Extreme meteorologist Dr. Reed Timmer reported live from Mississippi on the evening of Jan. 8 as severe weather intensified across the area.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Hey Reed, earlier in the day we did have some scares here outside of Houston, outside of
00:04 New Orleans.
00:05 There were some tornado warnings, but the worst may be yet to come with this event.
00:10 Yeah, the worst is definitely yet to come.
00:13 It's still about 59 degrees here in Gulfport, but that warm unstable air is just offshore
00:18 in the Gulf of Mexico and it's lifting off to the north of that low level jet.
00:21 And once that warm front comes ashore here in the central Gulf Coast, that's when the
00:24 tornado threat's really going to ramp up.
00:27 And looking at some of the short-range models, it looks like that's going to happen in the
00:30 next hour or two across southeastern Louisiana, including Baton Rouge to New Orleans, up to
00:35 Slidell, over here to Gulfport.
00:37 And that original tornado-warned storm that was just to the west of New Orleans, that
00:41 passed just to the north of Gulfport just minutes ago, and we had very strong southerly
00:45 winds just ripping into that storm.
00:47 And there's very strong winds aloft right now, so any storm that moves through mixes
00:51 down those strong winds to the surface, and that's why there's a lot of damaging wind
00:55 potential with these storms.
00:56 So that storm that passed just to the north of Gulfport is packing winds at about 60 miles
01:00 an hour as it lifts rapidly off to the northeast.
01:03 And I'm watching for new development now to the southwest of Baton Rouge.
01:07 That warm front is starting to lift north.
01:09 I'm watching for the development of those renegade supercells to develop just to the
01:12 southwest of New Orleans, and that's when this event's really going to ramp up in about
01:16 an hour or two.
01:17 You got it, Reid.
01:18 I know you're going to be on the move to get yourself positioned there for the best place
01:22 to see the heaviest of the weather, and we want you to be safe out there.
01:26 As I know you always are.
01:27 But these nocturnal thunderstorm events that can bring tornadoes, they can be so much more
01:32 dangerous, especially with some of these storms that have been moving pretty fast.
01:37 That's right, and this is the most dangerous type of tornado outbreak.
01:40 These winter outbreaks that happen in the middle of the night.
01:43 A lot of people are sleeping, and there's a lot of strong winds aloft as well that drives
01:48 those storm motions up to 50, 60 miles an hour, even stronger than that.
01:51 So there's not a lot of lead time, but they do produce tornadoes, and a lot of times they're
01:55 long track as well.
01:57 So as this storm continues to deepen and continue to barrel toward the north-central Gulf Coast,
02:02 the wind fields are going to increase dramatically, and with that, the low-level wind shear is
02:05 going to increase as well.
02:07 The heat and moisture is going to pump northward from the Gulf of Mexico, and that is going
02:11 to set the stage for strong to even potentially violent tornadoes overnight tonight into tomorrow
02:16 morning as that squall line pushes east.
02:18 It's going to be near the Mobile area, into the Florida Panhandle, and then that threat
02:22 is going to rocket off to the northeast, toward central and eastern South Carolina, possibly
02:26 even up to the North Carolina Outer Banks by tomorrow afternoon and evening.
02:30 Alright, thanks a lot for that report for us tonight, Reid.
02:32 We appreciate it.
02:33 Stay safe out there, and we hope to check back in with you.
02:38 Thank you for having me.