Author: Michael Blake

The National Weather Service Forecast Office in Springfield, Missouri confirms that 3 tornadoes struck our County Warning Area during the early morning hours of Thursday, May 3, 2018.

The first and the strongest tornado in this series, an EF-1 with peak winds near 95 miles per hour, hit Christian County at around 2:10 a.m. Surveyors say the tornado touched down around 2 1/2 miles north of Ozark with the damage path beginning near the intersection of North 3rd Street and Sunset Road where minor roof damage occurred (see photo to the left). The storm then moved northeast causing additional roof damage, snapping trees, and destroying outbuildings along its path before lifting near the end of Peartree drive. This tornado had a maximum width of 100 yards and spent around 3 minutes on the ground travleing a total of 1.2 miles.

The second twister clipped the southeastern corner of Greene County at about 2:17 a.m. This EF-0 tornado had peak winds of around 80 miles per hour and spent only a minute on the ground leaving a path just 50 yards wide and about one-quarter of a mile long. A barn was destroyed and trees were uprooted near the intersection of East Farm Road 186 and Farm Road 241 just west of Rogersville.

The third tornado hit Douglas County around 1.5 miles northeast of Squires at around 2:45 a.m. This EF-1 twister had peak winds around 90 miles per hour. It spent about two minutes on the ground traveling a total of three-quarters of a mile with a maximum width of around 75 yards. This tornado destroyed one outbuilding and blew the roof off of a new cattle feeder. Several trees were reportedly uprooted and snapped.

Forecasters say the severe weather came in two waves. The first one hit late in the evening of May 2nd into the early morning hours of May 3rd. This line affected mainly portions of west-central into central Missouri dropping hail up to 1 inch in diameter in St. Clair County. The second line of storms started moving into extreme southeast Kansas and southwest Missouri just before midnight with several damaging wind reports. It was this second line of storms that sparked these brief spin-up tornadoes. Fortunately, no injuries or fatalities have been reported.

The benefit concert on April 26th in Houston, Missouri featuring Country music band Farewell Angelina was a huge success with a near-sellout crowd in attendance. The four-member all-female band performed several songs including covers of classic hits made famous by The Eagles and The Animals as well as a cover of an appropriately-titled song: “Radioactive” made famous by Imagine Dragons. Make no mistake, though, the sounds and harmonies were pure Country from start to finish. Cheers and applause from the enthusiastic and energetic crowd were unbridled throughout the evening.

The Melba Performing Arts Center in Houston served as the venue for the concert. The sound quality throughout this intimate yet modern theater was crisp and clear. Several organizations throughout Houston and Texas County use this theater for a variety of events. All of us with Southwest Missouri Regional Skywarn are thankful for the use of this facility.

Houston-area business Pizza Express served as the location of the VIP After Party. Several dozen folks attended and enjoyed delicious eats along with photo opportunities with the band. Pictured to the right with members of Farewell Angelina are Michael, N0NQW, and Richard, KB0MPO.

Special thanks to Richard, KB0MPO, and Pizza Express for sponsoring this benefit concert. All net proceeds will help pay for tower climbing services needed for a complete overhaul of the 145.490 MHz. repeater in Fordland, Missouri. We also thank everyone who attended this event for their support. Finally, a big thank you to the four talented ladies who are Farewell Angelina! We love your music, and we will be listening to the “3 meter band” and online for your music.

A strong storm system tracked through the Springfield, Missouri County Warning Area during the late afternoon and evening hours of Friday, April 13, 2018, dropping hail as large as tennis balls, damaging straight-line winds, and four tornadoes along its path.

The National Weather Service Forecast Office in Springfield, Missouri reports that a few supercell thunderstorms and several line segments developed across the Missouri Ozarks as the system moved through. One supercell moved across southern Taney County dropping large hail of golf ball to tennis ball size and straight-line winds around 70 miles per hour. Line segments then developed producing four tornadoes which caused some damage but no injuries or fatalities.

The first and the largest tornado in this series, rated an EF-2, destroyed one house, damaged outbuildings, and snapped and uprooted numerous trees in Wright County, and you heard about it first on the Southwest Missouri Regional Skywarn Repeater Network. Click the play button below to listen as Skywarn Net Control operator KD0AEL, Patti, takes a damage report from Skywarn spotter Rick, KC0ROS, in Wright County:

The tornado developed near Macomb at around 7:13 p.m. and tracked northeast nine miles before lifting five miles northeast of Norwood. It had a maximum width of around 100 yards.

The second tornado also hit Wright County about 20 minutes later. It was an EF-1, and it damaged trees and outbuildings on a five-mile path from one mile west of Dawson to 3 miles east of Graff. It had peak winds of around 100 miles per hour with a maximum width of about 75 yards.

The third tornado in this series hit at about 8 p.m. It was rated at EF-1, and it damaged a roof, a carport, some outbuildings, and some trees in Texas County. It developed 5 miles southwest of Success and tracked one and a quarter miles reaching about 50 yards in width and peaking winds at around 95 miles per hour.

The final tornado in this series was an EF-1 that touched down around four miles west-northwest of Licking at around 8:20 p.m. It damaged a house and a vacant mobile home and also snapped and uprooted numerous trees. It tracked five miles along highway 32 before lifting five miles southeast of Beulah near Sherrill. It had peak winds of around 100 miles per hour and a maximum width of around 50 yards.

Most of the severe weather generally occurred east of Highway 65 and south of Interstate 44. Localized minor flooding also occurred across portions of south central Missouri where training of storms occurred.

Country Music band Farewell Angelina will be performing a benefit concert on April 26th to help raise funds for much-needed repairs to the 145.49 N0NWS Repeater. As you may know, a major lightning strike late last summer severely damaged the 145.49 repeater’s main transmit antenna, feed line, and final power amplifier knocking it off the air for the better part of a week. This also rendered our entire repeater network unlinked as the 145.49 repeater serves as a hub which interconnects all of our affiliated repeaters across southwest Missouri.

“More than $30,000 worth of new feed line and equipment has already been donated to us by various vendors and manufacturers,” says Michael Blake, N0NQW, trustee of the N0NWS Repeater. “However, we still need to raise around $20,000 to pay for additional equipment and a tower-climbing crew to install everything on the 1,000-foot-high tower from which we operate in Fordland,” says Blake.

Sponsored by Houston, Missouri business Pizza Express, Farewell Angelina has offered to hold a benefit concert at the Melba Performing Arts Center on April 26, 2018, at 7 p.m. Advance tickets are available for $15 by calling Pizza Express at 417-967-4473. Tickets at the box office will be $20. A VIP/After Party pass is available for $30. And, again, all proceeds will benefit the Southern Missouri Emergency Communications Fund which is the 501(c)(3) non-profit organization under which we operate.

To learn more about star act “Farewell Angelina”, visit their website at www.farewellangelinamusic.com. There you can sample their music and learn more about this band that Rolling Stone Magazine names as one of the “New Artists You Need To Know”.

The Melba Performing Arts Center is located at 214 South Grand Avenue in Houston, Missouri. Use the interactive Google Map below for directions.

The National Weather Service is encouraging you and your family to know where your severe weather safe place is at home, at work, at school, and even at places in between. From now until April 4th, you are encouraged to take a photo of yourself and your family (aka: a selfie) while inside your severe weather safe place. Then post this photo on social media with the hashtag: #safeplaceselfie

National Weather Service offices say they will increase social media posting as we get closer to April 4th. They plan to share the most creative and unique posts.

In the meantime, feel free to ask questions and engage in dialog with the larger #SafePlaceSelfie social media community.

More information about this can be found by clicking here.

Daylight Savings Time begins this weekend here in Southwest Missouri and throughout most of the United States. This Sunday, March 11, 2017, at 2:00 a.m. local time, we spring forward to Central Daylight Time as we turn our clocks ahead one hour. Safety officials also suggest that this is a great time to test and/or replace the batteries in your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors.

None of the nets on the Southwest Missouri Regional Skywarn linked repeaters move after these time changes. All of our nets adhere to local time. If you monitor our nets on our Broadcastify Feed or if you participate via our EchoLink Node N0NWS-R from parts of the United States and its territories that do not observe Daylight Savings Time including most of Arizona, all of Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands or in other parts of the world that do not observe Daylight Savings Time, then our nets will appear to start an hour earlier to you.

Daylight Savings Time ends on Sunday, November 4, 2018, at 2:00 a.m. local time.

Thank you to all stations who participated in the amateur radio portion of this morning’s Statewide Tornado Drill throughout the Springfield, Missouri County Warning Area. We had a total of 81 stations participating!!!

50 stations (including net control) checked in directly via the Southwest Missouri Regional Skywarn Repeater Network. The remaining 31 stations were checked in by their county liaisons via their local/county repeater systems.

The drill was a success with almost all stations reporting hearing at least one type of alert.

Because of this morning’s Statewide Tornado Drill and the accompanying net at 10 a.m., the Skywarn Training Net is canceled for this evening. Please join us next Tuesday, March 13, 2018, at 7 p.m. when the Skywarn Training Net will resume at its normally-scheduled time.

Caleb, KEØFOE at the Skywarn Table

In the midst of yet another flooding event in Southwest Missouri, last Saturday’s Severe Weather Expo at Battlefield Mall in Springfield was an awesome success. The turnout at the mall was huge – probably a product of the rain itself.

Southwest Missouri Regional Skywarn had a table this year. Our display featured brochures available to the general public describing who we are and what we do, a video loop which included sound clips of our spotters first reporting and confirming the Goodman, Missouri tornado which hit in April 2017, and a posterboard with quick facts about Skywarn. Along the left side of the table was a really cool portable backpack HF and VHF radio display assembled by Clay KBØWZI. A closer look shows a laptop Emergency and Portable Radio Setup Courtesy of Clay KB0WZI and tablet computer used for digital modes. Clay outfitted a military surplus ammunition can to hold multiple battery packs providing several hours of power. A portable and flexible solar panel can be seen as well along with a Yaesu FT-991A all-mode HF, VHF, and UHF transceiver. For HF communications, Clay brought a sectional HF whip, and a homebrew VHF Yagi was provided by Norm NØGRL. Many people, some of them already hams, stopped by our table and said hello. It was great meeting them all!

Emergency Radio Display Provided by Clay KBØWZI

Michael NØNQW with the Tornado Puncher

There was a bit of a buzz throughout the mall caused by a new display this year. Many of the younger folks in attendance thought the Batmobile was on hand. At first glance, it did kinda look like the Batmobile. However, it was actually the Tornado Puncher. This display was sponsored by Storm Damage Services. Designed to intercept a tornado and equipped with cameras and bright lights, the Tornado Puncher definitely turned a lot of heads on Saturday and may soon provide us with some amazing tornado video in the near future.

Our good friends and partners from the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Springfield, Missouri had a very interesting and informative display including their tornado simulator, a video loop, and some sample weather instruments. Next to them was the Greene County Office of Emergency Management including our good friends at Greene County ARES.

Greene County ARES

National Weather Service Springfield, MO

Broadcasters were present as well including KY3, KOLR 10, and KTTS 94.7 FM along with other businesses aiming to encourage everyone to become aware of the dangers of severe weather and how they can protect themselves and their families.

We’d like to thank Battlefield Mall Marketing Administrator Sydney Leutzinger for allowing Southwest Missouri Regional Skywarn to show the public how trained severe weather spotters help protect life and property throughout the Springfield, Missouri County Warning Area. We look forward to returning in 2019.

The National Weather Service Forecast Office in Springfield, Missouri has rescheduled the 2018 Greene County Spotter Training Class:

Date: Friday, March 9, 2018, at 6:30 p.m.

Location: Assembly Of God Headquarters Auditorium
1445 N. Boonville Ave.
Springfield, Missouri 65802

(use the interactive map below for your convenience)