Sudden 'Spin-Up' EF-1 Tornado Touches Down in Grand Rapids Suburb Without Any Warning - Polidicks

[url]http://woodtv.com/2014/07/07/nws-kentwood-tornado-ranked-ef-1/[/url] [quote]GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) – The National Weather Service Grand Rapids says the sudden nature of the tornado that touched down in Kent County Sunday night and the way the radar reads such tornadoes was the reason a tornado warning wasn’t issued to the public. NWS Grand Rapids Meteorologist in Charge Dan Cobb said Monday afternoon the tornado, which he called a “spin-up,” popped up suddenly without any warning signs on the radar, which sweeps around every four minutes. Cobb said the tornado, which the NWS categorized as a “high-end EF-1,” touched down about a minute after one pass of the radar and was weakening on the next pass. “The next volume scan comes in and now you’re halfway down the damage path before we even see the signature, and then it takes a couple of minutes to issue a warning,” he said. By the time the NWS was able to identify the tornado, Cobb said it was halfway through it’s six-mile, 10-minute-long path.[/quote] [quote]The National Weather Service Grand Rapids will be upgrading its radar later in July, which will give its meteorologists an edge on seeing small, spin-up twisters.[/quote] [video=youtube;Gsz8yEZjRN0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gsz8yEZjRN0[/video] [video=youtube;81irvGOgU70]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81irvGOgU70[/video]

These things are fucking terrifying. When I lived in Buffalo, they chances of these things happening were considered almost non-existent, but with the right time of year, you could see flash tornado forming up to about 10 to 20 meters off the ground, but refusing to touchdown.

I was just introduced to the "Enhanced Fujita Scale" and when I heard of EF1 I thought there was some MEGA TORNADO that popped the fuck out of nowhere

Has tornado measurement changed since my younger weather obsessed self read about them 10 years ago?

[QUOTE=Cows Rule;45337841]Has tornado measurement changed since my younger weather obsessed self read about them 10 years ago?[/QUOTE] Enhanced Fujita is used in the US (and Canada post-Elie) instead of the old Fujita scale as of 2007 (2013 for Canada). It'll have a prefix of EF*. Old tornadoes that were assessed with the old Fujita scale will still have a F* designation. See: [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Fujita_scale[/url]

Is it bad that I thought EF-1 Tornado was a fighter jet?

[QUOTE=Apollo2947;45337959]Is it bad that I thought EF-1 Tornado was a fighter jet?[/QUOTE] I thought exactly the same thing.

Yikes, completely under the radar. Thats something you don't see everyday.

I quite liked that first news report, it wasn't a typical american sensationalist broadcast, they allowed the viewer to just absorb the facts without a hint of any political bias being forced down your throat.

[QUOTE=ThePunisher1;45338750]I quite liked that first news report, it wasn't a typical american sensationalist broadcast, they allowed the viewer to just absorb the facts without a hint of any political bias being forced down your throat.[/QUOTE] nah sorry mate the tornado is Ron Pales biggest donor

You can't really detect tornadoes from radars, you really have to go by eye witness reports. The most you can do is potentially see swirling but it doesn't prove anything:eng101: