December 8, 2021
December 12, 2021
Preliminary reports recommend one twister might have taken a trip almost 200 miles, triggering serious damage and human losses in Kentucky and 3 other states.
On the night of December 10, 2021, a powerful storm front brought twisters, extreme thunderstorms, and bursts of straight-line wind to the Midwestern UnitedStates Though twisters can take place in at any time of year– with approximately a lots every December– the occasion was unusual for the length of time it lasted and how far north it took place in meteorological winter season.
With unseasonably warm and damp weather condition in location in the mid-section of the U.S. and a cool weather condition front approaching from the west, the National Weather Service (NWS) anticipated early on December 10 that serious weather condition loomed: “A few strong tornadoes, damaging gusts, and large hail are all expected beginning this evening across Arkansas and Missouri, with the greatest tornado threat close to the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.”
A couple of hours later on, as numerous as 70 tornado-like occasions were reported throughout the Midwest, killing a minimum of 100 individuals and hurting hundreds more in Arkansas, Kentucky, Illinois, andMissouri Preliminary reports recommend it was the most dangerous twister occasion in the U.S. given that a twister hit Joplin, Missouri, in 2011.
The worst damage occurred what might be a historically long track for a tornadic storm that began in Arkansas and crossed through Missouri, Tennessee, and Kentucky for a number of hours. NWS reported winds varying from 158 to 206 miles (254 to 332 kilometers) per hour, damage of a minimum of an EF-3 score on the Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale, and a ground track that might have blown throughout 200 miles (300 kilometers) and covered 0.75 miles (1.2 kilometers) at its largest.
The images above were obtained on December 3 and December 12, 2021, with the day-night band (DNB) of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite ( VIIRS) on the Suomi- NPP satellite. The image set records storm-induced power interruptions in locations around Mayfield, Murray, and Bowling Green,Kentucky The DNB finds light in a series of wavelengths from green to near-infrared and utilizes filtering methods to observe signals such electrical lights in cities and towns.
December 12, 2021
On December 12, 2021, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer ( MODIS) on NASA‘s Aqua satellite obtained this natural-color picture of the twister track throughout western Kentucky nearMayfield This location sustained a few of the worst damage of the intense storm front.
According to meteorologist Bob Henson: “No U.S. tornado is known to have killed more than 80 people outside the core tornado season from March to June.” He included that till last weekend, the death toll for twisters in the U.S. in 2021 had actually been just 14, the 3rd least expensive given that 1875.
Several scientists reported on social networks that plumes from a few of the supercell thunderstorms might breached the lower edge of the stratosphere. A NASA group has actually been dealing with satellite images– especially GOES weather condition satellites– to discover signatures of twisters and severe thunderstorms in such lofty plumes.
In the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, researchers drew an unquestionable link in between human activity and international warming. The authors of that report kept in mind that cyclones, serious storms, and dust storms are anticipated to end up being more severe in North and Central America as the world continues to warm.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, utilizing VIIRS day-night band information from the Suomi National Polar- orbiting Partnership and MODIS information from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview
