EXPERTS ASSESS STORM DAMAGE AS SEVERE WEATHER THREATENS ANEW

May 6, 2003 — As survivors began efforts to recover from an outbreak of deadly tornadoes that hit three states on Sunday, May 4, 2003, the NOAA National Weather Service debuted a new approach to assessing damage from nature’s violent storms. Working with local NOAA National Weather Service forecasters, experts in damage assessment were dispatched in Missouri and Tennessee to form Quick Response Teams to scrutinize post-storm damage and apply a strength rating to the larger, and most deadly, tornadoes. (Click NOAA image for larger view of damage to a home one-and-a-half miles southwest of Bartlett, Kan., taken May 5, 2003. Please credit “NOAA.”)

“The Weather Service implemented the Quick Response Team concept to ensure accuracy in documenting tornado damage thought to be greater than F3 on the Fujita tornado rating scale,” Weather Service Central Region Director Dennis McCarthy said. “The Quick Response Team individuals apply their expertise with that of local Weather Service personnel in making post-storm assessments and ratings. Their expertise helps eliminate speculation and lets them make more precise determination of F-scale ratings.

“Some of those experts are current or former NOAA scientists and National Weather Service forecasters; some are structural engineers and some have been involved in emergency management. All have extensive experience in storm damage assessment and have demonstrated proficiency in making those assessments,” said McCarthy.

According to McCarthy, retired NOAA senior scientist Charles Doswell, from NOAA labs in Oklahoma, is the Quick Response Team member assigned to the Kansas City area, and Dallas structural engineer Tim Marshall is leading the assessment in the Springfield, Mo., area. Weather Forecast Office Memphis Meteorologist in Charge James Duke led the preliminary assessment team in southwest Tennessee.

The Tennessee survey revealed that a tornado touched down Sunday in Madison County and tracked northeast for 12 miles into Jackson. The tornado killed seven people in mobile homes along the path and claimed two more victims in Jackson. Reaching an F4 rating, the tornado caused extensive damage in downtown Jackson, where two people are missing in addition to the fatalities. WFO Memphis staff issued a tornado warning for Madison County and Jackson at 11:13 p.m. CDT, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down and 22 minutes before it entered Jackson.

Efforts are under way in Tennessee to schedule a flight with the Civil Air Patrol to investigate the 65-mile tornado track.

The Kansas City and Springfield area surveys began late Monday and continued Tuesday, so F-scale ratings and total damage are yet to be determined.

The Kansas City forecast office in Pleasant Hill, Mo., issued its first tornado warning at 3:30 p.m. Sunday for Leavenworth County Kansas. After a small tornado formed and dissipated, a larger tornado touched down at 3:55 p.m. and stayed on the ground for an hour and a half before lifting back into the clouds in Ray County Missouri. The staff issued 25 tornado warnings with an average lead time of 34 minutes.

The Springfield, Mo., forecast office issued 39 tornado warnings through the course of Sunday’s outbreak, with an average lead time of 31 minutes.

Initial reports indicate the severe weather outbreak killed 38 people—7 in Kansas, 18 in Missouri and 13 in Tennessee. That total could go higher as some individuals remain unaccounted for.

Even while the damage from Sunday’s storms is being assessed, staffs at NOAA Weather Forecast Offices in the central and southern United States are contending with the latest round of severe weather. Forecasters at the NOAA Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said thunderstorms with damaging winds, hail and possible thunderstorms are expected Tuesday and Wednesday in Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas. Additional storms are expected in Illinois and, possibly, Tennessee on Wednesday. More severe storms are forecast for Thursday in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and providing environmental stewardship of the nation’s coastal and marine resources. NOAA is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Relevant Web Sites
Fujita Tornado Damage Scale with Damage Photos

NOAA National Weather Service Central Region — Links to Photos, Graphics and Radar Images of Tornado Outbreak

NOAA Tornadoes Page

NOAA Storm Watch

NOAA National Weather Service

Media Contacts:
Patrick Slattery, NOAA Weather Service Central Region, (816) 891-8914; Ron Trumbla, NOAA Weather Service Southern Region, (817) 978-1111, ext. 140 or Keli Tarp, NOAA Storm Prediction Center, (405) 366-0451
(Photo courtesy of NOAA National Weather Service Forecast Office in Wichita, Kan.)