Tag: Tornado

NWS says a small tornado made a brief touchdown near Saints practice facility

That was a close one. The National Weather Service says a small tornado made a brief touchdown near the Saints practice facility on Saturday:

That was a close one: the National Weather Service says a small tornado briefly touched down near the New Orleans Saints’ practice facility on Saturday, which is a series of words you really can’t take lightly no matter carefully they’re worded. It’s very fortunate to no one was injured.

Storm bands rolling in off the Gulf of Mexico hammered the Gulf South on Saturday morning, spawning a few waterspouts — including a tornado the NWS rated at EF-0 with peak winds reaching 70 miles per hour. NWS investigators found that the tornado only lasted two minutes, beginning at 11:11 a.m. CT and dissipating at 11:13 a.m. CT while approaching a maximum width of just 75 yards. Its path traveled less than a fifth of a mile up Minor Street in Kenner, starting just shy of the Mississippi River and collapsing before it reached Kenner Avenue or Airline Drive. The track was just 3.5 miles west of the Ochsner Sports Performance Center

“A combination of radar, images/videos and surveys by emergency management led us to this determination,” the NWS said in a statement.

Again, we’re very fortunate that the weather incident resulted in no injuries or severe damage. But it’s still a near-miss. We’re doubly lucky that the Saints were off on Saturday with players excused for the weekend. They’ll return to the facility on Monday to kick off a week of preparations for Sept. 10’s regular season kickoff game with the Tennessee Titans. Hopefully this is the last of any strong winds we’ll see in New Orleans for a while, but you never know in hurricane season.

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Tornado flips car on Florida highway, motorists watch in awe

A Florida motorist on Saturday captured video footage showing a car being flipped by a tornado on a North Palm Beach highway.

As severe weather hammered parts of Florida on Saturday, a motorist captured video footage showing a car being flipped by a tornado on a North Palm Beach highway.

The accompanying footage was captured by a woman identified as Daphne N. and shared via Twitter by Jennifer Collins, a meteorologist for CBS12.

The 6-second clip shows the car’s rear end being lifted before the entire car flips and lands back on the highway.

“This is why vehicles are not a safe place to be during a tornado warning,” Collins stated. “Lots of damage in the area. This is US-1 north of PGA Blvd.”

It was not clear if anyone in the vehicle was injured.

The storm damaged homes and toppled trees. Residents were instructed to avoid fallen power lines.

The New York Times reported that police and fire rescue crews were patrolling North Palm Beach after the tornado touched down at about 5:45 p.m.

The National Weather Service in Miami confirmed that a tornado had struck near Palm Beach Gardens.

At the time, no injuries were reported by the village of North Palm Beach.

Be a virtual storm chaser with this intense tornado gallery

Stay safe while exploring the unknown.

You don’t have to be a meteorologist or daredevil to understand the thrill of extreme weather. Meteorological phenomena like tornadoes fascinate people worldwide — that’s why there are so many TV shows about people braving these intense conditions. Not everyone can or wants to be a storm chaser, but curious minds still wonder what it’s like to experience a tornado.

So, aside from watching the myriad tornado-based movies and shows out there, how can knowledge seekers get the up close and personal tornado encounter they crave? While tornado simulation resources provide quality information, real photos from storm chasers capture the tornado experience in astonishing detail. Witness it all with this photo gallery that takes you on a virtual storm-chasing adventure.

How the 2011 tornado changed Nick Saban’s relationship with Tuscaloosa

Following the 2011 tornado, Nick Saban and his family have been community leaders to help rebuild homes and businesses across the city.

In just over a week, it will be the 10-year anniversary of the 2011 tornado that tore through Tuscaloosa. It destroyed the city, took lives and left a community in distress.

ESPN’s Alex Scarbrough details what that day was like for Alabama football head coach Nick Saban, as well as his relief efforts after the storm settled.

A large portion of the city was destroyed and numerous lives were lost. There were community members who wanted to help, but were unsure how to. Saban then stepped up to be the much-needed leader.

“They headed for a relief effort at the Ferguson Student Center only to find more than 100 people looking at one another, lost. There was a leadership vacuum. Saban felt a familiar tug. ‘People need direction,’ he recalled a decade later.

“Saban climbed on top of a bench and began speaking. When something bad happens, he told the crowd, it’s an opportunity ‘for all of us to pitch in and help and do everything we can.'”

The full story by Scarbrough explains what the Saban family did for the community and details the long-lasting impact they have had on the city of Tuscaloosa.

A waterspout tornado was spotted near NASCAR’s race at Homestead-Miami

Whoa.

Sunday’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway was the first NASCAR race since the sports shutdown to have some fans in the stands. But for much of the afternoon, fans weren’t treated to much racing at all.

Multiple lightning delays had drivers waiting out the weather at the Dixie Vodka 400, but just beyond the track, Clint Bowyer’s spotter Brett Griffin saw what appeared to be a small tornado in the distance.

Griffin tweeted a photo to ask weather experts what they thought it was. And, well, it certainly seemed like Griffin had snapped a photo of a waterspout (a tornado that forms over water) in Biscayne Bay.

From the photo, it was unclear if Griffin had seen a tornado or waterspout — neither would have been ideal for racing, obviously.

But the National Weather Service in Miami eventually confirmed that a waterspout had formed in the bay.

The race would restart after that waterspout sighting … only to be delayed again for lightning.

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Jeremy Pruitt addresses tornado tragedy in Tennessee

Jeremy Pruitt addresses tornado tragedy in Tennessee.

KNOXVILLE — The state of Tennessee continues to rebuild following tornado damage in the midstate.

A tornado touched down in Nashville in the early morning hours on March 3, leaving behind deaths, injuries and destruction throughout the midstate.

News: Nashville Tornado
Mar 3, 2020; Nashville, TN, USA; Tornado damage in East Nashville photographed Tuesday, March 3, 2020. Mandatory Credit: Alan Poizner/The Tennessean via USA TODAY NETWORK

Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt discussed the tragedy when meeting with media following UT’s first spring practice Tuesday.

“We had a tragedy last week in Nashville, in Middle Tennessee with the tornado and the victims involved,” Pruitt said. “There’s nothing that I can say that can take it all back, but we had some kids on our team that knew people that were affected, and it affected people in our state.

“Unfortunately, there was some loss of life there, and it makes you appreciate just how important your family is and being thankful for the opportunities that we have every day. That’s something that our kids have really been focused on with trying to be involved in some way with helping the victims, and that’s something that we’ll continue to do.”