One of my weather-related goals in life is to see a tornado (and live to tell about it) so when I logged on to the Weather Underground this evening, and saw a that the Weather Service had issued a Tornado Warning:
Statement as of 5:38 PM PDT on September 21, 2007
The National Weather Service in Las Vegas has issued a
* Tornado Warning for… extreme southeastern Inyo County in eastern California… extreme north central San Bernardino County in southeast
California…west central Clark County in southern Nevada…* until 615 PM PDT.
* At 536 PM PDT… National Weather Service Doppler radar indicated a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado near Sandy Valley… and was moving north at 40 mph.
* The tornado will be near… Sandy Valley 550 PM PDT.
When a Tornado Warning is issued based on Doppler radar… it means that strong rotation has been detected in the storm. A tornado may already be on the ground… or is expected to develop shortly. If you are in the path of this dangerous storm… move indoors and to the lowest level of the building. Stay away from windows.
The safest place to be during a tornado is in a basement. Get under a workbench or other piece of sturdy furniture. If no basement is available… seek shelter on the lowest floor of the building in an interior hallway or room such as a closet. Use blankets or pillows to cover your body and always stay away from windows.
My first thought was jumping in the car and heading out to try to photograph the storm. Then the logical part of my brain said: “Whoa there, pardner! It’s a 45 minute drive, the sun is already down, and dinner is almost ready.” I called Rob in nearby Pahrump and asked him about the weather just north of Sandy Valley. He said it had been raining fairly hard and steady all day. So tornado hunting would be futile in the dark and the rain.
It will be interesting to see if they actually got a tornado on the ground in Sandy Valley. Unfortunately, there isn’t large amounts of crops in the area that can have distinctive patterns left in them. There are a few center-pivot irrigation systems in Sandy Valley but most of the valley is empty desert where a tornado could pass and leave no sign.
Getting a photo of a Nevada tornado would be a rare treat. The Weather Service has photos of a tornado near Hiko and some ropy funnel clouds in Mojave County Arizona. My friend Michelle has a picture she took of a tornado moving through the desert in the Las Vegas Valley back in the 90s and if she could ever find it, the folks at the Weather Service office would love to have a copy.
This weather radar image was taken about the time of the possible tornado. This band of rain extends from near Tonopah and down to the Mexican border. Although the band has been nearly stationary all day, the storms in the band are moving rapidly from south to north. The band is supposed to move slowly to the east and bring some rain to us. We had a little bit (.06 inches) of rain last night around 11:30 and some sprinkles this morning. The angular break in the band is the radar shadow of Mount Charleston.
This is the first rain we’ve had since August 27. August 27 was a great storm that so far is the only significant (>0.15 inches) rain that we’ve had this year. We were startled awake by a thunderclap at 04:20 in the morning that shook the house, knocked out the power for a few seconds, and set off car alarms throughout the neighborhood. I was expecting to hear some sort of response from The Princess. When she was silent, I went in her room to check on her (I was also looking for damage because the lightning was so close). The Princess was sitting wide-eyed upright in bed, shaking in terror. Needless to say, none of us got any more sleep that night. (Except for The Boy, who slept like a baby the whole time. Probably because he is a baby.) The August 27 storm gave us 1.02 inches of rain and as of this morning, our total is up to a whopping 1.53 inches.
