Devastation in Iowa City Tonight

("Greg Farris" wrote)
Wow - great story! You convey the feeling very well. Saw one of those in
Minneapolis back in the early '80's. Right in the city.


There are a lot of stories like yours because that '81 tornado made a path
right through BOTH cities, and a number of suburbs, too. It was a Saturday
or Sunday afternoon.

My brother-in-law's parent's house didn't even have a broken window, house
next door was leveled. (Roseville).

In '84 my gal came out of a health club very near Apache Plaza, with her
sisters, to find Beirut in the parking lot - her car spared. She said they
zigged and zagged around all of the destruction and upturned vehicles - and
got the heck out of there. There was a snowstorm the next day.
http://apacheplaza.com/tornado.html

I'm amazed you're having 85 degree evenings in Iowa City in mid April.
Is this typical?

Record High of 84 in Minneapolis yesterday (Thursday).


Montblack

Jay,

Glad to hear you are all OK, and that the Inn and Atlas escaped damage.
Looking forward to the pre-OSH pool party.

Steve

Your dedication to this newsgroup is amazing. "Two hours" after the
storm you are posting a short story about it. I'm another ex-Michigander
and had a twister go through my property, snapping 19 oak trees in
half but not damaging the house. It's frightening. My sympathies to Iowa
City.

Jay Honeck wrote:

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ups.com...

Trouble was, I seriously thought that I had the superior weather
instrument, being in the weather room at the airport. The radar there
was showing that the worst of the storm had passed.



I find that very interesting.

Is this an NWS NOAA radar, or is it a "private" operation (municipal, etc.)?
Is it a Doppler?

Is it possibly an operator problem? It almost sounds like you were looking
at an inappropriate "mode".

Your dedication to this newsgroup is amazing. "Two hours" after the
storm you are posting a short story about it.

It's therapy. Besides, I was too wound up to sleep.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ups.com...
I'm amazed you're having 85 degree evenings in Iowa City in mid April.
Is this typical?

No! We beat the temperature record for yesterday by over ten degrees.

Very unusual weather, for April.
--

Those dewpoints in the mid and high sixties helped, too.

You might review the KIOW METAR for the past 36 hours...

.... and note that it, being a TSNO AUTO, does not quite provide the same
sense of the situation, when compared to your first-person observation.

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Skywise wrote:
You're an amazing story teller, Jay.

Agreed. I'm also glad to hear that you and yours are safe.
Out here in Kah-lee-for-nyuh we don't get much in the way of
twisters. I mean, they do happen, but they're not much more
than oversized whirlwinds. Some trees down and that's about it.

Living out in Sacramento, I'd also agree. the tornadoes here
are, compared to the midwest, laughable. Don't get me wrong, they are
just as serious for people here, but nothing compared to back in the
Midwest.

You know, I thought to myself the other day after seeing some
of the tornado damage in the Midwest, that I think I'd rather
deal with the earthquakes here than a bunch of supercells out
there.

Jay's story actually has me longing for them again! After going
through a number of them in Omaha all of my 20something years, then
moving, it actually has me missing those. Outside the fact that
everyone out here I've talked to about tornadoes thinks they are just
tall tales!

If only they knew...

BL.
- --
Brad Littlejohn | Email:
Unix Systems Administrator, |
Web + NewsMaster, BOFH.. Smeghead! | http://www.wizard.com/~tyketto
PGP: 1024D/E319F0BF 6980 AAD6 7329 E9E6 D569 F620 C819 199A E319 F0BF

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"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ups.com...
Your dedication to this newsgroup is amazing. "Two hours" after the
storm you are posting a short story about it.

It's therapy. Besides, I was too wound up to sleep.

No kidding!!

On Fri, 14 Apr 2006 14:12:50 +0000, Jose wrote:

So Jay, why aren't you a professional writer?

Interesting, eh? He's been asked that question here (in one form or
another) multiple times. Why hasn't some periodical knocked him on the
head and dragged him to a work processor?

Jay: Excellent write-up, and I'll add myself to the list of people glad
you and yours are okay.

- Andrew

On 13 Apr 2006 22:06:51 -0700, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:

So I was at our airport commission meeting tonight when the tornado
sirens went off. We had noticed the skies becoming black, but were all
too wrapped up in talk of paving taxiways to pay much heed.
snip
Eventually we made it out of the area, and were able to get home. Our
garbage -- with six bags of leaves -- is sitting out front, absolutely
unmoved. Not a blade of grass is out of place.

Nature is amazing, and we were so very lucky. Our hangar and plane are
unscathed, the hotel was just nicked a glancing blow, and our home is
fine. There's no word on casualties yet, but from the looks of things,
there almost had to be some.

Glad you made it out OK Jay.
Nature is really strange. I've seen 5 tornados and one really large
water spout (tornado on water) off Key West. lucky we normally don't
get the big tornados up here in Michigan, but there have been
exceptions such as the Beecher tornado (North Flint) back in the 50's.
We had a little f-1 go directly over our house a few years back and
most of the neighbors were running around their back yards trying to
catch the lawn furniture. My neighbor was chasing something and it
was like he ran into a wall. Then I heard a cracking and popping over
the wind noise and was surprised to see the tops coming out of the
trees behind the house and then spiraling up into the clouds. Then as
you describe it became still where I was standing, yet a 100 yards to
either side I could see small stuff flying around.

About 400 yards east it *screwed * the top half right out of a big Oak
tree, yet there was no damage to any homes. Still, about a half mile
to the south of us there was a down burst that left a mile and a half
of straight line wind damage.

There was another down burst right on the edge of 3BS which took out a
bunch of trees and went right down the taxiway in front of our hangar.
There was only one plane tied down in front of our hangar and it was
toast. It pulled the tie downs right out of the ground but one and
then proceeded to beat the plane on the ground. It put *shoulders* in
the wings where the struts attach.

If I can find the photos I'll send you some.

Again, congratulations on making it through in good shape.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com