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Tornado season is here!

Desert Rat

Well Known Member
Hey All-

We had a tornado Friday night a couple of miles from my house here in Wichita.

No damage at my place, but stuff was really trashed a mile or so from here. people lost their homes, cars, lots of stuff. Really fortunate that nobody was killed.

So anyway, I was sure glad I got builders insurance last month.

I debated on whether it was too soon since the chances of anything happening before I move stuff to the airport seemed pretty remote. You can bet I was happy I pulled the trigger when I saw what was going on with the weather!

For you guys who are in the same boat, I suggest you at least check out your options when the cost of replacing all the bits and pieced gets uncomfortably big.
I went with Leah at Gallagher and the whole process was really easy.

Also, just an observation on the anatomy of a tornado- A mid-size cell went over my house with some small hail and heavy rain. I was watching the radar on my weather app and it showed what you would expect, green with yellow and red churn inside. Something you would look at and obviously stay the heck away from...But that wasn't the tornado cell.

The tornado cell came through about 1/2 hour later. While it was breathing in, the radar return was actually quite small. Frankly, the kind of thing that you would look at and think that you could obviously pick your way around no problem.

In fact you can see in the second picture below that people were doing just that, just like every day. My friend's kid works line crew at Jabara and took the picture. That plane had just landed and was taxiing in.

No great revelation here, just something to think about. It's easy to feel pretty bullet proof with all the forecasting technology and real time weather we have access to now, but it's not foolproof...

Pix 1 is the view from my back porch. Pix 2 is looking east from the ramp at KAAO
 

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We had one here in the Chicago area on Saturday. Radar is no help in identifying tornadic activity. That is all about shear and rotation aloft. There are tools that show this kind of data. Looking for close proximity of winds in different direction aloft. SOme of the tools even include colored shading in areas with significant rotation aloft.

My son is a meteorology student and is teaching me some neat stuff.

Larry
 
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WOW

Holy frijoles. Glad everyone is safe. I always would have assumed that a tornado would light up Nexrad in obvious ways, so this is good to know.
 
How about homeowner's insurance? :eek:

We had a little red cell pass over last night. That storm door on the screen porch is not gonna buff out. The hangar, scarcely 100 yards away but 50 feet down off the hilltop, was unscathed.
 

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Holy frijoles. Glad everyone is safe. I always would have assumed that a tornado would light up Nexrad in obvious ways, so this is good to know.

You generally can't get a tornado without lift, so the radar will look like T storms. However, there is nothing really unique on moisture level radar (nexrad) that will separate a t strorm echo from a tornado echo. This is why they so poorly forecasted tornados in the past, until they learned about shear, rotation adn super cells. I believe they observe rotation and shear via radar, but it is not the nexrad presentation you typically see. I believe they are observing adn calculating the velocity adn direction of the moisture movement, which indirectly give wind direction and velocity.

Larry
 
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I've attached one of the craziest storm stories ever. Believed to be a microburst, but who knows?
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You generally can't get a tornado without lift, so the radar will look like T storms. However, there is nothing really unique on moisture level radar (nexrad) that will separate a t strorm echo from a tornado echo. This is why they so poorly forecasted tornados in the past, until they learned about shear, rotation adn super cells. I believe they observe rotation and shear via radar, but it is not the nexrad presentation you typically see. I believe they are observing adn calculating the velocity adn direction of the moisture movement, which indirectly give wind direction and velocity.

Larry

Living in Oklahoma we know tornados. As I type this Seminole, OK was just hit hard with a large “Mesocyclone” that spawned multiple vortices (tornados) out of it. Our local TV stations, especially the CBS affiliate, have the worlds best WX radars tracking these many miles before they touch down. The University of Oklahoma has the country’s prominent meteorological department.

You are correct about sheer rates and wind directions. The TV meteorologists are constantly utilizing these tools to track tornados. The radar returns are very accurate in displaying tornados in Oklahoma. There is a distinct shape to a tornadic radar return that I have seen even on a Foreflight radar display. There is a distinct “hook” in the sothwest quadrant of a rotating thunderstorm that is a telltale sign of a tornado.
 
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How about homeowner's insurance? :eek:


Homeowner's insurance does not typically cover an aircraft under construction in your garage. You might want to check with your homeowner's insurance company to confirm it is is/isn't covered.

I used the EAA insurance agency (Falcon Insurance Agency) for my builders insurance policy.

Regards,
 
Oh, how well I know. After my total loss house fire in '15, I learned that none of the tools and none of the work product represented by my new replacement all-glass panel for the RV would be covered.

The AC insurer stepped up and covered a few bits of the new avionics that had been in and out of the RV again during the panel build process even though the new panel itself was not in the plane yet and was lost in the fire. They covered these few items on my say-so and nothing more - very honorable of them.

I carried builders risk on my -10 project the entire time for this reason.

With the winds up here on the hilltop and the lousy quality of shingles selected by the builder, my homeowners insurance company is staying very familiar with me. I'm going to put them out of their misery by replacing with a metal roof, soon.
 
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