Catastrophe Narrowly Avoided In Indianapolis

I won't use the word "catastrophe" very often but tonight in Indianapolis one was narrowly avoided. As some of you may know the mens' Final Four of college basketball is in town. There was also a concert taking place tonight with John Mellencamp and Carrie Underwood. About 65,000 were in attendence. This is an outside show.

Mellencamp/Underwood Show
www.indystar.com.../20060402/ENTERTAINMENT/60402008

After 9pm tonight a severe storm moved through town and produced what is as of right now an unconfirmed tornado. A tornado may have also clipped towndown as well.

Downtown Damage
www.indystar.com.../20060402/NEWS01/60402009

The building that got damaged is I believe the 2nd tallest building downtown. Approximately the top dozen floors were damaged but only one corner. It looks as if a funnel cloud that didn't touch down may have grazed the edge of the building. There is debris all over the streets downtown near the building including things like glass and computers according to a news report.

I live only a few miles from downtown. I'm guessing around 2 miles. I went out on my porch like I always do (perhaps like an idiot) when severe weather comes. I like to watch the show. Since it was around 9pm it was already dark outside so I couldn't see the sky but I was hoping to get some hail. I did indeed get hail. It was raining and some hail was coming down. Without warning the wind got really intense and the hail started coming down heavy and things got very loud outside. I had to rush the kids in to the basement because I thought that perhaps a tornado was going to hit. Fortunately the intense wind and hail let up as fast as it hit. I wish I had a home barometer because I suspect a tornado was in the area. Then to see the pics from only 2 miles away make it even more likely in my opinion that one was in the area.

We were lucky. A building downtown got damaged. If this was a tornado it was only about 30 floors from the ground and the results could have been catastrophic with tens of thousands of people downtown to enjoy the Final Four celebrations.

Hopefully more news will be available tomorrow as crews evaluate the damage to determine where the twisters actually hit.

Correction... The Regions Bank building in Indianapolis is the 3rd tallest building. The official report is that the damage was caused by high winds. That report however is nonsense.

Look at this picture...

wthr.images.worldnow.com...

Material is pulled out and away from the main frame of the building. It was being sucked off the building but didn't break away. Also a WTHR report (NBC) indicates that 3 sides of the building were damaged. This is consistent with a circulation. And the type of damage (things exploding out) are consistent with a vacuum created by a low pressure.

Total damage included 3 sides and 16 floors of the building.

wow talk about narrowly avoiding disaster, I don't want to even imagine what that would have been like if it did actually touch down.

I so much rather living in hurricane alley where I have warning and can take precautions, board up or evacuate than be surprised by these crazy tornado bringing spring storms

The reasoning, for good or bad, was in this morning's IndyStar piece.

INDYSTAR Link

Haines said the weather service teams look for signs of rotating winds -- which can be seen in trees, damaged buildings and debris fields -- when trying to determine whether or not damage is the result of a tornado.

But, he added, straight-line winds can sometimes do more damage than a tornado because they can cover a wider swath.

JDub

Straight line winds can pack a punch equal to a small tornado. Reports of 90mph gusts were reported around south and central Indiana. That is similar to the winds in F0 and F1 tornados.

Not saying you didn't have a tornado there, just stressing the fact that straight line winds can really cause serious damage and injury.

I know straightline winds can cause alot of damage. But they don't damage 3 sides of a building. The problem is that if a funnel cloud hit the building you wouldn't have the debris path on the ground as evidence like you normally would when you are looking for the evidence of a swirl. But you do have damage to more than one side of a building and that indicates wind coming from more than 1 direction.

ya man indiana's weather blows somthign ya just got to deal with lol

As the city sleeps another bad storm is approaching. Unfortunately it appears the NWS is asleep as well. The first image is the latest radar image from wunderground.com



The next image is a radial velocity image from intellicast.com . This shows wind in relation to the radar site. Notice at the bottom right of the image it shows the max winds toward and away from the radar site. They are in excess of 110kts but the average is only 41kts. This isn't surface wind but wind just above the surface. So you need to shave a little off the strength. But this is how the radial velocity image looked sunday when the city got slammed. At this time there is a damaged skyscraper downtown that is still opened up. If the high winds are in this storm it could cause even bigger problems.

This looks to possibly be the guilty party. I've circled the area in blue.

be alert this year.the weather is going to be very violent.a warm winter means double the fun for places that are very dry.pay attention to weather alerts buy a night time alert radio if you live in those areas that are known for deadly storms.anything that might help you live dont be like those people on tv that cry after its too late..people think the weather is a joke but some will find there lives changed this year........

I don't know if a tornado ever touched down last night but what I do know is that there were no warnings or watches issued. In this case a radio wouldn't have helped. But warnings are starting to pop up today.

We just had a storm front move through where I am. It was raining so hard that cars were pulling off the road, and then the hail hit. It wasn't very big but it was coming down hard enough that I thought it was going to crack my windshield.

I got to my destination as quickly as possible and pulled my truck up beside the grocery store on the leaward side, so I got out of most of the hail.

No conspiracy theory on it for me, but I haven't seen a hail storm like that for quite a while.

JDub