan and College Station became rivers, picking up cars and floating them away. Firefighters needed to bring along boats with their crew to rescue stranded drivers and passengers. Parking lots became lakes. One in particular at the Woodlands Apartment complex in College Station turned into a lake within a matter of two hours. The following picture is from Twitter:
Students helping other students pushing their cars to higher ground. This is a sight that many do not want to see again in their lifetime.
Following the severe weather, another line of storms cropped up to the west of I-35 late in the evening and rolled into the Brazos Valley to add insult to injury between 2AM and 5AM early Saturday morning. Max Storm paints the picture for the total amount of rainfall during the entire episode.
Heaviest rain fell in southwest Milam County, western Brazos County and eastern Burleson County. Easterood officially picked up over 6", with isolated location, marked in the deeper orange color experiencing closer to 9" of rain. Yes, this put a huge dent in the drought, but seeing all of this rain at one time was not beneficial.
To put this year, and this storm into prospective, so far, we have officially recorded 9.21" of rain for 2012. All of last year, only, 19.97" of rain fell. We have nearly picked up half of last years total already.
Have a wonderful Super Sunday and you can watch all the action here on KAGS-HD.
For more weather information you can check out my facebook page: www.facebook.com/KAGSweather, and my Twitter feed: @KAGSweather.
For updated news information you can click on the KASG facebook page: www.facebook.com/KAGSTV
No comments:
Post a Comment