Tornado Warning issued for Amherst and Rockbridge counties

[00:00:00]is more just a a political boundaries sort of thing. Rockbridge and Ammeris County are control or uh monitored or u the warnings are issued for those counties from the Blackburg office.

[00:00:12]Nelson County's warnings come from the weather service office in Northern Virginia. So, we're also going to be crossing over uh uh offices here in a minute. So, it's going to be interesting to see what they do because right where that point is, let me just take this off. And you can see where uh this is basically almost at the triple point between uh Nelson County. Nelson County obviously, let me get my arrow here. Uh Nelson County is here. Ammerst County is here. Rockridge County is here. Um, so if you're in places like uh Alhhamra and Woodson, right there on the line between Nelson County and Ammeris County, uh, Massy's Mill, even though you're not technically under anything right now, I would keep a very close eye on this storm. And if I'm in Lovingston, I'm also keeping a very close eye on this storm because this has a history of spinning and that's a pretty pretty good signature. Probably one of the better ones that we've seen today.

[00:01:08]>> Yeah, that is Will. It is a strong signature that we're seeing on the radar right now. Let's reset and show the entire viewing area what we're tracking.

[00:01:16]We'll put this in relation to Rono and Bedford and into Lynchburg. If you're just turning on your television, good Tuesday evening to you. It's a very late night and we are tracking a storm with a tornado warning with it. The tornado warning is for a sliver of Rockbridge County, Ammeris County. will probably see a tornado warning being issued for Nelson County. And the warning is until 12:15.

[00:01:42]This storm is not going to impact Lynchburg or Bedford or Farmville or Appamatics or Rono. This is a storm that's basically moving straight east toward Nelson County. So, Will, let's stop the radar animation and we're going to take you back and we're going to zoom into this storm because if there is a tornado with this storm, then it's going to be right along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Ammerst County. It's going to be located in this area here. Also, where you're seeing these bolts, that is where lightning has hit something on the ground in the last 10 minutes. And you can see there's a handful of lightning strikes that have occurred from this storm. Let's zoom out, uh, Mr. Stafford a little bit because I want to show this in relation to Nelson County. So Lovingston is here. Tai River Elementary is going to be in this vicinity here closer toward the county line.

[00:02:37]This storm I think is going to pass just north of Tai River Elementary as it's going to make its way to the east. So it'll be crossing Massiey's Mill eventually state highway 56 and also into Lovingston there in US 29. At this point it's a bit of a mystery if there actually is a tornado with this because it is moving over as Will was saying over such a low populated area. We may not actually get a storm report out of this until Wednesday because of the low population density. But if you're in Massiey's Mill, I would be getting ready to head to your place of tornado shelter, which means away from windows, away from the glass, and the idea that you're having as many walls, as many barriers, as many walls between you and the outside as possible. Well, let's go back to the wind mode so that we can see what this looks like here. And yeah, this storm is still >> it's still uh wrapped up very tight.

[00:03:37]That's kind of interesting because our color scale goes from green to red. If anything starts to exceed that, then that is significant rotation where we're measuring the storm. Now, this is measuring it up at at kind of the base of the 4 to 5,000 ft up in the cloud.

[00:03:53]But that is a pretty impressive rotation area right through here. So, this yellow, this represents wind coming in this direction. The green, that last radar scan does not look quite as impressive. So that is some good news.

[00:04:07]In fact, I am seeing that there's a lot of wind here. And when you do start to see another area of yellow on the backside, that means that maybe the rotation is not quite as well organized.

[00:04:18]But the more yellow that this gets, that is going to be some strong wind. And that alone would certainly be strong enough to cause some wind damage.

[00:04:27]Will is clicking on some of the information for the storm. radar is ind is estimating that this storm is going to have wind near 70 miles an hour. So, this is a certainly a very potent storm as it makes its way off toward the east.

[00:04:44]Let's zoom out a little bit, Will. And then I want to pull a fresh storm track.

[00:04:50]Uh Will, I I believe it's moving east at about 30 miles an hour. Is that what you're seeing for storm?

[00:04:56]>> Uh 30 35. Uh, I'll go ahead and put it for 35 just to give a little bit of leeway.

[00:05:02]And >> by the way, if you are in the Lynchburg area, this storm is not going to be impacting you. This is for northern Ammerst County and eventually making its way into Nelson County. So Will is adjusting the storm track as far as Loving. It will be nearing you near and just after midnight. This will be near 12:09. Massiey's Mill. We've mentioned this several times. The tornatic part of the storm will be near you at 11:57.

[00:05:32]So get into your place of tornado shelter, away from glass, away from windows so that you can have as many protective barriers between you and the potential tornado as possible. So warning is until 12:15 and right in here the storm is really wrapped up. Will let's clear the storm tracks off and let's zoom in more. see if we can get some of the local roads, some of the county roads within this.

[00:06:02]So, the the possible tornado is now starting to move east of the Blue Ridge Parkway and that is going to be very rugged terrain. Uh >> yeah, this this is literally going down the side of the mountain right now. I mean there's there's not >> as you can tell there I mean just well just by Captain obvious here when you see anytime you see a road like this that is a very good indication on the map that you're going up a mountain.

[00:06:30]>> This is also this is going to be near Mount Pleasant. If you've ever hiked in that area, Mount Pleasant about 4,000 ft tall it is. In fact, there it is now starting to show up on the map. This is going to be near Mount Pleasant and Pleasant View. that hike uh a near the Ammerst Nelson County line where you can look out and just have a beautiful view.

[00:06:50]That is where this possible tornado is located. And those mountain peaks are about 4,000 ft tall. So, this storm is holding together as it's making its way over the mountains. After that, it's going to have a significant downhill as it starts to make its way toward Lovingston. There certainly could be and I I'm just imagining because you you can camp on Mount Pleasant and my goodness, you just hope there's not a camper who's up there having to contend with this as in addition to all the lightning and also you kind of think about some of the folks who are hiking the the the thru-hikers on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

[00:07:27]That storm is going to be right there on top of them and they are they're going to have a story to tell later if there's a tornado with this storm. So, this storm is going to make its way to the east, the Woodson community. You can see it right here. That's near the Ammerst Nelson County line. I would get into your place of tornado shelter if you live in, near, or north of Woodson. And Henderson Store, which is located off 151. I would be ready to get in place of tornado shelter as a storm continues to move to the east. It will be really interesting to watch to see what happens when it does start to move east of the the mountains of the terrain. Does the wind start to decouple, meaning that the tube is getting stretched and it's not as well structured, meaning the tornado is weakening, or does it maintain its strength, still moving into more humid air?

[00:08:19]>> Well, now this is interesting. Uh, so we have now we do. It's now for Nelson County. This goes until 12:15, which is the same expiration time as the Ammerston Rockbridge County one, which is interesting because it's it's just about ready to move out of the original polygon. Uh, but they have continued this tornado warning now for Nelson County. This is pretty much for Nelson County from Lovingston points down to the south. This does include places like Shipman. Uh, this includes Massiey's Mill, does not include the Tairo area, but it does include Henderson Store. It includes the Colleen community. Uh, and it does include places around Ty River Elementary School, which is right there off of 29 that George was saying earlier.

[00:08:58]>> It's also going to be near Nelson County High School as well along 29. It's going to be passing its way that direction.

[00:09:05]So, this is going to be crossing State Highway 151. That's where all all these these wineries and all these beer places, breweries are located. That is going to be moving across that area right through here.

[00:09:21]>> 12:15. It's actually a very narrow swath of a tornado warning, but I'm going to say good morning to anybody who is waking up in Lovingston right now because you you probably just got an ABC 13 weather alert that we have tornado warnings being issued for this storm here. There is a storm with a tornado warning which is moving your direction.

[00:09:41]>> And I'll be honest, George, um it it looks like that um I don't know. I would have I would have tracked it a little bit similar to that.

[00:09:49]>> Yeah, it's Yeah, the sto Yeah, that that's kind of interesting how they did draw the the warning. If you do live a little bit north of Lovingston, you're going to be very close to the storm because the storm is just moving just a sliver south of due east, moving like on a compass be about moving at about 100 degrees east.

[00:10:09]So, this storm is going to be near Lovingston 1208. Uh, Shipman near that post office in Nelson County and Shipman at 12:14. Lanes Ford will be closer to midnight. And if you do live in Massiey's Mill, go ahead and get into your place of tornado safety. It's tornado safety time for you because this is a strong storm which is heading your direction.

[00:10:32]>> And this would be um and that Loving that is that's that's downtown Lston.

[00:10:36]That's the courthouse uh in Nelson County. That's the uh the gas station, the McDonald's, the food line uh right there off of 29. So that is that is uh downtown Loving. And Will Stafford is giving that as an expert for all his times he's driven through there and probably stopped at that gas station.

[00:10:52]Yeah, I know. Exactly. And that McDonald's.

[00:10:53]>> You know, I've stopped there once or twice.

[00:10:55]>> Let's zoom out and let's show the entire area what's going on. If you're just joining us here, we are having extended weather coverage because the National Weather Service has issued a tornado warning for a storm. This is a storm that seemingly had a tornado warning on it roughly forever in West Virginia. And then warnings were discontinued when it moved into Virginia. Then the National Weather Service reissued when the storm was passing near Lexington, Rogbridge County and up at cloud level. There is still significant circulation occurring.

[00:11:28]This is going to stay north of Lynchburg, north of Bedford and Appamatics and Rowan Oak, but staying north of 460.

[00:11:35]Nothing to worry about in uh in Lynchburg. Right through here you can see where we have the tornatic part of the storm in Nelson County. So Will, let's go back and what I want to do, let's stop the radar animation and let's put this back into the velocity mode. And Will, you were just pointing this out uh about the warning.

[00:11:58]How Yeah, I I I would agree with you.

[00:12:00]This was not the best drawn warning because the tornatic part of the storm is also just about to move out of the warning. I would have drawn the warning something like a polygon like through here to include areas just north of Lovingston because the storm is basically moving straight to the east.

[00:12:17]It's moving more east than this polygon from the National Weather Service is showing. If there's a tornado in the storm, it's going to be very close to Massiey's Mill and it will be crossing over Lovingston and 29. If you live in Lovingston, it is about 10 minutes away. It's moving east at about 30 to 35 miles an hour.

[00:12:39]So, it is moving at a good clip. Loving will see this storm near you in about 15 minutes. That is 12:10 a.m. on Wednesday morning. Shipman, it'll be near you coming up at 12:14. And each time we pull one of these storm tracks, the time might change for a few minutes, but this certainly gives you a real good idea of a ballpark time that you're going to see these storms moving in. And again, if you are watching us from the Lynchburg area, nothing to worry about with these.

[00:13:07]These are going to be remaining to our north. Uh Will, I hear some new information coming in. And is was that the warning being dropped?

[00:13:18]>> That was the uh the warning being dropped for Ammerston Rockbridge. So now, uh we just have one warning and that is for uh Nelson County until 12:15.

[00:13:27]>> Yeah. And that makes perfect sense. The National Weather Service has dropped the tornado warning for Ammerst because it's simply making its way out of Ammerst County. Will the rotation doesn't look as >> it >> looks more a lot more broad and not as intense as what it did earlier uh when it was back into Ammeris County. That's for sure >> because it's almost looking like the wind is almost coming out of one direction. If you are in Massiey's Mill, this storm still could contain some very strong wind. I would get in your place of tornado shelter in Massy's Mill in case there is a tornado from this storm.

[00:14:00]If there is a tornado on the ground, we may not actually know about it until after sunrise on Wednesday. We start to get some light and we can get some pictures and see some images. Tornado safety time for you in Massiey's Mill.

[00:14:14]Storm is making its way to the east. If you're in Ammerst County, you are good to come out of your tornado shelter. The storm is passing you by to the north. If you're in Lovingston, be ready to shelter. Storm is right through here.

[00:14:28]It's along State Highway 56 near 56 and 151. And it's going to continue trucking to the east and just south of due east right through there. Uh let's see. Will do we review some of the storm reports that have come in? I'm curious if we and we're, as I mentioned, we're probably not going to have much of anything at this time of night, but have we had any reports from any storm spotters on how this storm is doing?

[00:14:55]>> Uh, we've not. Uh, and as George said, it's it's it's difficult when a storm comes through at this time of night because not obviously not a lot of people are um are out. Um, let me pull up the storm reports and I can show you that basically these are the same reports that you saw uh about 45 minutes ago uh when we were in our regularly scheduled 13 News at 11 broadcast. Um, and not much additional has come out there again because it is u it is dark.

[00:15:27]Uh however uh with some of the signatures uh that we did see uh from this cell um there very well could be something there. We did have some new information that just came down um kind of indirectly related to this uh the severe thunderstorm watch uh for those five or six counties uh that has now been extended until 1:00 in the morning. Uh so the watch for Bath County, Rockbridge, Lexington, Buunav Vista, Ammerst, Nelson, Appamatics, and Buckingham that goes until one o'clock in the morning. I was like that I think the second or third time that it's been extended today.

[00:16:06]>> Yeah, that's interesting because originally when the severe thunderstorm watch came out, it expired at 10:00, then midnight, now 1:00 a.m. As I'm looking at this storm, will the last few radar images >> look like a bow echo, doesn't it?

[00:16:18]>> Yeah, it does. And also the number of lightning strikes is going down as it's starting to come off of some of the higher slopes, the higher terrain. This would indicate that the storm is weakening a bit as it's now moving east of the mountains. And that is typical for a storm with a tornado warning because it starts to go downhill. If you have all this rotational energy in this spot and suddenly, whoa, you go downhill and the bottom drops out, it stretches out all the energy in the tube and that can cause the tornado to weaken. That appears to be what's happening right now. But at the same time, it's still a real strong storm. Massiey's Mill remain in your place of tornado shelter in case there is a tornado from the storm. As far as an update on the storm track, Loving still looks like after midnight about 10 minutes away. I'd get ready to get in your place of tornado shelter in Lovingston in case there is a tornado.

[00:17:12]The Rockfish community 1214 and Scotsville that's in the that is east that will be at 12:39.

[00:17:21]>> I would also be curious to see at the very least and and we said this during our 11:00 broadcast too. Uh wind is wind regardless of whether it's a tornado or severe thunderstorm. This probably at the very least has some very gusty winds. It looks like it's trying to bow out a little bit as it approaches 29. A bow echo would mean would indicate some very strong gusty, not exactly tornatic winds, but straight line winds and they can do just as much damage as a tornado.

[00:17:48]And George, if we have time, uh guys in the back, can we actually go over to Max One real quick? Uh we have some tornado safety tips up there. U and I see uh Brandon, who is our floor director, running back there. So that means that uh it might be a touch before we can get over there. Yeah, we'll get that we'll get that called up. Uh mean so uh will explain a little bit about the tornado safety that we've been talking about.

[00:18:10]I'll get out of the >> So, uh anytime you're under a tornado warning, which Nelson County is right now, in fact, if you're in Nelson County, you need to at least get to your center part of your house. Uh the object is to put as many walls between you and the outside as possible. If you have a basement, that's even better. If you don't have a basement, that's okay. Get to the most interior room, hallway, or closet, away from windows. put it in as many walls between you and the outside as possible. And then you want to cover your head with a helmet, blankets or pillows, something to protect your head from that flying debris that may come down in a tornadic situation. But as we saw with some of those storms that went through Bedford County earlier today, you can have things blown around, thrown about even if it's not a tornado. So that's why we tell you to take all of these warnings uh whether or not they are severe thunderstorm warning or a tornado warning seriously. But especially in the case of a tornado warning, that's the one if you're if you're going to take one seriously, that's definitely probably the one to to take seriously. And if you're in southern Nelson County right now, areas south of Lovingston, uh these are some very useful tips that you should probably put into action sooner rather than later.

[00:19:14]>> All right, let's go back to the other weather computer so we can show you the storm. And Will, let's reset so that everybody can see where these storms are in relation to Rowan Oak, Bedford, and Lynchber. And also good morning to all of you who are watching us because it is now Wednesday morning, middle of the week. Right now we have a storm with a tornado warning with it in Nelson County. This is for near Lovingston.

[00:19:37]This will not have any impact on Rowanoke, Bedford or Lynchburg. There is an isolated storm though trying to get going near Concord which is near the R in Lynchber on this graphic. But our primary concern is again that storm with the tornado warning into Nelson County.

[00:19:53]So for the next 15 13 15 minutes, we will have this storm with the warning.

[00:19:59]Will, let's go back and let's zoom into Nelson County and give this storm a closer inspection because right now it's one of the things we've been mentioning how it looked like that the storm was moving more east than southeast when the the warning that you can see here, this weirdly shaped polygon from the National Weather Service. We think that they issued this too far south because the storm is going to be passing near and possibly just north of Lovingston in that area where Will's drawing this updated storm tracks >> and they have uh looks like they have dropped the warning.

[00:20:30]>> The warning just disappeared from the screen. So Will is going to be checking on that to make sure that's what happened and that was and that was not a computer glitch. But uh Will, let's also I want to go back and look at the velocity as well. It's where we're looking at the wind from the storm. So, the National Weather Service and Will's going to check to see if a statement was put out to to confirm if that warning was dropped, but I want to take a look at the storm for myself.

[00:20:56]>> Uh, well, now we are starting to get into uh this is a very it's this kind of no man's land in radar.

[00:21:03]>> So, zoom in right in here.

[00:21:08]>> Okay. So, if there was a tornado from the storm, I would be looking at the the the Christmas colors coming together, the red and the green. This storm does look like it has significantly weakened as far as having rotation in it. And that was one of the things we mentioned was that as this storm started to move off of the mountains, off of the Blue Ridge Parkway where you have these three and 4,000 ft elevations particularly like Mount Pleasant that the tube the rotation could weaken and that indeed appears to be what's happening here.

[00:21:41]>> They did in fact discontinue that warning. That is uh that is official.

[00:21:44]>> Okay. And uh Will, could you read that statement from the National Weather Service where they have cancelled the warning?

[00:21:51]>> The point to where uh we were able to cancel the warning. Um but the reason why they reissue the reason why um because like we said going back to political boundaries u in Nelson County is controlled by the weather service office in Northern Virginia. So they had to pick up that warning from Blackburg.

[00:22:09]So they said uh given the very little near surface stability this late at night, they felt it prudent to follow with a tornado warning. That's why it was issued in the first place. And now they are saying that it's weakened to the point where we can now cancel the warning. Okay. And that definitely this is about as calm as it's looked all night long. And and again this thing has had a long history of uh pretty pretty spicy signatures so to speak.

[00:22:32]>> So we are going to end up sending this back to regular ABC 13 programming. I'll be completely honest. I'm not watching ABC13 normally at midnight. I'm normally trying to get into bed. So, I'm not Jimmy Kimmel would be on right now, but Jimmy Kibble's on right now.

[00:22:46]>> So, let's show the entire area and give everyone a summary of what's happening and also a quick update for tomorrow. In fact, Will, we could end up pulling up a 7-day forecast to close out.

[00:22:58]>> You never did get to show that, did you?

[00:23:00]>> No. No. We were we we we we started we we we started our severe weather coverage actually during the end of the 11:00 newscast and so we didn't get to actually finish the news. We will do that during this cutin. So here is the 7-day forecast. We are going to see more thunderstorms developing tomorrow but on Wednesday the highest coverage of storms is going to be across Southside. That's kind of the opposite of what happened today. Most of the storms have been across parts of central Virginia and the mountains. But tomorrow, everything shifts south and some of you could get some one to two inch rain totals.

[00:23:35]Particularly if you live in a county which touches the North Carolina border like Henry County, Pennsylvania County, South Boston area, you should be getting the higher rainfall totals on Wednesday.

[00:23:46]On Thursday and Friday, all of us are cooler, probably going to enjoy these temperatures being south of 90° and then we're going to be tracking additional rain chances on Saturday. So will before we send this back to regular programming I want to take a look at the radar one more time and with our own eyes we're going to analyze this for you and to see if there is anything of concern. We have been on live now for about 40 minutes since the tornado warning was issued originally for near north of Lexington then Ammerst and then into Nelson County. And as of now, oh yeah, that storm is really, it's got some heavy rain with it, but that storm has really weakened and also the lightning strikes, this is cloud to ground lightning strikes have decreased. When you see less lightning, that's a real good indicator that the storm is weakening.

[00:24:38]So an isolated storm there that is in Appamatics County just east of Concord.

[00:24:42]And then right there in Nelson County, we have this small storm which no longer warrants a tornado warning. So, Will, it does look like that the severe weather threat is ending for our area tonight.

[00:24:57]Do you agree?

[00:24:58]>> I would concur with that.

[00:24:59]>> Okay. And then we're going to do it all over again tomorrow with more storms developing on Wednesday. So, that's going to wrap up our severe weather coverage. Thomas Battle will be in in less than five hours for GMV, which starts at 5:00 a.m. and he'll be giving you weather updates if you happen to be up at that time. George Flickager here and Will Stafford. Good night.