By Hawes Spencer |
Published online 3:20pm Sunday Jun 6th, 2010
and in print issue #0923 dated Thursday Jun 10th, 2010
This is what the National Weather Service says. Good thing it's daylight so you might see the funnel cloud before it picks up your house. Don't panic, but don't ignore.
We still don't, apparently, since nothing ended up happening. :D
I'm just wondering why the microburst wasn't predicted but a non-existent tornado system was. Kind of odd. I know weather prediction is never 100% accurate but sometimes I wonder about these forecasts I see on Wunderground. They'll be predicting wind gusts of 70 mph and hail, and then all it ends up doing is downpouring for 15 minutes and then the sun's back out again, with a rainbow. It's to the point that when I see some crazy weather prediction on Wunderground for Cville/Albemarle it's like Chicken Little. "The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling!" A big "yeah right." This is another example. Unfortunately one day they may be right, but I won't be paying attention!
HarryDJune 7th, 2010 | 8:17am
Blame it on Bush..............
what comes through here is not extreme weather by a long shot
HonoreeJune 6th, 2010 | 5:04pm
Watches usually happen a couple times each year, sometimes escalating to warnings. Tornados are rare, but do happen. One of the most deadly in our immediate vicinity occurred in 1959.
"September 30, 1959 at 1630 hours EST, a F3 tornado moved east from the Mechum River near Crozet to Ivy, just 6 miles west of Charlottesville. The damage path was 4 miles long and an average of 200 yards. Two houses were destroyed at Crozet with worse damage at Ivy. Ten people died in a single building. It was a duplex that had been used as the apple pickers bunkhouse. One other person died when a chimney collapsed and crushed them in a nearby home. The total was 11 fatalities and 9 injured. This was the second tornado of six spawned in Virginia that day as a result of the remnants of Hurricane Gracie passing to the west. Damage amounts are unknown. (Lat./Long. = 38.03/78.37)"
The above is from:http://www.erh.noaa.gov/er/lwx/Historic_Events/VAcnty-tornado-events.htm
I believe, based on information from my mother and father who remember the tornado very well, the 10 fatalities in the single building were a local family, and the house destroyed was their family home. All members of the family who were in the residence were killed. A woman was killed by the collapsed chimney. She had taken cover in her basement, but bricks from the collapsed chimney came through the floor.
town regularJune 6th, 2010 | 8:59pm
was it a microburst or a twister that ripped through town a few years back and took the doors off the fashion square mall?
Say_What?June 6th, 2010 | 3:57pm
Being new to the area (moved here last August),how often does this region get tornado watches/warnings? I moved here from N.E. Alabama so this was pretty common in the Spring & Fall for us.
JJ MalloyJune 6th, 2010 | 4:05pm
Rare.
NancyDrewJune 6th, 2010 | 4:08pm
Not common, but, in last 30+ years of my residency here, seems to be on the rise. I never used to take these warnings and watches seriously, and now I do.
TreescolderJune 6th, 2010 | 5:25pm
You want to do something to fight extreme weather? Go shopping. Here We Shop.
8 comments
"We never used to have tornados here..."
We still don't, apparently, since nothing ended up happening. :D
I'm just wondering why the microburst wasn't predicted but a non-existent tornado system was. Kind of odd. I know weather prediction is never 100% accurate but sometimes I wonder about these forecasts I see on Wunderground. They'll be predicting wind gusts of 70 mph and hail, and then all it ends up doing is downpouring for 15 minutes and then the sun's back out again, with a rainbow. It's to the point that when I see some crazy weather prediction on Wunderground for Cville/Albemarle it's like Chicken Little. "The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling!" A big "yeah right." This is another example. Unfortunately one day they may be right, but I won't be paying attention!
Blame it on Bush..............
what comes through here is not extreme weather by a long shot
Watches usually happen a couple times each year, sometimes escalating to warnings. Tornados are rare, but do happen. One of the most deadly in our immediate vicinity occurred in 1959.
"September 30, 1959 at 1630 hours EST, a F3 tornado moved east from the Mechum River near Crozet to Ivy, just 6 miles west of Charlottesville. The damage path was 4 miles long and an average of 200 yards. Two houses were destroyed at Crozet with worse damage at Ivy. Ten people died in a single building. It was a duplex that had been used as the apple pickers bunkhouse. One other person died when a chimney collapsed and crushed them in a nearby home. The total was 11 fatalities and 9 injured. This was the second tornado of six spawned in Virginia that day as a result of the remnants of Hurricane Gracie passing to the west. Damage amounts are unknown. (Lat./Long. = 38.03/78.37)"
The above is from:http://www.erh.noaa.gov/er/lwx/Historic_Events/VAcnty-tornado-events.htm
I believe, based on information from my mother and father who remember the tornado very well, the 10 fatalities in the single building were a local family, and the house destroyed was their family home. All members of the family who were in the residence were killed. A woman was killed by the collapsed chimney. She had taken cover in her basement, but bricks from the collapsed chimney came through the floor.
was it a microburst or a twister that ripped through town a few years back and took the doors off the fashion square mall?
Being new to the area (moved here last August),how often does this region get tornado watches/warnings? I moved here from N.E. Alabama so this was pretty common in the Spring & Fall for us.
Rare.
Not common, but, in last 30+ years of my residency here, seems to be on the rise. I never used to take these warnings and watches seriously, and now I do.
You want to do something to fight extreme weather? Go shopping. Here We Shop.