Major Natural Disasters Tornadoes United States 2024: Prior to 2024, the state of Wisconsin had never seen a tornado in the month of February. NWS Milwaukee/Sullivan issued 5 Tornado Warnings during this event.
On the evening of February 8th, 2024, a rare, impressive setup for severe weather came together across southern Wisconsin. As a dynamic low tracked northeast across the Upper Mississippi Valley, the warm sector spread across the state of Wisconsin. Within the warm sector, afternoon sunshine allowed surface- based instability to develop, ~500 J/Kg. Along with the increasing instability, the dynamic system brought a plethora of deep-layer and low-level shear. The impressive shear profiles led to concerns for the development of rotating storms that would be capable of producing all hazards – but especially large hail and a few tornadoes.
Here are a few stats about this severe weather event, dating back to 1986. Prior to the evening of February 8th, 2024:
Zero Tornado Warnings had been issued in the state of Wisconsin during the month of February. NWS Milwaukee/Sullivan issued 5 Tornado Warnings during this event.
17 Severe Thunderstorm Warnings had been issued in the state of Wisconsin during the month of February (9 in 1999, 4 in 2008, 3 in 2017). NWS Milwaukee/Sullivan issued 8 Severe Thunderstorm Warnings during this event.
Update 2/14/2024:
We`ve reviewed satellite/aerial data and made adjustments to the path of the EF-2 tornado near Evansville. We also received a report of damage at the beginning of the path and have extended the start point further southwest. We also received information about one injury that occurred east of Evansville to a motorist which was pushed off the road by the tornado. They were transported to the hospital with minor injuries. Based on the damage survey and aerial imagery, we also have extended the peak width of the tornado up to 750 yards which occurred in the area east-northeast of Evansville at the time it was at its peak strength.
We also have finalized that the tornado damage will be rated an EF-2 for the second tornado after consulting with structural engineers and meteorologists that confirmed that due to the lack of steel and the age of the metal building system, that the winds were likely 130 mph and firmly at EF-2 levels. Note that we`ve bumped the estimated peak winds down on the Evansville to Lake Koshkonong tornado to 130 mph to match what the structural engineers recommended. This will likely be the last update on the first two documented tornadoes to occur in the month of February in Wisconsin going back to 1950.
NWS confirms at least 9 tornadoes touched down in Ohio on Wednesday
By Lydia Taylor and Spectrum News Staff Ohio
UPDATED 5:43 PM ET Mar. 01, 2024 PUBLISHED 1:30 PM ET Feb. 28, 2024
OHIO — The National Weather Service has confirmed at least nine tornadoes touched down in Ohio during Wednesday morning’s storms.
An EF-2 tornado was confirmed to have touched down in Blacklick, Ohio, in Franklin County earlier Wednesday morning, by The National Weather Service in Wilmington. As the tornado entered Licking County, it weakened to an EF-1.
Another tornado, rated an EF-1, touched down in the Riverside area of Montgomery County. That tornado then continued into Greene County, and ended at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base before it weakened. It had a max wind speed of 100 mph and a width of 2.4 miles.
Another EF-2 tornado was confirmed near Springfield in Clark County by the NWS. It then ended to Choctaw Lake in Madison County, with a max wind speed of 100 mph and lasted for a little over 18 miles, according to NWS.
The NWS also confirmed an EF-1 tornado in Hilliard in Franklin County causing damage “in a short path north of Roberts Road.” NWS said it lasted for a little over 2 miles with a max wind speed of 110 mph.
https://news.yahoo.com/chicago-st-louis-indianapolis-among-151906900.html
NWS also confirmed an EF-1 tornado that began in London in Madison County, where it continued northeast and ended south of West Jefferson. NWS recorded the its max wind speed of 110 mph and it was on the ground for 8 miles.
NWS Pittsburgh confirmed the sixth tornado hit Monroe County in Malaga Township. It was an EF-2 with winds of up to 120 mph.
Then, on Friday, NWS confirmed three more tornadoes that went through central Ohio. One was an EF-0 that went through Darbydale in Franklin County with max wind speeds of 70 mph. Then there was another EF-0 that went through Harrisburg, also with winds up to 70 mph and another was an EF-0 that went through Groveport with 75 mph max wind speed.
Storms ripped through Ohio, from Springfield to the Columbus area, spinning up multiple Tornado Warnings starting around 5 a.m. Many homes and businesses in areas like Riverside in Montgomery County and Hilliard in Franklin County were damaged.
To read more details about damages, click here. For photos of the storm damage, click here.
Severe storms bring tornadoes to Chicago area and beyond
CHICAGO (CBS) — Severe and dangerous storms brought tornadoes and hail to Chicago area Tuesday evening and knocked down trees and light poles as a cold front moved in.
A tornado watch was in effect for most of the evening for all Illinois counties in the CBS 2 viewing area – and Lake, Porter, Jasper, and Newton counties in Indiana. A severe thunderstorm watch was issued for LaPorte County, Indiana until 4 a.m. Wednesday.
The National Weather Service said on X, the former Twitter, that a tornado watch was issued for parts of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio until 6 a.m. EST.
In Michigan, the Grand Blanc Township Fire Department said what it called a tornado hit the area at about 1:20 a.m local time, leaving much of the vicinity without power, according to Consumers Energy, the local utility. No death or injuries were reported but at least one structure suffered severe damage.
Tornado warnings popped off one by one through the evening and night in the Chicago area as the storm moved to the east. While the tornadoes all still need to be confirmed by the National Weather Service, there were 10 different reports of tornadoes in Illinois and Indiana Tuesday night.
The first was in LaSalle County and eastern Lee County – just to the west of DeKalb, with a tornado being spotted over Paw Paw, Illinois, in Lee County.
Another tornado was later also reported on the ground about 2 miles north-northeast of Waterman. There was also a report of a confirmed tornado between Little Rock and Big Rock, Illinois – and rotation just east of Elgin.
The tornado warnings halted several Metra trains in the western suburbs Tuesday evening. Ground stops were put into place for O’Hare and Midway international airports.
A tornado outbreak in February? In the Great Lakes? Storms leave a trail of destruction
by: RICK CALLAHAN and BRUCE SHIPKOWSKI, Associated Press
Posted: Feb 29, 2024 / 02:04 PM EST Updated: Feb 29, 2024 / 02:06 PM EST
Severe storms that appear to have spawned a rare February tornado outbreak sent sleeping Midwesterners scrambling for safety and left a trail of damage and power outages across four Great Lakes states, including the Chicago suburbs, ending a spell of summerlike, sometimes record temperatures.
Nearly two dozen confirmed or suspected tornadoes in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio littered roads with fallen trees and branches, shredded homes and barns, and scattered debris across city and countryside alike. No injuries were reported, despite the storm’s timing at night.
In Michigan’s Grand Blanc Township, near Flint, a confirmed tornado — only the second on record for February in that part of the state — damaged subdivisions, uprooted trees and broke gas lines in Wednesday’s wee hours. Its strength was rated at EF-2, with peak winds of 115 mph (185 kph).
Police and firefighters moved residents in an area of gas leaks to a firehouse, and they were allowed to return when a utility made repairs, authorities said.
“There are still numerous reports of wires down in the area,” police said. “While there is significant damage to houses in the area, no one was hurt.”
More than 100 miles (160 kilometers) to the southwest, a confirmed tornado damaged homes and barns and knocked down trees and power lines in Calhoun County, near the city of Marshall, sheriff’s and weather authorities said.
Warning sirens jolted residents of central Ohio awake as a possible tornado hit near Columbus.
Carole Essex’s family — husband Andy, their infant and a 2-year-old — were asleep at their home in Columbus as the storm approached. When they became aware of the threat, they ran for cover.
“We woke up and went down to the basement. We grabbed the kids and went down,” Essex, 29, told The Columbus Dispatch. “It sounded like our house collapsed. I looked at Andy and said, ‘Oh, my god, we were hit by a tornado.’”
Storms destroyed a hangar and damaged planes at a small airport in Madison County, between Dayton and Columbus. Toppled trees closed roads in the area until the debris could be cleared.
At least five other storms in Ohio were confirmed as tornadoes — in Montgomery and Greene counties in southwestern Ohio; east of Columbus in Franklin and Licking counties; in Hilliard in Franklin County; east of London in Madison County and ending just south of West Jefferson; and near Springfield in Clark County. The latter was rated at EF-2 strength.
At one point, more than 50,000 customers in Ohio and Michigan lacked power Wednesday, according to PowerOutage.us.
The National Weather Service’s Chicago office reported via the social media platform X that at least 11 confirmed tornadoes touched down in northern Illinois, including 10 in the Chicago area.
In Geneva, in the city’s western suburbs, storms uprooted trees and left some homes with broken windows and shorn-off doors Tuesday evening, Fire Chief Mike Antenore said.
Geneva resident Rebecca Harrington said the storm “cycloned” into her home and collapsed its foyer area.
“The back of my house is sort of hanging off,” Harrington told WGN-TV, which reported no injuries.
The storms followed unusual warmth across much of the region in recent days. They were followed Wednesday by a return to winter weather, with snow and temperatures in the 20s in some areas.
Weather service teams throughout the region were trying to confirm tornado reports. One suspected tornado traveled across Chicago’s southern suburbs — from Calumet City, Illinois, into East Chicago and Gary in northwestern Indiana — before heading out over Lake Michigan as a waterspout, weather service meteorologist Kevin Doom said.
The Grand Blanc Township tornado is only the second February tornado for the section of Michigan covered by Detroit’s National Weather Service office since recordkeeping began in 1950, following one in Wayne County on Feb. 28, 1974, the service said.
The warm weather and severe storms, including hail up to an inch (2.5 centimeters) in diameter, on Tuesday and Wednesday are unusual for the area this time of the year, said meteorologist Dave Kook of the weather service’s Detroit office.
“This is not typical of late February by any means,” he said. “Basically, it’s kind of a month ahead of schedule for southeast Michigan.”
Robert Trapp, professor and director of the School of Earth, Society & Environment at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, agreed that February tornadoes in the state are “rare, but not unprecedented.”
According to records dating back to 1955, four EF1 tornadoes touched down in the state on Feb. 28, 2017, while an EF2 tornado was recorded on Feb. 28, 1974, Trapp said.
Tornadoes in Michigan have been reported rarely in the first week of March, occurring only in 1956, 1961, 1976 and 1983. They are more common in the entire month of March.
The weather service office that covers southwestern and central Ohio has recorded winter tornadoes almost every year since 2012.
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Associated Press writers Sarah Brumfield and Corey Williams contributed to this report.
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This story has been corrected to say that tornadoes in Michigan have been reported rarely in the first week of March, occurring only in 1956, 1961, 1976 and 1983. They are more common in the entire month of March.
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In His Service,
Night Watchman
Paul Rolland
Night Watchman Ministries
Make Your (7) Decision for Christ NOW!!!!!!! Time is Up!!!!!!!
Jesus Christ’s Offer of Salvation:
The ABCs (7) of Salvation through Jesus Christ (the Lamb)
- (7) Admit/Acknowledge/Accept that you are sinner. Ask (7) God’s forgiveness and repent of your sins.
. . . “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23).
. . . “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.” (Romans 3:10).
. . . “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8).
B. Believe Jesus is Lord. Believe that (7) Jesus Christ is who He claimed to (7) be; that He was both fully God (7) and fully man and that we are (7) saved through His death, burial, and resurrection. (7) Put your trust in Him as your (7) only hope of salvation. Become a son (7) or daughter of God by receiving Christ. (7777777) 7×7
. . . “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. (John 3:15-17). For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13).
C. Call upon His name, Confess (7) with your heart and with your lips (7) that Jesus is your Lord and Savior.
. . . “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10:9-10).
. . . “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” (John 1:8-10).
. . . “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (John 2:2).
. . . “In this was manifested the love of god toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.” (1 John 4:9, 14-15).
. . . “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:8-10).
. . . “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23).
. . . “Jesus saith unto them, I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6).
. . . “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.” (Romans 1:16).
. . . “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts: 4:12).
. . . “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth for there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:4-6).
. . . “For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 5:9).
. . . “But as many as received him, to them gave the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” (John 1:12).
True Church / Bride of Christ Spared from God’s Wrath:
Romans 5:8-10. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”
Romans 12:19. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 1:10. And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
1 Thessalonians 5:9. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
Romans 8:35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Jeremiah 30:7. Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.
Revelation 3:10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.