STORM TRACK: September 30, 1987 (Volume 10 Issue 6)

Wayne Brasler witnessed the historic floods in Chicago. "Regarding the August floods, the official amount of 17.01 inches makes this month the wettest month in Chicago history. The rain which did most of the damage occurred on August 13th and 14th. A total of 9.35 inches was recorded at O'Hare Airport. Although flood damage occurred over a widespread area, the major damage resulted in the western suburbs. Much of the flooding came from the Des Plains river, which flows north to south in the area, and from Salt Creek, which is to the west. Many of the areas hit in the current flooding were also hit by floods last year. Rainfalls (in inches) during Chicago's wettest month were: 3rd .01, 8th .35, 9th .03, 13th 2.86, 14th 6.49, 15th .59, 16th 2.90, 18th .28, 21st .56, 25th .48, and 27th 2.46. The rainfall last August was only an inch. People seemed most surprised by how quickly the water rose and receded and by its terrible smell. In the forest preserve surrounding Salt Creek, a few blocks from my home, the water came right up the embankments flooding a local bicycle path. I ventured a bike ride and ran into some deer heading for higher ground. It was hard to tell who was more surprised--them or me.

Chicago Tribune Map

Editor's note: The historic floods in Chicago resulted from synoptic scale fronts that became stationary over the area several times that month. The storms would develop along the front in the late afternoon from northern Illinois through Iowa and Kansas. The upper air flow steered the storms to the northeast, paralleling the front. With summertime dewpoints in the 70's, there was plenty of moisture around to be condensed. The front was the necessary boundary forcing the moist air from the southeast to rise and condense the water vapor into heavy rainfalls. The additional cool "outflows" from the rains helped reinforce the frontal boundary and the cycle continued.

Gretchen Driftmeyer reports that northwest Ohio has also suffered from the severe weather drought this spring. "There were only two thunderstorms from March through the first half of May! By mid-May I was 'itchy' so I headed for Canada. Little did I realize that I would be treated to 80 degree weather and severe thunderstorms. May 14th dawned with the perfect type of air mass for severe weather --warm, muggy, with relative humidities in the 70's, and 40 mph winds from the south-southwest and gusty. Lovely altocumulus castellanus formed by 8 am. I monitored the Buffalo, NY weather radio all day as the clouds cleared and the sky became clear and sunny. There seemed little promise of severe weather according to the National Weather Service. But a strong continental cold front was moving in from the northwest.

It was so humid that my glasses fogged up whenever I would take a picture. The wind remained high all day. I was stuck on the Niagara escarpment waiting. No cumulus towers went up at all! The only sign of convective activity was a layer of altostratus moving in from the northwest by 6 pm. By this time, the wind was dying down so I dropped to the lower canals to watch a few freighters. At 8:30 pm, I headed for a motel, all hot and sticky, tired and dusty, disappointed there were no storms. By 9 pm, while I was munching on a late supper of fast food, a storm approached. Suddenly, it hit with 70 mph winds, brilliant colored lightning, heavy rain, and hail. The storm had definite rotation; there were reports of tornadoes. Straight line winds knocked out power. The storm lasted five hours. Listening to the marine band radio, I heard that a ship in the canal almost ran aground. She was caught in a 15 mile open stretch of water without any shelter. Her captain, a French-Canadian, had some choice comments to make over the radio.

On August 16th, I witnessed a severe weather event which had tragic consequences for the crash of Flight 255 in Detroit. Thunderstorms nearby had definite rotation and a wall cloud. I knew it had the potential for wind shear and microbursts. At 6 pm, the air temperature dropped 20 degrees and the wind gusted to 50 mph.

Joel Ewing called moaning and groaning about the lousy "monsoon" season in Arizona. "In fact, I called it a "non-soon". After I talked to you, I started home and all of a sudden a big funnel cloud popped out of the clouds right above me! About five miles due east of my position, a gorgeous white funnel came within 500 feet of the ground and was photographed by a guy with a VCR who just happened to be driving by. Another funnel touched ground and blew a van off the road, smashing all the windows. I guess it pays to curse at the clouds."

Jim Placzek writes about a morning hailstorm which swept through the Omaha, NE area on September 22, 1986. "There were no major fronts in the area; however, an apparent upper level disturbance was over central Nebraska. At the surface, temperatures were in the mid 60's, and at 18,000 feet they were 10 F. Overnight, thunderstorms dissipated over central Nebraska, but a lone thunderstorm formed northeast of Grand Island about 7:30 am. The storm moved east at 40 mph through Merrick, Polk, Butler, and Saunders counties reaching its peak in Butler and Saunders (see map). Storm echo tops vere reported to 52,000 feet and 3" diameter hail fell in portions of the storm's track accompanied by 75 mph winds along with 3 to 4 inch rainfalls within a half a hour. The storm damaged 40 farm buildings and wiped out many crops in the affected counties. The storm entered Douglas County (southwest Omaha) around 10:10 am. Hail up to 1" in diameter fell to a depth of six inches. Heavy rains washed the hail into the streets clogging sewers. Hail piled to three feet in places and a dense fog formed over it. The storm weakened and collapsed over Omaha. Another storm formed at the back of this storm over Butler county and rolled through Omaha around 12:30 pm. This storm brought high winds to 60 mph which downed trees in central Omaha. The storm moved to the south into northeast Kansas dropping hail up to 4 inches in diameter at Falls City around 3 pm. At my location, 3473 Washington Street, I received only marble-size hail and 1.7 inches of rain. This is the second straight September we had a number of severe weather events, so it looks like our transition to fall is becoming more dangerous than our transition to Spring."

Brian Schroeder nearly became an unsuspecting debris particle. "It was about 4 pm on July 30, 1987 when a thunderstorm began. I was at work in the city of Buffalo, NY and in my opinion, this was just another typical thunderstorm. When I left for work, about 4:30 pm, the storm had passed and the sun was out. On my way home, I could see the dark clouds just southeast of me and they did not look all that menacing. I arrived home and turned on the TV, which showed a special news bulletin about a tornado that just touched down in Cheektowaga, a town just a few miles from my home. I suddenly became very chagrined when I realized that I passed close to the 'target area' about 10 minutes after the tornado hit. The 6 pm news showed live coverage and a brief glimpse of the tornado that someone managed to record on their video camera. The scene was incredible; a large mass of leaves, paper, tree branches, and wood swirling in a large circle behind a row of trees was all that could be seen. The cameraman raised his camera to show a weakening funnel disappearing into the thunderhead.

The next day, I drove through part of the damaged area and I certainly was not the only one interested. A long line of cars filled with curious passengers drove slowly through the area. I pulled into the parking lot of the Holiday Showcase restaurant and theaters. The restaurant roof was caved in. Tree branches and billboard pieces from a miniature golf course across the street were strewn around the parking lot. I decided not to drive through the area of damaged homes as the area was blocked by police and home owner victims were not at all pleased with the 'tourists' looking on. A week later I was able to drive through the area and was amazed at the brute force of the tornado, which had winds over 100 mph and left $15 million dollars in damage. Fortunately, no injuries or deaths; however, one scar that may take a long time to heal is the haunting memory of a rare event that they hope will never happen again."

Keith Brewster sent in an ominous message which appeared on the Weather Service AFOS computer late one evening:

TTAAOO KICT 020358
TO: WSFO TOPEKA AND ALL KANSAS WSFOS
FROM: ICT

THE SEVERE WEATHER SEASON HAS BEGUN.  DAVID HOADLEY WAS IN THE WICHITA
OFFICE TONIGHT AND IS HEADED FOR DODGE CITY TONIGHT.  HE THINKS
WESTERN KANSAS WILL BE RIPE FOR TOMORROW. ...ELAND

Steve Flood was involved in a flood right in his own neighborhood. "On July 27th, a diffuse cold front moved through Washington D.C., with light northwest winds and noticeably drier air. Temperatures still remained hot during the day, in the low 90's. Storms fired up in the Carolinas. By late afternoon, the surface winds died and then became light from the south bringing back 70 F dewpoints. A weak mid-level trough caused the weak front to move back northward. By 9 pm, small echoes formed in the west suburbs. The cells organized into two main clusters by 10:30 pm. The smaller cluster moved through the northern suburbs, located about 15 miles north of Dulles Airport. The other, larger cluster was located about 50 miles southwest of the Airport. The 500 mb winds were north of west, about 285 degrees at 20 knots, so we sadly shrugged our shoulders (the evening shift at the World Weather Building) and wrote it off as another "miss" for the area. Parts of Washington D.C. had less than 3/4 of an inch of rain for the whole month!

Then a 'strange' thing happened. The cluster of storms to the south- west began GROWING northeastward and to the LEFT of the 500 mb winds! By 11:30 pm, I left the World Weather Building to bike home. My house is only 4 miles south of the office in Clinton, MD. There was still some question as to whether the north edge of the line would expand far enough to reach us. As I headed south, there was frequent lightning to the south-southwest (FQT LGTIC 180-230). I began peddling as fast as my feet would go. The more I peddled, the more frequent the lightning (Van-de-graph generator?) Two miles from home and counting, I could see all types of lightning to the west almost continuously illuminating the whole southwest quadrant of the sky. The storm looked like an Oklahoma type with a striated shelf cloud. By the time I reached the Safeway store, a half mile from home, the shelf cloud roared by. I could see lightning to the northwest (310 ). I knew we were in for a good storm then, so I sought shelter under a the store canopy. Suddenly, a wall of heavy rain hit with almost continuous lightning and high winds. It was:

W10X1/4TRW+A 29V2425G45 FQT LGTICCCCG ALQDS HLSTO 1/4-3/4 DIA

(...or a bad storm)--

The rain quit in about 35 minutes or so. When I reached home, I checked the rain gauge and had 1.27 inches. Not since August 30, 1978 has a storm struck with such magnitude in the early morning hours. Andrews AFB had over 3 inches of rain in two hours. The radar summary at 0435Z shows an echo top of 54,000 feet over the area. So much for Paul Revere's midnight ride."

Roy Britt sent in a newspaper article from Cleveland, Ohio showing a photograph of a "giant" waterspout just offshore in Lake Erie which occurred on June 28th about 11:30 am. The photograph was taken by a crew member of a boat competing in a regatta. Hundreds of people saw the vortex churning the lake surface and shooting up a large water spray. According to the newspaper, the waterspouts were first sighted around 6:30 am and continued all day until evening. One giant spout crashed onto the breakwater near Gordon Park around 11 am, then headed across the lake.

John Gergen, 40, of Cleveland saw a spectacular spout while racing in a 90 sailboat regatta. "I've seen 20 or 30 in my lifetime, but never one as large as this one on the race course. It was incredible. From about 200 yards away the spout appeared to be 50 yards wide and towered to perhaps 1,500 feet. On the water, it looked like dust swirling. About two minutes later, it formed a funnel cloud."

Waterspout

The Weather Service reported the tops of thunderstorms reached 25,000 feet. Cloud base was around 4,000 feet.

Also, Roy sent in an article from the Rocky Mountain News of a spectacular dusty tornado which occurred near Denver, Colorado on July 2, 1987. The tornado plowed through farmland east of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, eight miles northeast of Stapleton Airport. Witnesses said the tornado reached ground at 3:27 pm and moved northeast until it dissipated at 3:41 pm. It was highly visible from Denver as the tornado kicked up dirt and debris several miles into the air. "It was dead in the center of the proposed site of the new airport," said an Aurora policeman. One television news helicopter took excellent video of the tornado.

Dave Hoadley writes that he is enthusiastic about the new STORM TRACK. "Its beginning to look like a professional journal, with slick cover, better quality paper, and more pages. The price increase is a modest one and reflects the ambitious new concept. This is just the kind of fresh thinking I was hoping for, when I turned ST over. I look forward to more and better photographs of tornadoes, and who knows; tomorrow it may be at your neighborhood newsstand."

Dave also gives some advice on taking video of tornadoes. "This spring was my first opportunity to do extensive taping of tornadic storms, and it was an education. The following steps are recommended:

1. Think CALM, however difficult this may be. Slight shaking of the camera makes unpleasant bouncy pictures. This is especially true if the lens is set for maximum telephoto.

2. Once you've locked onto a good rotating base, hold the scene for at least a minute. Let the viewer see the actual movement in that cloud feature before zooming off in another direction,

3. Trust the telephoto to bring out distant detail, even though you may not clearly see it in your viewfinder. I made the mistake several times, zooming back for a full scene view of a weak contrast cloud base, when I should have zoomed in to enlarge and "bring it out." You'll be surprised at how much detail you can capture. (Even after dusk.)

4. Know your cameras delay time for filming and sound pickup. On my older camera, the sound doesn't begin until several seconds of taping starts. Thus, I've lost several initial comments while responding to an exciting scene.

5. Allow several seconds of lead film at both the beginning and end of each sequence. This will make subsequent editing much easier, and you won't be sacrificing good parts right at the start or end.

Actually, with experience, a good camera man will probably learn to edit as he films, thinking ahead and only taping those scenes that are truly worthwhile. Unfortunately for me, that degree of expertise is still several years off."

Greg Story says, "A 136 page book entitled 'Tornado: Accounts of Tornadoes in Iowa' by Dr. John Stanford has been updated. The book has over 200 tornado photographs and many eyewitness accounts. The book costs $9.95 plus $1.50 postage and handling available from Iowa State University Press, Ames, Iowa, 50010. If you've never owned a copy, you should." Editor: I agree, it's a great book. I wish every state published one.