ShowMeBlog

St. Louis Airport–Tornado or Microburst

  They are talking abut a tornado hitting the St. Louis airport.  I got a feeling it might have been a microburst and not a tornado.  The weather department will come out with a report soon.

 

“(CNN) -- Heavy winds from a severe storm caused significant damage, shattered windows and sent debris raining down on passengers at an airport in St. Louis Friday night.

The Lambert-St. Louis International Airport is closed indefinitely while officials investigate the damage, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay told reporters.

"There was a reported sighting of a tornado. Although that has not been confirmed, that storm caused significant damage to the airport," he said.

The reported tornado twisted metal and blew out plate-glass windows in the airport's main terminal, CNN affiliate KSDK reported.

Four people were transported to nearby hospitals with injuries, Slay said…”

 

  The weather people can look at the radar and their data and they can tell by looking at the damage if it was a tornado or not.  I have never seen a tornado but I have been on the edge or in a microburst.
  It seems like we are having a lot of bad weather around the world.  Is it just that the news reporting is better now?  Or is mother nature trying to teach us a lesson?

 

Update 04/23/2011 Here is a comment from Dick in Kansas City, MO

 "Did you see the chopper footage from STL - the homes near the airport? That might tilt more toward tonadic damage - some homes destroyed - none of the slabs wiped clean but walls down - not much remaining. Amazing no deaths - timely warnings and people heeded them apparently. Would be incredible to be in an airplace as some were when that hit.

I don't know of any cases where loaded aircraft on the ground has been hit by a tornado. The crew would feel helpless - they would be helpless. Nothing they could do other than maybe turn into the wind if they had time. It'd be a nightmare for a full scale hit by a tornado on a loaded aircraft on the ground or in the air. Terrible dilemma to see it coming - they probably did not since it's still not certain it was a tornado or if so if there was a visible funnel. In fact the lack of footage of a funnel is surprising at this point - thousands of cell phone cameras out there so if there was a visible funnel somebody has it on some device - or airport security cameras will have it."

The weather people hit it

  The alarm went off and I got up.  My room is cold.  I woke up Russell for work.  The rest of the house is warm.  It looks like my room is colder in the winter.  I am not sure about Russell’s room.  I will ask him later.

  Well it looks like the weather people nailed the weather just right.  It is 0600 and it is 21 degrees.  I do not hear any rain or see any snow out my window.  But it is dark out there.  I hope we do not have a coating of ice.

  I just saw Russell and he said his room was very cold.
  I looked outside and I see a thin coating of ice.
 

WFAA TV web site says school districts closing across North Texas.

Winter Storm Warning – Wind Advisory

  I woke up about 0200 in my new room in my new apartment. I could hear the rain coming down.  I checked the weather and it is 43 degrees.  That does not sound bad.
  But they are saying it is going to be 32 degrees at at 0600 with snow. 
  The cable TV person should be here between 0800 and 1000 hours. 

  I like our new apartment.  I found the alarm clock.  I found the charger for the cell phone.
  I am a bit cold from time to time.  I am not sure I have the heat set correct.  Upstairs in the apartment my room was always warm.  It may not be like that down here.  I hope the heating (electric) bill is not bad.  Our rent went from $485.00 to $599.00 now.  Russ is going to pay $110.00 of that each month.  But I fear the electric bill may run more. We had 700 sq feet on the second floor and now we have 900 sq feet on the first floor.
  I do not smell the fumes from counter tops now but I may just be that my nose or brain is dead now.  I could smell it up stairs in the old apartment and the people next door could smell the fumes. 
  Sometime they will put in a new dish washer.

  Well I hope there is no ice today on the  stairs to the old apartment.  I got some stuff I need to carry down today. 
  
  I just got a comment left on my YouTube video about my new apartment and it is from rollofnicles and he says “I hope the weather doesn't effect your move. It is 2 am feb-09-11 , 14 deg. with 30mph gust and sleeting in Tecumseh Ok.”
  That does not sound good.  I am sure that weather is heading this way.

Say It Ain’t So, WX

“(CNN) -- Barely a week after a record-setting winter storm roared across the heartland, Mother Nature was ready to dish out more Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.

A powerful weather system poised over the Rockies is forecast to dump several feet of snow in the Mountain West and up to 8 inches in Oklahoma and Arkansas by Wednesday morning, the forecast said.

Much of Oklahoma is under a winter storm warning, but snow and sleet is predicted as far south as central Texas, with 2 to 4 inches expected to coat the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the weather service said…” 

  I am NOT ready for snow and sleet here again in the Dallas and Fort Worth area. 
  Well I am ready … The problem is that the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth are not ready.  The business people of this area are not ready.  They have no idea what to do.  Just letting it melt is not the answer.  The snow and ice was on the ground last week for five days until it melted.  School was out for four or five days.  I would still like to know how many people fell and broke legs and hips on the ice.
 
  Today my grandson and I may move into a new apartment in the same building.  It is on the ground floor.  We are on the second floor right now. 
  My grandson wants to see the new place before he takes out his check book and writes a check. 
  Today all day the water will be off for this apartment complex they are doing some work in the complex.  That is going to be a pain.

  I do not think we need winter weather on top of everything.

I’m melting

  It hit 32 degrees today in Fort Worth and the sun was out for the last part of the day.  I see some melting.  So tomorrow my hope is that the ice and snow will be gone and we can return to a normal Fort Worth winter.
  My grandson got a bus to work today about 0600 hours.  But he could not get one home and had to walk home from work.  He saw some buses out and it looks like the drivers must have orders to just get around your route the best you can…  Which, of course, makes sense.  Leave it up to the driver to know what streets he can make it through.  But it sort of leaves the riders guessing.
  My grandson has to work tomorrow and he is wondering will their be a bus early on Saturday?

  I wonder what effect the weather will have had on the Super Bowl.  The game is Sunday but they have been having things going on all week here in Texas.  Do people go to the Super Bowl a week early? 
  I am a guy …but I am not into sports and I never have been into sports.  I never went out for any sports in high school and I never attended any sports events at school.
  I guess the truth is I never attended any events at school.

Ice ice go away Jimmy wants to play

  Here it is day four and Fort Worth sill has ice and snow on the ground.  They are waiting for it to melt.  Thank God, this is not New York or Chicago.
  
 

  You would think that they would have some ability to do something when it snows here.  I know it does not snow often.  But the city has trucks right?  Just have some blades that can be mounted on them when needed. 
  I worked as a security and safety officer at a hospital for five years and we did not show removal.  A big snow storm would hit and I would drive the Jeep over to our parking garage and mount the blade on the front of it and go out and plow the snow.  Then I would come back and hook up a spreader to the back of the Jeep and load in some 100 pound bags of sand and salt and drive around and spread it out. 
 
  My guess is that around the Super Bowl the ice and snow is gone.  I bet the parking lots and streets are dry as a bone.
  Plus what in the hell type of “Super” Bowl is this going to be?  They are not going to have cheerleaders.  Hell, no reason for me to watch.  I only watch so I can see the cheerleaders and see the TV commercials. 

Fog and a little snow

  We are getting a little snow right now.  The problem now is that the ice is under the snow and you do not know where it is slick.  If they have cleared the roads and walks the little dusting of snow this morning would not have been a problem.

  Photo from my WinTV usb device taken just a few minutes ago. 

The T gets an F

  The T is the Fort Worth / Dallas bus and rail system.  I do not own a car so I use the system.  I think it is pretty good.  We live in  west Fort Worth so the bus that gets us in and out of here is the #26 Ridgmar Mall/Normandale bus.
  The T web site is pretty good.  But they failed big time with this storm.  The failed to get out information to customers.  When it 15 degrees and they just decide to stop running buses and they don’t tell anyone it shows that someone is a sleep at the wheel.
  After the big storm my grandson got a bus early to work. But when he got off work he waited at the bus stop and no bus showed up.  They had cancelled all the buses that went to that bus stop. 
  Their web site had no information about that … They created a good web site with maps and information but no updated current timely information and I guess that makes it pretty worthless.

  “The T Takes You Places” -  well not always, I guess, if it rains, snows or gets cold or hot you are not going to know if they will take you…Or they may take you but you can not be sure they will come around to take you back home.
 
   It is a shame because my family has gotten good service from them and their drivers are great.  I son has to be up early today and has to be at work very early and he has no idea if there is going to be bus service. 
  If there is bus service he has no idea now if there will be bus service to take him home.

Fort Worth still shut down from a little snow and ice

  My God, it is crazy on 02/01/2011 Fort Worth got some snow and ice.  It did not amount to a hill of beans.  Yes, for this area it was rare but as storms go it was nothing…except for here.

  You can see what we got in the video below.

  It is almost 9 PM now on 02/03/2011 and the snow and ice is still on the ground.  They do not plow here or put out salt and sand.  They wait for it to melt!
  It has been cold and it is not melting.  Parking lots are solid ice.  The big shopping mall near us is solid ice.  They don’t have their lawn crew do anything.  They don’t have a company come in and do anything.  They wait for it to melt.
  The apartment complex that I live in has done nothing so it is just like it was when it came down.  I could have cleaned and taken care of this entire place in 4 hours.  All they would neat is a little lawn tractor with a blade on the front of it. 
  On TV right now they are listing schools that are closed tomorrow.

  My grandson on the 2nd took the bus to work.  About eight hours later when he got off work he waited for the bus for an hour and a half.  No buses showed up.  The bus company stopped running buses!  He had to take a cab home.
  My son says that drivers are driving about 10 mph and it takes forever to get anyplace and that is today.  He was going to come out tomorrow and we were going to a gun range to do some shooting but he said we would do it another day now.

  I would love to know how many people have fallen on the ice.  How many broken legs?  How many broken hips?
  You want to hold down medical cost clean off the ice and snow.

  This is 4th straight day that schools have been cancelled in North Texas!

Is this Iraq or Texas? Rolling Blackouts Ordered

“The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has ordered utilities to begin rotating outages to compensate for a generation shortage due high usage in extreme weather.

According to ERCOT, the outages are necessary because there is a power generation shortage due because some plants were knocked offline due to extreme weather.

The rolling blackouts have not impacted NBC 5 or our ability to broadcast a signal over the air.  We have taken two power hits to our Fort Worth studio so far, but have a backup generator and have been on the air the entire time.  Our signal may appear down or frozen on some cable systems due to a control panel on a transmitter that was disabled.  That transmitter fed our signal to those providers. We have a crew working to restore the signal, though continued rolling outages may continue to impact the transmitter.

The city of Dallas has requested that City Hall and the Dallas Convention Center, which is hosting the NFL Experience, be exempt from rotating blackouts. In a prepared statement, Frank Librio said, "City Hall is open Wednesday for the Dallas City Council Briefing and other public business and it is also where the Emergency Operations Center is located for Super Bowl week. The EOC is operational 24 hours a day during Super Bowl Week monitoring, and responding if needed, to public safety issues associated with hundreds of special events. These operations are critical."

Dallas Fire-Rescue told NBCDFW that as power was cycled back on, some residential and business alarms tripped, requesting emergency response.  DFR is prioritizing calls, but they are responding to all automatic fire alarms. So far, DFR said it has caused no significant delays in response time…”   NBCDFW