Experience of a lifetime

Mar 14, 01:46 PM

EF-3 TORNADO ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE QUAD CITIES
PHOTO BY DAVID VOSS OF LE CLAIRE
Friday March 13th, was the 19th anniversary of the EF-3 tornado that narrowly missed hitting the heart of the Quad Cities. That afternoon I stood face to face with the twister as I broadcast live from the studio of KWQC-TV. It was an ecnounter made possible by a camera mounted high above the station. As the tornado spun to life, I was able to stand next to live images of the storm and warn people that, indeed, it was real and potentially deadly. In the most surreal moment of my life, I stood in the calm of the studio, listening to the beating of my heart, as just a few miles away all hell was breaking loose.

VOSS PHOTo OF THE TORNADO FORMING
On the one hand it was a dream come true. Only a handful of broadcasters (including Dan Rather) have ever been able to astonish their audience with a real life tornado. On the other hand, it was my worst nightmare come true, a violent tornado developing over a major metropolitan area. The stakes had never been higher.

ANOTHER VOSS IMAGE SHOWING MULTIPLE VOTICES AND SATELLITE TORNADOES INDICATIVE OF A VIOLENT TORNADO
It’s one thing to issue a tornado warning, it’s entirely another when you can see it spinning over your city. Nothing in my 32 years of weather broadcasting has come close to topping that mind boggling experience. Even today, nearly two decades later, people remember the fear and urgency conveyed by those haunting images.
Thankfully, through early warnings and plain old good luck, only minor injuries occured. At its peak near Cordova, the tornado was about 1/8th of a mile wide and had multiple vortices. The storm produced winds in the range of 158 to 206 mph which classified it as an EF-3 tornado. Only 25% of all tornadoes ever reach that status. Along with the the destruction of about a dozen homes, the storm produced up to baseball size hail that heavily damged hundreds of cars in Moline, especially in dealerships near South Park Mall.
In my book Superstorms, which you can purchase on the homepage, I devote an entire chapter to the experience of forecasting this remarkable event. It is loaded with first hand acounts and many pictures and gives you a true behind the scenes look at what it’s like to be a meteorologist in a life or death situation.
I also have an outstanding video that was taken by Jeff Lampo of Cordova as the Tornado approached and heavily damaged his home. I sent the video to Tom Skilling of WGN and he let me introduce it at his annual Firmi Lab tornado seminar. That was a big moment for me! Anyway, this is a must see from beginning to end. The detail is phenominal from the hail to the dead calm before the twister, to the debris before he takes cover, to the sights and sound of the tornado tearing up his place. You can see how fast life is turned upside down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8DjtxOaOeQ
Thanks Jeff and David for your contribution to this blog.
Ride low,
T. Swails