Excessive Rainfall in the Southern Plains into the Lower Mississippi and Upper Midwest

Heavy thunderstorms will continue to produce areas of excessive rainfall and locally considerable flooding over parts of the southern Plains into the mid-Mississippi River Valley through Saturday. Heavy to excessive rainfall may bring flash and urban flooding, along with isolated riverine flooding across portions of the Upper Midwest, mainly over central Minnesota. Read More >

Van Wert County

Reflectivity
The oranges and reds signify heavy rainfall and possible hail.

These radar reflectivity pictures show the storm moving out of Adams County and across Van Wert County. Note that the storm never really displays a classic "hook echo", despite producing a tornado of F4 strength.

Example of classic hook echo, courtesy WFO Norman

Velocity
The reds depict air moving away from the radar (outbound), the greens depict air moving inbound toward the radar (in these pictures, the radar is to the upper left, out of the picture). Reds and greens right next to each other suggest circulation, since there are air currents flowing in opposite directions in close proximity to each other.

"Vr" is rotational velocity, which is simply the average of the maximum outbound wind speeds and maximum inbound wind speeds. It can be used to give an idea of the strength of the circulation. Note that the circulation peaks in intensity over the west side of Van Wert, which is where the F4 damage was found.

On to Paulding County...

Back to Adams County...

Back to Blackford County...

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Excessive Rainfall in the Southern Plains into the Lower Mississippi and Upper Midwest

November 10 2002 Van Wert County Radar Imagery