fuagf -- sorry, sometimes there's just an arc I want to cover and it has a lot of pieces -- nobody else may give a hoot, but fwiw, to me that is far and away the most consequential tornado-related post I've made -- or perhaps should say, been able to make -- I'd of course noted the deaths of Tim, Paul and Carl at the time -- but left covering that day, that event, for a later post, in the event I ever got around to it
then, when putting together the post preceding it, about the recent Illinois/Indiana event, I came across what looked to be a coupla really good things about Tim, Paul and Carl and that day, that storm, and decided 'OK, fine, let's do this' -- so I started with those, looking at 'em and keeping an eye out for what else popped up -- and was quickly amazed by what I found, had no idea that event had been documented so well, so extensively -- and what an event, the type of event I've long imagined as what might be an 'ultimate' at least in terms of event size, where essentially the entire low-to-the-ground rapidly rotating wall cloud base would just go on ahead and extend to the ground, effectively directly couple with/to the ground, and thus itself become the tornado (actually think/imagine a truly maximal possible event size-wise would exceed 3.5 miles wide and could even approach 5 miles)
in one vid I did leave out (there were a good number of those, too, I swear, lol), they showed that morning's map of that day's surface-based CAPE (Convective Available Potential Energy, I think it is; the energy available in the air to fuel convection by virtue of the air's temperature and, in particular in any reading at or above 2000 joules/kilogram, its moisture content) -- showing an area, with the dryline to its west, centered/with highest values right where the storms ultimately initiated west of OKC, at over 6,000 j/kg -- a reading I'd never seen before that I recall (SB-CAPE running around 5,000 j/kg the day/in the environment of the Jarrell, TX tornado, is the highest prior I recall having seen) -- last day of May; area had had 10-15 inches of rain the prior 2 weeks or so; lotsa sunshine before the storms first went up after 4pm, so (continued) big uptake of moisture from the surface that day -- that historic setup, the historically deep and warm and above all that moist air holding that much available energy to be released into any convection into which it was drawn, definitely had everything to do with the wall cloud being so low-hanging, and so intensely/rapidly turning itself, that it could, as it did, actually directly extend to/couple with the ground for a while, and in so doing so itself become the tornado -- 2.6 effing miles wide, and at that time with those top wind speeds measured by mobile doppler radar at 295 mph
along the way also found full versions of several good/notable documentaries -- the latter part of the post, going from more recent to older into the end -- that last one a classic; note in particular the accounts of the appearance of the Tri-State
have assigned that post as required viewing/reading for the guy who's done my car -- in preparation for his joining me for a day trip or two, most likely targeting that same area, in a few months -- he's become a friend; I mentioned the possibility; he's quite eager -- that post by itself will get him oriented -- as it will anyone who gets through, and gets, all of it
fwiw -- might work a little better to not view any of the vids in the post itself, but instead try opening and viewing them one at a time in a different tab or window using the included links?
