Heh - particularly the part in magenta (”Level 5” risk of severe storms), AND the part mapped to get 10” to 15” of rain. We got the “Level 5” last night*, with a good start on the rain.
*The Cape Girardeau CBS TV Station, KFVS-12, had 27 tornado warnings simultaneously at one point. They also had a large wedge tornado skip right over their broadcast studio building, sending their entire staff including their head meteorologist, broadcasting the coverage, to their basement.
Per a camera on top of an antenna tower @ the studio - I assume it sends the signal to their OTA tower some miles away - as the tornado approached, one could see transformer flashes going off. Per a Facebook post later, by one of the staff, head met guy stayed on (presumably a wireless) mic and stood part way up the stairs so he could receive cell signal (radar, warnings) and continue coverage. Fortunately, the twister did skip, right over Cape Girardeau, but there is considerable damage in Delta, MO, just to the southwest. The anchorette for KFVS was still shaking when they did their newscast @ 10 pm... A couple vids of this storm are here:
The Cape G storm later either went just passed or right over a campground @ Ferne Clyffe State Park in IL. I’ve not seen further reports there, yet.
A bit after the Cape storm, another tornado was headed right for Paducah, KY, after injuring 4 people in Ballard County*, KY, then taking out a church @ the south side of the airport (McCracken County) and sending the NWS-Paducah staff to THEIR shelters: That one lifted / weakened just before entering Paducah.
*Apparently they took shelter in their car in a brick carport @ another church. The storm replied by picking up a storage shed and tossing it across the parking lot and into the carport too...
An hour(?) later, another large tornado, with one of the best defined “debris balls” you’ll ever see on radar, skipped just as it got to the southwest side of Murray, KY, among other things sending the students in the dorms @ MSU to THEIR shelter areas. So, Murray and the college were spared too.
It will be very interesting to see the tornado tracks when NWS Paducah posts its report in a few days, but, I’d say our region was very fortunate to not have heavy damage in one of those larger towns. SFAIK, there was only 1 fatality.
Next, the region (SEMO, NE Arkansas, S. IL, W KY, and NW TN) is set for 3 days of Level 2-3 severe storms risk, and (still) perhaps a foot of rain. NWS is warning of flooding in places with no records of flooding, and given that last night’s storms overproduced on the rain, I’m inclined to take NWS seriously. My ditch clearing yesterday morning helped here, some, and I did a (much quicker) repeat earlier this morning as a few more small branches and other debris blew into the ditch last night. At least most of the branches the county left up in the trees after their “trimming operation” are finally down. I have enough oak, hickory, and a little maple, out of it, for grilling, for all summer and fall. The rest of the stuff will make a nice big bonfire at some point... It’s a bit tricky to get it dried out enough to burn well and not have us in a burn ban period. Right now, that’s the least of my worries, and plenty of people likely wish they only had my worries. :-(
We had almost 2” of rain in a few hours yesterday. Cell phone went off for tornado warning which mentioned T-storm with rotation and included the next town over about 8 miles away. I’m sure the creeks are overflowing big time and rain is forecast for the next three days.
Paul, there are all sorts of stories on tornado damage today. I hope that it weakens as it heads east.