Ball State Meteorologist Dr. David Call sorts out June’s severe storms

00;00;00;10 - 00;00;36;04 Stan Sollars Last Thursday, Indiana saw 16 tornadoes from the northern-most reaches of the state to central regions, according to the National Weather Service. Muncie experienced storm damage that some residents argue was from a tornado, but there was no tornado so far in that designation category. And so what happened to help us sort that out? Doctor David Call, a professor of geography and meteorology here at Ball State and a official meteorologist, not just somebody on radio who says they're one. 00;00;36;06 - 00;00;42;13 Dr. David Call And that's right. I just got back from our storm chasing class where we were out in the plains looking for tornadoes for a few weeks. 00;00;42;14 - 00;01;03;09 Stan Sollars Out looking for trouble. Okay, well. Very good. Well, Dr. Call is kind enough to join us this morning to help us sort this out. So welcome to IPR and welcome to Morning Edition. So what the heck happened Thursday night again? We had residents, especially along Jackson Street on the west side of town over toward Burlington Pike that saw damage. 00;01;03;12 - 00;01;04;13 Stan Sollars So what happened? 00;01;04;14 - 00;01;25;21 Dr. David Call We had a lot of damage. We had a very strong line of storms go through further up north in the state. They were more supercells with longer track tornadoes here. The main threat was wind damage, although there were some tornado warnings with this system as it went across the rest of Indiana. But as it came through Muncie, the rotation largely stayed in the northern part of the city. 00;01;25;21 - 00;01;32;23 Dr. David Call But on the south side of that, we had some really strong winds gusting well over 50 miles an hour, and they did quite a long damage swath. 00;01;32;25 - 00;01;37;25 Stan Sollars So it would be straight line winds that caused the damage here in town. 00;01;38;00 - 00;01;54;18 Dr. David Call Yes, for for meteorologists, there's a pretty big distinction in the damage. Tornado damage tends to rotate around and things get lifted up. With straight-line wind damage things get flattened down and pushed down. So it's it's winds from downburst and storms instead of winds rising up into a tornado. 00;01;54;21 - 00;02;03;26 Stan Sollars Yeah. Because the tornado rotation pulls the air just as the air circulation would call for in such a storm. 00;02;04;01 - 00;02;07;06 Dr. David Call Exactly. You might have a future in meteorology yourself. 00;02;07;08 - 00;02;36;26 Stan Sollars I'm a weather fan, and I would love to be a meteorologist, but I don't play one on radio, so? So we had what was it, five confirmed tornadoes? National Weather Service officials in the central part of the state, from around Lafayette to actually over here at Pennville was one that they went and surveyed. So the survey teams went out all over the place from the weather service to judge what was happening. 00;02;36;28 - 00;02;54;21 Dr. David Call Right. And the two that were in our area, the one near and the one over toward farmland, those were both F0 tornadoes. And at that level, your winds are around 80 to 90 miles an hour. The winds that came through Muncie, there wasn't a wind gauge on the south side of town, but they could well have been at that same speed. 00;02;54;21 - 00;03;02;01 Dr. David Call So it's not unusual to see things like giant trees that have been snapped and of course, falling on houses or other sorts of destruction. 00;03;02;04 - 00;03;34;04 Stan Sollars And the other tornadoes in the central part of the state in the Indianapolis forecast office area was near one. There was an F1 near Boswell west of Lafayette. Van Buren, just up the road had an F1 and Johnson and Shelby counties had an F1 that was on the ground for about 4.3 miles. But the North Webster forecast office confirmed 11 tornadoes in northern Indiana, including an F2 in Elkhart. 00;03;34;05 - 00;03;42;29 Stan Sollars So what you're saying what you said earlier was that the supercell storms, which could produce more intense storms, were up in that direction. 00;03;43;00 - 00;04;04;19 Dr. David Call That's right. In fact, the strongest tornado in the state they're still serving, it went from Hebron to Coutts. I guess that's how you pronounce it cuts. Thankfully, it was mostly farmland, but that one was up around probably EF3 intensity, and that one was a long track tornado. And compared to the rotation that we saw with the storms in this part of the state, that rotation was a lot more intense. 00;04;04;21 - 00;04;12;19 Dr. David Call I could tell sitting at home that that was the type of tornado you did not want to be anywhere close to. It wasn't just going to take off a roof, it was going to flatten houses. 00;04;12;22 - 00;04;39;17 Stan Sollars So didn't something about a year ago, I remember there were storms out in the western part of the county where there was damage, but again, no declaration of a tornado and people got cheesed off in about the same way because there was no tornado warning from the weather service. And they felt some did, that the weather service let them down. 00;04;39;17 - 00;04;47;05 Stan Sollars But actually in both cases, I believe we had this year as well as last year, a severe thunderstorm warning out at the time. 00;04;47;10 - 00;05;03;17 Dr. David Call Yes. And the big difference between a severe thunderstorm warning and a tornado warning. If there's a tornado warning, the sirens are going to go off and your phone is going to go off with a severe thunderstorm warning unless you have your phone configured to give you those alerts, it's not just going to go off and maybe you're watching TV. 00;05;03;17 - 00;05;09;15 Dr. David Call But of course, the other night most people were getting ready for bed or even asleep already. 11:00. 00;05;09;17 - 00;05;28;27 Stan Sollars Yes. And so again, that instance last year had something to do with radar, because most laymen believe that if it's on the weather radar that is from the National Weather Service radar, it's going to pick up everything. But it has its limitations. 00;05;28;28 - 00;05;47;19 Dr. David Call Absolutely. Radar beams travel and straight lines. So as they get farther away from the radar, they get higher above the ground. And in Muncie, the radars around 4000ft above, if you're in, say, Daleville and about 5000ft above the ground if you're in Albany. So a shorter or smaller weaker tornado, it could well miss. 00;05;47;22 - 00;06;16;17 Stan Sollars So what would the solution be to have more spotters, more trained spotters on the ground? Because in situations like that, as I understand it, you have trained spotters, including law enforcement, EMTs and fire officials, firefighters out there keeping an eye peeled and a lot of volunteer firefighters. You can see how that their fire stations, you know, looking up or driving around, is that the solution to that radar discrepancy? 00;06;16;19 - 00;06;36;21 Dr. David Call We absolutely spotters are a big part of letting the weather service know what's going on, especially in more rural areas. And anybody can be trained as a spotter. You can sign up for Skywarn classes from the weather service. They will come to Delaware County usually once a year, but there's virtual classes you can do as well. And I want to emphasize, too, with radar, it's generally going to find the stronger tornadoes. 00;06;36;21 - 00;06;42;08 Dr. David Call But these weaker spin ups, which can still do plenty of damage, are the ones that tend to be missed. 00;06;42;15 - 00;06;49;10 Stan Sollars And there's right now no electronic solution for that unless you had radar sites pimples all over the map. 00;06;49;14 - 00;06;59;11 Dr. David Call That's right. And we have better coverage in a lot of other places. There are plenty of radar gaps, especially in the western US. But even places like Charlotte, North Carolina is poorly served by radars. 00;06;59;13 - 00;07;20;27 Stan Sollars So anyhow, the final word here before we return to Morning Edition would be we had straight line winds that can be just as damaging as tornadic activity as we saw the other night, Thursday night here in Muncie. Then just structures or trees blown down flat rather than twisted. 00;07;20;28 - 00;07;28;02 Dr. David Call Oh, absolutely. And they can have that same roar and that same gust and noise that you would hear from a tornado. So they can be pretty scary. 00;07;28;04 - 00;07;41;22 Stan Sollars Well, Doctor David Call, meteorologist and a professor of geography and meteorology here at Ball State, and sometimes meteorology is hard to say at this hour in the morning. But nevertheless, thank you very much for coming in and being with us today. 00;07;41;24 - 00;07;42;27 Dr. David Call You're welcome. Glad to be with. 00;07;42;27 - 00;07;48;29 Stan Sollars You and come back anytime. And we hope to discuss fair weather. All right. Thanks.