Funnel Cloud

Here's a story from the Burlington NC newspaper, The Times, regarding the storms here yesterday:

Meteorologists verify 2 twisters
May 7, 2009 - 8:34 AM
The Associated Press

It's possible multiple funnel clouds twirled in the sky over Alamance, Wake, Johnston, Wilson and Nash counties Tuesday during the chaotic storms that struck the area, but there may have been just two tornadoes that actually touched down and did any damage.

That was the conclusion of a team of National Weather Service experts who drove to areas where damage was reported Wednesday, then compared what they saw with radar images and other data.

A likely explanation for the deluge of tornado reports was that several were sightings of, or damage from, the same twister, said Darin Figurskey, a meteorologist in the weather service's Raleigh office.

One of the tornado tracks the survey team followed was about seven miles long.

That twister started in Johnston County, touching down near the intersection of N.C. 96 and N.C. 42, and chewed a path 30 yards wide as it moved northeastward.

It damaged several homes and a fire station before churning into Nash County, where it damaged more homes.

Around 7:30 p.m., authorities issued a report of a possible twister near N.C. 54 and Mt. Willen Road in the southeastern part of Alamance County. The storm was possibly a funnel cloud, or a rotating storm that fails to touch the ground.

The other tornado the survey team confirmed was in southern Wilson County near Interstate 95. It was bigger, and stronger, with winds up to 135miles per hour. It tore a 100-yard-wide track for two miles, damaging several homes, some of them severely.

Among the reported tornadoes that could not be confirmed was one in Cary near U.S. 1.

There didn't appear to be damage there, and apparently there were no photos showing that it actually reached the ground, Figurskey said.

I live in the southeastern corner of Alamance, near highway 54, so the funnel cloud they mention was the one that moved by my house. It truly was an ominous looking thing... but it was all "out of wind" by the time I saw it but it might have been a lot more "interesting" a mile or so west of me, when it first formed.

Here's a second story on that funnel cloud. This story only concerns itself about the one that went past me. Pretty short story tho.

Comments

srp said…
Now THAT was too close for comfort!
Jean-Luc Picard said…
A funnel cloud? I thought they were called tornadoes?

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