New Orleans Slammed By Tornado; Up Here In Vermont, We Gear Up For Some Late Season Ice

Television viewers in New Orleans were horrified to 
see this on their TV screens last night. 

 One of the last of the tornadoes in a two-day outbreak in the South proved to be the worst.

A tornado roared through New Orleans last night, killing at least one person, injuring others and leaving behind a trail of extensive damage. 

The tornado went through New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward, and through parts of St. Bernard Parish.  The community of Arabi seemed hardest hit. Those are neighborhoods that especially didn't need this. These are mostly mid to low income neighborhoods that were also largely destroyed during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. 

Local television stations showed live video of the tornado, which consisted of a large gray, wedge shaped funnel crossing the city. Other video, taken closer to the tornado, depicted a loud roar, debris in the air and bright blue flashes as power lines and transformers collapsed in the winds. 

Virtually no house in New Orleans has a basement, so people had to cower in bathrooms and closets in hopes of avoiding injury or death from the twister. 

The extent of the damage was a bit hard to quantify in the darkness of night, so there will be better assessments with daylight today. It is clear that numerous houses were either destroyed or badly damaged. 

NOLA.com said rescuers were hampered by debris covered streets, power outages and natural gas leaks.

The New Orleans tornado further destroys the myth that damaging tornadoes can't hit cities.  They do, both in and out of so-called "Tornado Alley"

A partial list of cities hit by destructive and deadly tornadoes over the past decade or two include Oklahoma City, St. Louis, Nashville, Atlanta, Fort Worth, Salt Lake City, Sioux Falls, Raleigh, Brooklyn and Queens areas of New York City, Springfield, Massachusetts and Ottawa, Canada. 

The New Orleans tornado last night was one of 70 or so tornadoes in the South over the past two days, according to preliminary reports. 

Some more severe weather, including possibly a few more tornadoes, are on tap today in the Southeast and in Ohio. 

After today, forecasters think there will be a lull in severe weather for about a week before new storm systems entering the middle of the nation next possibly touch off more dangerous weather.

VERMONT ICE

Springtime in Vermont is about to go on hiatus, as it often does in late March and early April.

Yes, we can get freezing rain in the spring. This photo shows
ice accumulating on trees in St. Albans, Vermont on April 9,
2019. Similar scenes are possible in parts of Vermont tomorrow.

The forecast includes freezing rain, sleet, cold rains, eventually snow and a shot of wintry air.  

The parent storm that helped cause those southern tornadoes is finally headed our way.  After this morning's chill, you'll notice it clouding up today, and a bit of trouble will arrive overnight, mostly after midnight. 

A winter weather advisory is up for all of Vermont except the Champlain Valley tonight and tomorrow morning. 

Mixed precipitation will overspread Vermont overnight.  It won't come down super hard, but it will be enough to coat untreated roads and sidewalks with ice, so tomorrow morning's commute could be a toughie for some of us. 

The ice won't get thick enough to damage trees or power lines, except possibly in a few isolated spots in the southern Green Mountains where ice could accumulate up to a quarter inch in thickness. 

The Champlain Valley is expected to stay slightly warmer, so there it will be mostly a plain, cold rain there, perhaps mixed with a snowflake or ice pellet here and there. 

Temperatures will slowly warm up tomorrow, so most of us will go over to plain, cold, light rain during the day tomorrow. Winds could also get gusty for a time along the western slopes of the Green Mountains tomorrow morning. 

Rain will continue Thursday night, with perhaps a bit of a mix in the mountains.  Scattered showers of rain and snow continue Friday and Saturday before, yup, a nice sharp Arctic cold front arrives Sunday. That front should produce at least a dusting of snow, with maybe a few inches up in the mountains. 

That'll get us right back into winter. It'll get down into the upper single digits and teens for lows Sunday and Monday nights, and it won't even get above freezing Monday afternoon.

As is typical with these late season cold shots, it won't last all that long. A slow but real warmup will start next Tuesday.