Rhode Island Tornado

Today the National Weather Service confirmed that the waterspout seen off Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island yesterday did come ashore and did remain a tornado. The tornado, which went through Warren, RI and Swansea, MA, was an EF1 tornado with winds in the 65-75 mph range. The majority of the damage done by this tornado was downed trees and power lines, some of which fell onto area homes, and no injuries were reported. The cell was shown to have a Tornado Vortex Signature at least twice on radar yesterday, as well as radar-indicated hail of over 2''. Today, a potential tornado touched down in New Hampshire, but that has not been confirmed by the NWS yet.

Here is a photo of the waterspout, taken by a Rhode Island firefighter

JUST IN: Tornado Watch For Maine

The Storm Prediction Center Has just Issued a Tornado Watch for

• Large Part of Maine
• Coastal Waters

The Following is from The Storm Prediction Center and The Tornado Watch Will expire at 7PM Tonight.

 URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
 TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 745
 NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
 100 PM EDT THU JUL 24 2008

 THE NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER HAS ISSUED A
 TORNADO WATCH FOR PORTIONS OF

        A LARGE PART OF MAINE
        COASTAL WATERS

 EFFECTIVE THIS THURSDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING FROM 100 PM UNTIL
 700 PM EDT.

 TORNADOES...HAIL TO 1 INCH IN DIAMETER...THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS
 TO 70 MPH...AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE AREAS.

 THE TORNADO WATCH AREA IS APPROXIMATELY ALONG AND 80 STATUTE
 MILES NORTH AND SOUTH OF A LINE FROM 45 MILES NORTHWEST OF
 PORTLAND MAINE TO 40 MILES NORTH NORTHEAST OF BANGOR MAINE.  FOR
 A COMPLETE DEPICTION OF THE WATCH SEE THE ASSOCIATED WATCH
 OUTLINE UPDATE (WOUS64 KWNS WOU5).

 REMEMBER...A TORNADO WATCH MEANS CONDITIONS ARE FAVORABLE FOR
 TORNADOES AND SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS IN AND CLOSE TO THE WATCH
 AREA. PERSONS IN THESE AREAS SHOULD BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR
 THREATENING WEATHER CONDITIONS AND LISTEN FOR LATER STATEMENTS
 AND POSSIBLE WARNINGS.

 OTHER WATCH INFORMATION...CONTINUE...WW 744...

 DISCUSSION...N/S LINE OF THUNDERSTORMS WITH EMBEDDED SUPERCELLS WILL
 SLOWLY MOVE EWD ACROSS WRN ME.  STRONG SHEAR AND MLCAPES AOA 1000
 J/KG WITH 70F DEWPOINTS ONSHORE WILL SUPPORT TORNADOES WITH ANY
 SUPERCELL THAT DEVELOPS WITHIN THE LINE.

 AVIATION...TORNADOES AND A FEW SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH HAIL
 SURFACE AND ALOFT TO 1 INCH. EXTREME TURBULENCE AND SURFACE WIND
 GUSTS TO 60 KNOTS. A FEW CUMULONIMBI WITH MAXIMUM TOPS TO 500.
 MEAN STORM MOTION VECTOR 18035.

Yesterday's Storm Reports

Yesterday's outbreak wasn't as bad as forecasted due to cloud cover that did not burn off in area's that had the best dynamics. We saw that storms developed and some rotated but the lack of instability hurt in maintaining these supercells.

11AM: Regarding Thursday's Severe Potential

Today, The Storm Prediction Center has us in a Slight Risk for severe storms. I expect the areas that did not get the severe storms yesterday to get them today. The Main Risks today will be large hail and Damaging Winds And an Isolated Tornado is possible. Updates will be issued as conditions warrant.

Dolly inland and weaker, 97L update, and new hype!

Hurricane Dolly, now a tropical storm has moved well inland, right now, the storm contains winds of 50 mph, and it still is dropping a lot of rain. Many forecasters are dropping Invest 97L, And development of this system is not expected. A new tropical low/wave has emerged off the coast of Africa, and we will have to monitor it for possible future development.

Sincerely,
Zack