Roanoke Illinois F4 Tornado of July 13, 2004

[Brad Emel]

ILX updated their web page recently and added some more pictures of this massive F4 tornado.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ilx/events/jul132004/jul13.php

There is another great page that talks about the long duration supercell that preceded the tornado.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/lot/science/13Jul2...l2004/index.htm (http://www.crh.noaa.gov/lot/science/13Jul2004/index.htm)

[Andy Wehrle]

That was a fricking awesome tornado...I used one of ILX's pictures of it in the "name that tornado" contest thread. The only drawback was I sat at home that day in Stoughton, WI (approx. 15 SE Madison), also in the SPC MDT risk area, reading this ominous-sounding MD,
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/md/md1644.html
then waiting for all hell to break loose, watching little towers go up and fizzle, wondering what's up with no watch and furthermore no storms, going nuts with anticipation for the 2000Z Outlook, and tearing my hair out after seeing srn WI downgraded to SLGT risk. Subsidence from that supercell is the only reason I can think of for the lack of activity in the area, because severe storms went up in NE and EC WI (which was never in the MDT risk at all), one of which tornadoed in Manitowoc County along an apparent lake breeze boundary.

[Gabe Garfield]

That first set of photos by Scott Smith might possibly be the most awesome set of tornado pictures I've seen. Forget about the quality of the photos, that was one heckuva vantage point! I can only dream about such an encounter with a tornado.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ilx/events/jul1320...2013%202004.jpg (http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ilx/events/jul132004/F4%20Roanoke%20Tornado%20July%2013%202004.jpg)

Gabe

[David Draun]

AGGGHHH! Too close! :shock: He must have felt the wind from that one, lol. :shock:

[Jim Bishop]

Wow. Those photos by Scott Smith are among the best I've ever seen (by beauty of tornado and the foreground, not image quality). I'm even more jealous about missing the event now than I was just after it occurred.

And in other photos the structre of the supercell is breath taking. Also the cloud base was so low it's very impressive. Makes for a very short but thick cone tornado.

I wonder if anyone has video? Of course it would be rediculously amazing...!!

[Simon Andersen]

I've been wondering alot about what happened to the survailance video recordings from the Parsons Plant, if they had a survailance system.

There is a chance that they survived but I've heard no mention of this whatsoever.

[Mike Peregrine]

Amazing shots ... what a beast! This thing was moving southeast ... I'm curious where Scott Smith was in relation to the tornado ... it appears from the shape of the meso that he's looking straight north into it, which would mean that it's headed in his general direction. I would have loved to be there too ... but would probably be pretty dang close to a heart attack at this point, seeing something like THAT headed toward me. The shot's a lot more dramatic since it is hitting that plant and there are billions of splintered pieces flying through the air. wow - thanks for posting the links!

[DELIGNY Vincent]

:shock: thank you for your very interesting link Bradenel!

this is a very complete page!

we see that the tornado is born under the most recent cell!
look at the birth of this cell on the right top image :
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ilx/events/jul132004/vis-4panel.jpg

it is really necessary to be carefull of back regeneration!

:wink: a+ :wink:

[Andrew Geil]

That was not a fun day for those of us who lived in the area. ;)

I was at scout camp (where I work) and got run over by that beast of a supercell after it plowed Parson's Plant (who's owners are on a speaking tour now I think, so you might run into them). It's good to have the owner of your plant be a friend of ESDA. :)

90MPH winds are not fun to be in outside. :>

[Andrea Griffa]

AGGGHHH! Too close! :shock: He must have felt the wind from that one, lol. :shock:

Just too close!!Incredible...What a amazing supercell....

[Robert Dewey]

You guys may be interested in this:

http://www.waveformpc.com/roanoke/

That's a little case study I did involving the Roanoke event - The ETA sucked big time on it's forecast, at least on the SFC (and 12 hours in advance)... One of the images shows the actual SFC winds compared to the ETA forecast winds - Almost a 90 degree difference in direction.

Then, you look at the RUC 3 hour forecast (3 hours before the event), and it nailed it DEAD ON! Location of the QPF, wind directions, everything.
Check out that monster CAPE too, 6K-7K J/KG of pure updraft...

Unfortunately, it was that storm that killed the chances for severe weather across northern IN/OH/MI, due to strong descent (subsidence)...

[Andy Wehrle]

Don't forget southern Wisconsin, Robert.

[Robert Dewey]

Don't forget southern Wisconsin, Robert.

Oh yea... That's actually where my "initiation" forecast region was... I was then expecting a quite an extensive line of storms to push east through lower MI. While severe storms did finally develop in lower MI, it was getting late, and they weren't as extensive as originally thought.

Here are some radar shots as storms developed in MI, along with my annotations as to my location, and where my house is (for this event, my house got a better storm than my spotting location, guess I shouldn't went out on that day)...

Also, there appeared to be a pretty intense hook echo (follow the link below) to the southwest MI, however, looking at the storm relative velocity, shear was weak...

http://www.waveformpc.com/july13_dtx/dtx_nids_0250.gif
http://www.waveformpc.com/july13_dtx/dtx_srv_0250.gif

Other images are in the directory: http://www.waveformpc.com/july13_dtx/