CNN Breaking: large tornado on the ground in Minneapolis

[nonconformist]

Busy news night!

[Bouncy Ball]

1. Minneapolis?

Do they normally get tornadoes there?

[Obamarama]

3. Yup

[no name no slogan]

9. Hell YES

I've lived through two of them in my 36 years living in MN, although I only got injured in one of them.

It was 90° and humid here today, and there's a bigass front with cold weather behind it that's colliding with this warm air. That means lots of severe weather.

In Minnesota, the biggest topic of conversation is the weather.

[Bouncy Ball]

15. Sorry.

I've lived in tornado alley most of my life, didn't know you got them all the way up there.

Crouching down in the hallway in school with air sirens going off and the sky a solid green was a frequent childhood activity when I was growing up.

[nonconformist]

25. I lived in Kansas from 1994-1999

Went through a couple of serious tornadoes and a multitude of small ones/close calls. It certainly isn't fun.

I also recall a couple of tornadoes in Michigan (where I'm from)... more rare of course, but yes the midwest does get tornadoes.

[Left Is Write]

26. I've been through many a green sky.

The most recent when I was visiting my folks in July. Minnesota is definitely tornado territory.

[no name no slogan]

35. Yeah, that July storm was monstrous

I work in DT St. Paul, and we had a big wall cloud above us. It was kind of cool to watch it, actually. That's one thing about Minnesota-- we know our weather, and consequently spend most of our time talking about it. :silly:

[kestrel91316]

57. I remember the sky full of dirty green cottonballs the day the F5 hit

Xenia, Ohio. April 3, 1974. My town (at the time).

[buddysmellgood]

10. We get em in Wisconsin, I don't see why Minnesota would be spared. KARE11

TV in Minneapolis news says a tornado warning is in effect.

[no name no slogan]

11. For another 15 minutes

for the Twin Cities. Look out Wisconsin, they're headed your way!

[crispini]

2. Holy crap.

This is all a bit wild.

[nonconformist]

4. You can say that again.

:scared:

[goclark]

6. We've had tornados in Los Angeles---

It took the roofs off of homes around the downtown area.

Around the 1980's.

[DeepModem Mom]

5. Oh, my dear God. Plane in distress landing at LAX, Rita...

storming ashore. Things seem to be spinning out of control.

[doublethink]

16. Two nights ago a lightning storm here in San Diego Ca.......

was pretty incredible too. Like bombs going off, all the car alarms starting up with the thunder and all. Wild. Peace. :)

[FreedomAngel82]

28. I think everything is just popping and coming out at once

[mainegreen]

7. What, like in the city? nt

[newswolf56]

8. This is very unusual because the updrafts characteristic of cities...

typically function (in much the same way mountain ranges do) to prevent tornadic winds from forming and to break them up on the rare occasions they do form -- or so I was told by a meteorologist several years ago, when I asked about the rarity of urban tornadoes in otherwise tornado-plagued regions.

[karlrschneider]

14. That is not true. Cities are just "small" targets compared to large

rural areas. It's just a matter of mathematical odds.

[newswolf56]

49. Won't argue the case. The man I interviewed was a...

professional meteorologist, a weather bureau official for the feds (the old U.S. Weather Bureau), and I'm merely repeating what he told me in response to one of my (many) questions -- this for a news-feature on weather forecasting. Don't remember the year; sometime in the '60s.

[karlrschneider]

56. Sorry so late replying, had to go over to Tulsa...I think I get it...that

notion about the cities was "conventional wisdom" back in the 50s & 60s.
It's pretty clearly been debunked in the 40 or so years since. Nyet problemski. :D

[newswolf56]

58. Thanks for the info:

Particularly in the sciences, older is not necessarily better.

[no name no slogan]

We get a big one every few years or so

Mpls/St Paul are not very densely populated, and sprawl out quite a bit-- think Los Angeles, but even less dense. Consequently, we don't get the same kind of updraft characteristics you'd see in other big cities.

Just heard 4" diameter tree branches down in North St. Paul. I also heard about 3' trees being snapped off earlier. THis is a big one.

[Left Is Write]

51. I still remember a big storm from June of 1980.

It occurred during my sister's graduation party.

Tornadoes were ALL over the place, and though our city was spared an actual tornado, the storm was stilll terrible. The wind and rain were so thick you could barely see through them, and my dad was still having a devil of a time getting rambunctious teenage boys out of our swimming pool and into the basement.

That evening, our neighbor's 17-year-old weeping willow tree fell into our backyard.

[wellstone dem]

12. Twin cities tv

has tornado warning in both Hennepin (mpls) and Ramsey (St. Paul) counties.

[wellstone dem]

18. 2 to 2 and 1/2 inch hail in

Litchfield MN. West of Twin Cities.

[wellstone dem]

20. I've been watching for 10 minutes

no report so far of touch down.

[wellstone dem]

21. 36,000

without power

[wellstone dem]

24. Downed trees

in Brooklyn Park, West metro suburb. Trees down and uprooted. 15-20 minutes of hail.

[KyndCulture]

34. My Aunt lives in Brooklyn park.... OMG.

Any other news? I'm without TV.

[wellstone dem]

29. wow. lots of areas with 2 inch hail

the insurance companies will be paying.

[wellstone dem]

32. flooding

a creek near MPLS has flooded its banks.

[no name no slogan]

36. What creek?

Was it Bassett Creek, by any chance?

[wellstone dem]

40. It wasn't basset creek

I think it was shingle creek.

[no name no slogan]

41. That makes sense

Shingle Creek is in the north, and goes through Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center (two towns that got nailed tonight).

I still own a house near Bassett Creek until my divorce is finalized. I was hoping the place wouldn't get flooded before I can sell it!

[jean]

55. Shingle Creek

[FreedomAngel82]

13. Wow!

Everything is going haywire!

[Zynx]

22. *Looks out window and sees a Hellgate open in Madison*

Yeah, it's getting pretty crazy.

[smoogatz]

48. All quiet in Eau Claire--about 90 miles due west of the Cities.

Too quiet, Kimosabe. But we do have a storm watch in effect for later tonight, apparently.

[Cassandra]

17. Does anyone else feel...

like we're living through "The Day After Tomorrow"?

[Biased Liberal Media]

19. Not to be a tin foil hat wearer

but I've been feeling that since Katrina. How much more can happen, at this point??

[sadiesworld]

27. I'm in KY and we used to have tornadoes in the spring, now we have

hurricanes in the fall. It just ain't right.

[no name no slogan]

30. This isn't untypical, though

we usually get these big storms in the spring, but getting one this late is unusual. We get one of these every year, on average, but not this late in the year.

[Biased Liberal Media]

38. Right but to have 2 large CAT Hurricanes only 4 weeks apart IS not

typical. Not whatsoever.

[geekgrrl]

23. jeez- our bad weather here in WI comes from MN so I guess tonight

we'll have some strong weather. Yes- we sure do get tornados in Wisconsin. In and around madison, even. I didn't know that when I moved here...

[Zynx]

31. Somebody should have told me that before I went to school here.

J/K I'm not scared of tornados except when there was a tornado warning while I was working in a store that would have been very heavily damaged had there actually been one.

[geekgrrl]

37. yeah- no one warned me either, until I heard my first tornado siren! nt

[Rude Horner]

42. Hey, geekgrrl

I work in Madison. Live in Dodgeville.

Salute, and cheers. :toast:

[geekgrrl]

44. Hey Rude Horner- I live and work/grad school in Madison...

cheers right back at you! :toast:

[smoogatz]

50. Eau Claire checking in

here in the lovely north woods that was. I spent a year in Madison on a fellowship--great school, great town.

[Zynx]

53. Where abouts do you live?

And what are you studying? Sorry if I'm being too invasive.

[dflprincess]

33. Local news says no confirmed reports of tornados on the ground

any where in the state - though conditions are ripe for them and radar is picking up rotation in the clouds. The local weather types are going nuts as it is, I can't imagine the hysteria if a tornado was actually hitting the city.

The sirens did go off in Hennepin County (where Minneapolis is), but that was because of severe weather in the northern part of the county, Minneapolis is a bit south of the area that was involved (and I'm south of Minneapolis and the sirens went off here).

That said, this is weird weather for September, severe storms, straight line winds and the threat of tornados.

Mother Nature is trying to tell us something.

[nonconformist]

39. That's good, I trust local news more in these cases

Paula just said once again on CNN that there was a tornado on the ground in Minneapolis. Hopefully it hasn't actually touched down.

[RoyGBiv]

54. CNN Weather

CNN essentially has no weather department, not one worth mentioning anyway. They apparently don't know the difference between a "tornado" and the circulation that can be picked up by radar. As advanced as our weather detecting technology is, we still can't "see" a tornado without a visual inspection. So, they see the circulation on their instruments and go all haywire reporting a "large" tornado. On the radar, that's kinda what it looks like.

It may well have touched down, but I wouldn't trust CNN to tell me that.

[no name no slogan]

43. Three houses destroyed in Andover, MN (20 mi. N. of Mpls)

about 20 miles north of Minneapolis. People are reportedly trapped in the houses. Don't know if that's from a tornado or straight-line winds.

[nonconformist]

46. Oh no.

:(

[wellstone dem]

45. I feel sorry for the 1,000 or so evacuees from LA who are

here. This must be terrifying for them.

[nonconformist]

47. No kidding. And the ones in the Houston area.

They all have to be feeling like the unluckiest people on earth right now.

[wellstone dem]

52. Local stations going back to regular programming. nt