Weather update

For those who did not know, the tornado that struck Greensburg, KS, last Friday night was officially rated F-5 on the enhanced Fujita scale (meaning it is an "EF-5"). It was definitely the strongest tornado in the U.S. since May 3, 1999, and probably the strongest in the world since then. Here is a radar image of the incredible velocity couplet as the tornadic circulation crossed into Greensburg (img courtesy NOAA).

Also, yesterday, the first (sub)tropical storm of the season, Andrea, formed off the southeast U.S. coast. If it is considered a tropical cyclone (still some global debate), it ends the longest (32-day) worldwide tropical cyclone-free period since at least 1970. That record is interesting in light of some of the claims of global warming, that TCs are becomming more numerous. As was speculated on the T-Storms list, this 32-day record "drought" is likely to not be surpassed any time soon. At left is a visible satellite img of the remnants of Andrea's circulation (downgraded to a [sub]tropical depression at 1500 UTC today) (img courtesy NOAA).