Entry #4- November 17th, 2013: The First Anniversary
It was one year ago today that one of the most impactful weather events in my life occurred: the November 17th, 2013 tornado outbreak. This event gave me my first official encounter with a tornado (actually 2) and a firsthand taste of the destruction they cause.
The town of Washington, IL is not too far of a drive from where we live. It's about 30 minutes, and we often take a route through Washington on the way to Peoria. It's not like I had much of a connection to the town, or even been there very often, but the fact that it's a town that I had seen several times at least made it a part of my life in some way, no matter how small. (That sentence was pretty long but I believe gramatically correct...probably). Before November 17th, it was just a normal Central Illinois town, maybe a bit bigger than the majority of the towns in the area, but still just an average, quiet place to live.
I knew a potentially major severe outbreak was possible in some portion of the country by November 13th, when the SPC included a "D5" area in the 4-8 day severe outlook. At this time, I was completely reliant on SPC for severe weather information. I had zero experience with models (and I only have a very limited experience at this point), so the SPC and watching The Weather Channel was a daily ritual for me. By the 15th, I was getting pretty aggravated that it would likely pass to our east, something that occurs very often for fall and winter severe setups here. On the 16th, the SPC had us in the western edge of a Moderate Risk. I was still doubtful, but was gaining hope. I got about 3 hours of sleep that night, and woke up at 5 AM for the newest update. We were included in a High Risk. It wasn't for damaging winds or hail, it was for tornadoes. I obtained details on when and where storms would fire, and made plans to be ready to chase by 9 AM.
By 9 AM, a PDS Tornado Watch was up for our area. In my mind, I was thinking this could be a day where I could become part of the event. MY town could be the major headline on The Today Show or Good Morning America the next morning. At this point it became more personal. Weather takes on a whole new meaning when YOU could become a victim.
I won't go much into the specifics of my chase here because I've done it numerous times already. However, I will quote Ted Keller, a meteorologist at KOLR/KOZL-TV in Springfield, MO at the time, when he said, "It doesn't matter if it's November, it doesn't matter if it's early morning vs. late afternoon, tornadic weather is tornadic weather."
My documentation:
A video log of my experience:
I'll include stills of the individual tornadoes below. By the time we got to see the tornadoes, the circulation was beginning to occlude, and they were partially obscured by rain. These are enhanced to make the tornadoes visible. Photos taken southeast of Streator, IL, in Livingston County. I SINCERELY apologize for cruddy camera work (words can't describe how excited I was at the time).
Rope satellite tornado to the south of the Washington EF4. Pretty difficult to make out, but look closely at the center of the frame.
The large Washington EF4.
The Washington EF4 as it began to rope out.
Here's what really got me: the amount of debris this storm carried. While we were watching the tornado(es), the occasional bit of insulation would drop out of the sky along with nickel sized hail being blown out ahead of the storm. As we drove through Streator on the way home, large debris became increasingly common. As we rode south of town, large pieces of sheet metal, splintered wood, drywall, some shingles, even some quilts and mattresses were just deposited in corn fields, 35 or 40 miles from Washington. Although a lot of the sheet metal was from a farm near Roanoke (still 10+ miles away), the household items were from houses that were completely decimated. The only area where that occurred was in Washington, so it was pretty easy to tell these items took a long journey. A part of a "Welcome to Washington" sign was found in Streator, and paper documents were found as far away as the Romeoville NWS office and even Chicago.
Here is an image of some of the smaller pieces of debris we cleared off of rural roadways:
I kept these as a reminder of what I went through that day, and to remind myself of what Mother Nature can do.
We also took a trip to Washington a week after, on November 24th, to see the aftermath. For images from our trip, go to 9:05 on the chase analysis video I included above.
I can't believe it's been a year already. It seems like just yesterday. And I wouldn't want to leave out other significant tornadoes, such as the New Minden, IL EF4, the Gifford, IL EF3, and any other tornado that impacted someone that day. It was truly an incredible event, and one to be remembered.
Just as an extra note, the high on November 17th last year was 68 degrees. The forecast high for November 17th this year is 19 degrees. What a (nearly 50 degree) difference a year can make!
