A tornado that struck suburban Detroit earlier this week toppled trees that blew off the roof of Abe Satta's family home, sending water pouring down.
Although they now had a giant crane removing trees from the house, they were lucky that no one was hurt. The tornado that destroyed Sata's home in Livonia, Michigan, Several neighborhoods were torn apart A tree was cut down, killing a young child, on Wednesday. It developed so quickly that there was no advance notice from the National Weather Service or others that would normally trigger the sirens to be activated.
Sata, 21, said she received a storm warning on her phone but there was no sign of a tornado.
“I was in shock,” she said. “It would have been very useful. Even three seconds before the tornado it would have alerted me.”
The tornado in Livonia “spread as quickly as it started to dissipate,” said Jacqueline Anderson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Detroit office. The tornado, which was a type known to be weak and short, traveled about 5 miles (8 kilometers). Stronger tornadoes from severe storms can stay on the ground for 30, 40 or even 100 miles, and are easier to predict and issue warnings for, she said.
Although tornado forecasting equipment has improved “tenfold” over the past few decades, relying on a combination of weather radar and local observations, it has been short-lived, Anderson said. It could still be tornadoes “It's very difficult when it comes to issuing warnings.”
Meteorologists create hurricane forecasts every day, taking into account different weather elements, said Victor Gensini, an assistant professor at Northern Illinois University who studies tornadoes and extreme weather. But sometimes these conditions occur on a small scale, for example, a sudden breeze coming from a lake.
It's been a bleak spring for tornadoes in the United States. April saw the second highest number of tornadoes for the month on record in the country.
In suburban Maryland, a line of storms produced unusually strong tornadoes that downed trees, damaged buildings and toppled power lines Wednesday night.
But while Gensini said the national numbers are a little above average right now, it's too early to make specific statements about the hurricane year as a whole. He said the United States could be hit by as many as 1,500 tornadoes a year, and this time of year is statistically the most likely for tornado activity in the United States; Many of them are not in high-profile places or are not captured in clear photos.
“The hurricanes that happened this year were very visible,” he said.
The science of attributing tornadic storms to climate change is still in its infancy, and it can be difficult to connect the dots to one individual hurricane, said Gensini, who also studies how climate change affects hurricane activity. But looking at large-scale trends, his team found an increasing likelihood of tornadoes developing Farther south and east in the United States than in the past.
Hurricane warnings They were issued to parts of several other states Wednesday night, including Ohio, New Jersey and Delaware. In Ohio, a suspected tornado tore off a gas station awning and caused extensive damage to a restaurant and discount store early Thursday in the East Village of Frazeysburg. Eight people suffered minor injuries, mostly from flying debris, Muskingum County Emergency Management Director Jeff Jadwin said.
Although tornadoes are not previously heard of in Maryland, they are relatively rare — especially outbreaks of the size seen Wednesday night. At least five people were injured and the weather service issued 22 tornado warnings on Wednesday, the fourth warning issued in a single day by the office that covers much of Maryland, the District of Columbia, northern Virginia and eastern West Virginia, according to Kevin Rodriguez, chief meteorologist. At the Weather Service office in Sterling, Virginia.
“It was a very busy night,” said Jeremy Geiger, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service. “It's one of those things, all the right ingredients coming together at the right time. So that's always the question.”
It wasn't a high-energy storm system, but wind shear and other factors gave it a boost and created the rotation that allows tornadoes to form, Geiger said. He said the system was particularly challenging because meteorologists were issuing flash flood warnings and tornado warnings simultaneously, with some residents advised to seek higher ground while others sought refuge in the basement.
In Gaithersburg, Maryland, George Mahano told WJLA-TV that a crane may be needed to lift a tree from his home, so he will likely be staying in a hotel. When the tornado hit, Mahno said he heard loud noises and banging on the window, so he hid in the bathtub. Later, firefighters came and asked him to get out, which he did.
“Thank God, I was not hurt. And thank God everyone in my house was at church,” Mahano told WJLA-TV. “This is just material. It can be replaced or repaired. “No one was hurt, and that's all that matters.”