Severe Weather

Post by **Brad** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 6:18 pm

Incase anyone is interested. If you have those new good 2 way radios that have the muti channel option, you can pick up the severe weather spotters on channel 21. Kind of cool during bad weather.

MTO · Post by **MTO** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 6:21 pm

With a 2-5 mile one or does it have to be a commercial radio?

Post by **Brad** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 6:25 pm

No, just a cheep one. I think mine is a 2 or 3 mile one made by uniden

almighty_tuna · Post by **almighty_tuna** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 6:31 pm

If you have a scanner, listen to 146.94mhz for Omaha Metro spotters. For Lincoln spotters listen to 146.76mhz or go to http://www.146760.net/audio/ to listen to Lincoln spotters on the internet.

MTO · Post by **MTO** » Mon May 09, 2005 4:44 pm

I got some 12 mile moto’s the other day. I took them out driving around yesterday (when we had bad weather) had one on scan and the other on 21 trying to find anyone. I couldn’t find anything at all. Am I doing something wrong or just bad luck? I know there is a |expletive| load of settings with them so maybe there is…

Post by **Brad** » Tue May 10, 2005 1:21 am

I had mine on channel 21 and I was hearing them talk. However they got started really late, almost when the weather was here.

Post by **Brad** » Wed May 11, 2005 3:12 am

Its Monday 5/10/2005 at 10:25 pm and they are talking on channel 21.

eomaha · Post by **eomaha** » Wed May 11, 2005 3:53 am

That was a heck of a line of wind that passed through a while ago!

Coyote · Post by **Coyote** » Wed May 11, 2005 5:05 am

Electrical lines are down around the city. Watch where you drive.

MTO · Post by **MTO** » Wed May 11, 2005 5:16 am

You know its kind of pathetic, I am an advanced storm spotter and I don’t even know how to use a radio. Oh well, my next mission is to get into ham radios. I will for sure get someone else doing that.

Coyote · Post by **Coyote** » Wed May 11, 2005 5:22 am

pkiphd: Did you see that NETV special on tornado trackers the other day? Now that was some awesome filmage. So what is this equipment you are trying to work out? What band is it on?

Post by **Brad** » Wed May 11, 2005 11:11 pm

From wowt.com

Post by **Brad** » Thu May 12, 2005 6:30 pm

Storms hit Nebraska for second day

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=1638&u_sid=1409080

Spring storm makes travel unsafe

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=1638&u_sid=1409694

Post by **Brad** » Thu May 12, 2005 7:48 pm

Soaked? Well, get used to it

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=163 ... nd=5525363

The following are rainfall amounts for the 24 hours ending at 8 a.m. Thursday:
14th and Dodge......................... 2.0
32nd and Tucker......................... 1.52
50th and M......................... 2.20
54th and Farnam......................... 1.80
100th and Nina......................... 1.50
109th and Y......................... 1.62
132nd and West Center Road......................... 1.66
Midtown Council Bluffs......................... 1.90
Central Papillion......................... 1.99
Northeast Papillion......................... 1.34
Bennington......................... 1.54
North Bellevue......................... 2.35
West Bellevue......................... 2.0
Eppley Airfield......................... 1.38

MTO · Post by **MTO** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 7:13 pm

Any one else going to the spotter training class this Thursday? I am so ampt that storm chasing season is coming up!

almighty_tuna · Post by **almighty_tuna** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 9:18 pm

Thursday?? Ususally those are on Saturdays. What's the details?

MTO · Post by **MTO** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 10:58 pm

2006 Severe Storm Spotter Training

*

Basic Spotter's Field Guide - large pdf file which may take a while to download
*

Advanced Spotter's Field Guide - large pdf file which may take a while to download
*

NOAA's Owlie SKYWARN Educational website

Below is a list of upcoming spotter classes that have been scheduled in the NWS Omaha, NE county warning area. The classes last between 1 1/2 and 2 hours, and provide a basic understanding of thunderstorm structure, spotting techniques, reporting criteria, and procedures. There is no need to register, simply attend a class near your location. Or if a class has not been scheduled in your county, please feel free to attend a class in a neighboring county at your convenience. Additional classes will continue to be added in the future, so please check back to see if a class has been added for your area. If you have any questions concerning the spotter training sessions offered by WFO Omaha/Valley, please email Brian Smith, Warning and Coordination Meteorologist.

March, 2006 - Upcoming
Day City, State Time Location
20 Beatrice, NE
(Gage County) 7:00pm CST County Extension Office, Gage County Fairgrounds
Contact Information: [email protected]
21 EOC, NE
(Cass County) 7:00pm CST EOC at the corner of 144th Street and Highway 1 in Cass County
Contact Information: [email protected]
21 Defiance, IA
(Shelby County) 7:00pm CST Fire Station
Contact Information: [email protected]
22 Red Oak, IA
(Montgomery County) 7:00pm CST Fire Hall
Contact Information: [email protected]
23 Omaha, NE
(Douglas County) 7:30pm CST REACT Red Cross Building 2912 South 80th Street, Omaha
Contact Information: [email protected]
26 Saline Center Hall, NE
(Saline County) 1:00pm CST Saline Center Hall 3 miles West and 7 miles South of Dorchester on Highway 15
Contact Information: [email protected]
27 Randolph, IA
(Cedar County) 7:00pm CST Fire Hall
Contact Information: [email protected]
28 Bellevue, NE
(Sarpy County) 3:00pm CST Lavista Public Library
Contact Information: [email protected]
28 Bellevue, NE
(Sarpy County) 7:00pm CST Lavista Public Library
Contact Information: [email protected]
29 Howells, NE
(Colfax County) 7:00pm CST Community Center
Contact Information: [email protected]
30 Oakland, IA
(Pottawattamie County) 7:00pm CST Fire Station
Contact Information: [email protected]

April, 2006 - Upcoming
Day City, State Time Location
01 Lincoln, NE
(Lancaster County) 1:00pm CST Southwest High School
Contact Information: [email protected]
03 Fairbury, NE
(Jefferson County) 7:00pm CST Jefferson Community Health Center
Contact Information: [email protected]
04 Tecumseh, NE
(Johnson County) 7:00pm CST Tecumseh Fire Station
Contact Information: [email protected]
04 Stanton, NE
(Stanton County) 7:00pm CST Stanton Fire Station
Contact Information: [email protected]
06 Rising City, NE
(Butler County) 7:00pm CST Fire Hall
Contact Information: [email protected]
10 Location Undetermined
(Pawnee County) 7:00pm CST To Be Determined
Contact Information: [email protected]
11 Glenwood, IA
(Mills County) 7:00pm CST American Legion Hall
Contact Information: [email protected]
12 Albion, NE
(Boone County) 7:00pm CST Fire Station
Contact Information: [email protected]
13 Logan, IA
(Harrison County) 7:00pm CST County Engineers Office
Contact Information: [email protected]
17 Pender, NE
(Thurston County) 7:00pm CST Fire Station
Contact Information: [email protected]
19 Yutan, NE
(Saunders County) 7:00pm CST Fire Station
Contact Information: [email protected]
25 Tekamah, NE
(Burt County) 7:00pm CST Fire Department
Contact Information: [email protected]
26 Fremont, NE
(Dodge County) 7:00pm CST Christensen Field
Contact Information: [email protected]
27 Herman, NE
(Washington County) 7:00pm CST American Legion Hall
Contact Information: [email protected]

almighty_tuna · Post by **almighty_tuna** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 1:41 am

Well then! I must be thinking of the Severe Weather Symposium. I do believe that I will be in attendance, but my radio will stay in the car!

Post by **Brad** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 3:05 am

I have a scanner that picks up the spotters, I have a radar on my cell phone, and I have a camera with a big lense, I am ready to chase

MTO · Post by **MTO** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 3:11 am

FYI there is a fallow up class (spotter training 2 if you will) called advanced spotter training that Is held after all of the posted classes. It is required to become a certified spotter and obviously hasn’t been scheduled yet. I recommend this class though it is quite fun, interesting and you get to meet local weather men and hear some good stories.

MTO · Post by **MTO** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 3:35 am

My phone also has radar and a GPS that comes in REALY handy. The bad part is since its one of those EV-DO phones it looses that cutesy stuff outside of Douglas and Sarpy counties.

MTO · Post by **MTO** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 12:30 am

Taken at the crossroads.

It was quite sad though, I took this picture as the threat was obviously over our head but it wasn’t until 5 minutes after they made everyone move to the basement of the crossroads. And I’m sorry to those who wish it but the crossroads is still standing.

MTO · Post by **MTO** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 12:40 am

Under further review I think that is a picture of the “probable” tornado near 72nd and Center. Eerie

adam186 · Post by **adam186** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 12:59 am

MTO wrote:Under further review I think that is a picture of the “probable” tornado near 72nd and Center. Eerie

Wow, much braver than I. Nice shot. Where did you hear that, my friend said the same thing, but I didn't hear anything about it on the news? The did mention 72nd and Centtenial though.

eomaha · Post by **eomaha** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 1:34 am

I was at my desk at work near 72nd and Cornhusker when the power flickered (most peope lost their workstation power)... a few seconds later I felt the sensation of a dramatic pressure change in my ears followed by the very loud and frightening sound of the wind hitting the building. The intercom shortly after came alive with a call for everyone to go to their designated shelter areas. Outside there were numerous cars with broken windows. I saw an enormous power line down just south of the Walmart construction site... OPPD people already on the scene. I don't think a tornado did any damage... this was straight line winds (that MAY be a funnel cloud Jake)

My weather station showed revealed some interesting information (note, my wind gauge is reading a little low... but the pattern is evident )...

http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstat ... KNEOMAHA15

Coyote · Post by **Coyote** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 1:47 am

1620 AM was knocked off the air today also. I was up in Blair and missed all the excitement.

DTO Luv · Post by **DTO Luv** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 3:00 am

Have you ever been in a tornado in a skyscraper? I'll have to tell you all about it later when I have more time.

Post by **Brad** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 3:08 am

I was stuck at work, everything happened about a half hour to 45 min too early. I had my camera there and ready!

Jeff, two thing

Don't you guys have APC backups?

Also where did you get that weather station, you are the second person I know that has one. I am a bit jealous

eomaha · Post by **eomaha** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 3:31 am

Brad, of course our servers are on ups' and we have a large diesel generator at our location as well... but it's not practical to to provide backup power for every workstation in the building. We have several hundred people in Papillion. Most of my work is done via putty session to a Linux box in Carter Lake (which is in a facility built to handle an F5 tornado)... so even if I lose my power... I can recover my editor session (worst case scenario).

Roni got me the weather station for Christmas a few years ago. It's an Oregon Scientific unit sold by Radio Shack (think it was about $300 for the package)... entirely wireless and solar powered (separate anemometer, rain, temp/pressure/humidity units). Unfortunately, I'm figuring out that it isn't the most accurate around. I'll probably upgrade to a Davis Instruments setup in the future.

Current eOmaha.com conditions being reported...

wunderground.com is nice... as it archives all of the data I upload to it. You can see a bunch of other Omaha metro weather stations there as well.

Post by **Brad** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 3:53 am

Action 3 news is saying a weake Tornado did touch down in Papillion.

They are saying possiable Severe weather again on Sunday.

adam186 · Post by **adam186** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 3:56 am

Channel 7 said it was confirmed a tornado. Also, they showed a picture from a camera phone from 156th and Harrison (near my parents house) did you take it MTO?

adam186 · Post by **adam186** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 3:57 am

Nope, they just interviewed him.

adam186 · Post by **adam186** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 3:59 am

Does anyone have any pictures of the damage or anything?

Post by **Brad** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 4:02 am

The first 10 min of every of every news station was all damage reports.

By the way the National Weather Service called it a tornado but ranked it an F0 on the F Scale

eomaha · Post by **eomaha** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 4:04 am

Yeah... KPTM called it an 'F zero'.

That's 40-72 mph winds. Somehow I'd think the 80 mph straight line winds would have caused just as much damage. One thing noticeable on the cars with broken windows in our parking lot... all of the windows that were broken were facing south. A tornado may have ripped up some sheds, done some more roof damage... but I think it's apparent that the widespread damage was caused by the line of wind alone.

Another funny story from work... a colleague of mine with a window office noticed it was getting ugly looking outside... stood up to take a better look, when he saw the wind approaching fast (looking at the distant trees)... he said he literally felt the pressure push him back from the window (about the time we heard it elsewhere around the building)... and a few seconds later, he said dust began falling from the ceiling around him?!

Post by **Brad** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 4:09 am

I bet it was straight line winds by your work. They said the Tornado lifted up by Midlands Hospital.

Post by **Brad** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 5:25 am

Tornado Confirmed

http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/2551421.html

Authorities with the National Weather Service have confirmed that a tornado did touch down in Papillion as strong storms hammered the metro on Thursday.

Weather Service officials say it touched down approximately ¾ of a mile south of the intersection of Capehart Road and 84th Street and was on the ground for three miles, moving just east of Midlands Hospital.

The twister is described as the weakest type rated on the Fujita Scale which is used to measure tornado intensity. Estimated wind speeds are between 40 and 71 miles-per-hour.

Post by **Brad** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 6:16 am

The OWH sums it up best

Last week it was snow shovels. This week - storm shelters.

What's that old saying about weather in the Midlands?

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=1638&u_sid=2143037

Hal Dawg · Post by **Hal Dawg** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 6:28 am

The Reader's online version of its "Media Notes" column has a pretty comprehensive look at all the TV and radio coverage of Thursday's storm.

Check it out here:
http://thereadersmedianotes.blogspot.com/

Post by **Brad** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 6:32 am

Lightning Strike Knocks Waitt Radio Off The Air

http://thereadersmedianotes.blogspot.com/

Lightning Strike Knocks Waitt Radio Off The Air
Thursday's thunderstorm delivered a knock-out punch to Waitt Radio stations.

KKAR Program Director Neil Nelkin said it appears a lightning strike at the studios at 50th & Capitol caused substantial damage - and knocked several stations completely off the air just before 4 p.m.

"We sustained substantial damage to a lot of our internal audio routing and processing equipment," Nelkin said. "Two of our station consoles were knocked out, all of our phones failed, and we lost a number of our studio-transmitter links so we were unable to get audio from the studio location to the transmitter sites of a number of the stations in the cluster."

Faced with trying to deliver important information to listeners during the severe weather, Nelkin said station engineers worked quickly to patch audio from KETV (Cox Channel 9) directly to some of the stations, while resuming programming on others.

KKAR (1290 AM) was able to restore audio to its transmitter at 5:10 p.m. However, KOZN (1620 AM) was still off the air at 5:30 p.m.

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