Our atmoshere is taking a bit of a "breather" after the very active last couple of weeks of weather. The overall pattern remains busy/stormy, but this week's systems don't look to have the magnitude of the last couple. So the First Coast gets to enjoy some beautful weather Monday through Thursday with gradually warming temps. A weak disturbance could produce a couple of light showers Tue. night-Wed. morning, but it looks mostly dry through Thursday. A stronger system will move into the area by the end of the week with a better chance for showers & a few thunderstorms Thu. night through Fri.
The Jacksonville National Weather Service has put together an excellent
slide show regarding Friday's Lake City tornado. The show includes maps, the weather set-up, radar images & damage photos. The EF-2 tornado -- that killed one directly, injured 5, traveled 2 miles, was a 1/2 mile wide, destroyed 19 homes, caused major damage to 21 others & minor damage to 20 homes -- was a pretty classic "bow head" tornado. As you look at the reflectivity radar images, note the narrow line of intense storms moving into Columbi Co. west of Lake City. In the middle of the line, there is a larger cell south of which there is an intense red area bowing outward (toward the east). The top portion of this bow -- the larger cell within the line -- is essentially the tornado signature on radar. The velocity scans very nicely show the most intense winds corresponding with this "bow head" with the greens indicating wind toward the radar & the red color is wind (rain) moving away from the radar site (at the N.W.S., JIA). The brightest colors -- highest wind speeds -- pretty much correlate perfectly with the time & location of tornado touchdown.
