So last Saturday, central North Carolina experienced one of its worst tornado outbreaks in known history. Dolberry and crew were thankfully unaffected, but it was pretty amazing to watch on TV.
Knew it was going to be a BIG weather day when the Storm Prediction Center put us in a "high" risk zone ... apparently for the first time since 1984. (Honestly, I had no idea they'd been doing the daily severe risk thing that long.) We'd started our day w/ a run w/ some of the Grace Christian XC team at the surprisingly alpine Lake Johnson and the weather had a decidedly non-severe feel (cool and damp). But by 2p ... after some HeroClix fun in which the guy shown to the right went 0 for 3 games ... it was ominously warm and windy.
By the time we got home, the tornadoparazzi was already at ToRCoN 8 with reports of twisters to the northwest of Durham. Dolberry and APD were glued to the Doppletron 5000 and had our eyes affixed to a cell SW of Apex near Carthage which appeared to be a supercell beginning to hook. Not long afterward, a tornado warning was issued for the storm as it touched down just south of Sanford. Extrapolating the storm's path to the northeast appeared to bring it awfully close to Apex but maybe just to the south.
It got pretty scary as the storm headed closer and the NWS issued a tornado warning w/ the first location listed as being impacted Apex, but as it got closer it became more certain that it was going to go to our south. We had the pillows all ready to get into the interior closet. (We actually went in for about 30 secs when the wind started to gust and the hail reached dime size, but it was a clear false alarm from a panicky Dolberry.)
After the all clear, we exhaled w/ relief and watched the storms ravage areas to our east. WRAL showed the mesocyclone (w/ a rain-wrapped tornado hidden inside) approach downtown Raleigh from the 36th floor of a skyscaper. It's bizarre to be able to watch such devastation on live TV. The Raleigh tornado stayed on the ground an amazing 63 miles ... the longest of the 28 in NC that day. (As large as the outbreak was ... it only had ~ 20% of the tornadoes of April 3rd, 1974 and there were no F4 or F5s.)
The next day was amazing. All through Apex/Cary, including our backyard, there were damp gobs of yellow insulation scattered around ... presumably from ripped up roofs and buildings upwind. At my softball game, there was a pizza-box-sized piece of jagged roof w/ a curved nail in it. Who knows how far that thing was thrown? We drove across the tornado path on Tuesday to get to softball in south Cary. Storm was only a F0 at that point, but there were several roofs damaged and many large branches down.
The videos of the storms were plentiful and impressive. One very cool one was from a 12 year old from Apex from his iPhone on I-95 heading down to FL. The most hysterical tornado video of all time was shot near Wilson NC. I have links to both on the right. Both camera operators had no clue how strong a tornado is ... and were pretty amazed when the thing ultimately bore in on them. Amazing that they both survived, but maybe that's a nice way to approach the storms that affect all of us in life. They're just twistin'.
