8/24/16 Why the tornadoes happened.

First off, the tornado watch expires in about ten minutes or at 9:00pm. Whew, good for us right? I'm still concerned about the dewpoint being at 74 but hey, what do I know. If the National Weather Service says it's over then it's over.

So why did this happen? There was an upper level low /disturbance centered over north west Indiana. During the day time heating hours, the ULLD began churning a wave of energy nearly due east. This was helped and fueled by a high pressure blocking system to our southeast (over North and South Carolina) and a low pressure system over the northern tip of Texas. In addition to that, a cold front was attached to that low extending north eastwards. If you could imagine it, here is how I saw the weather unfolding for the day:

So, to recap, the purple fuchsia "L" represents my placement of the upper level disturbance. The black triangle represents the basic air flow and pattern for our area. The yellow is the west to east storm flow that NWS plotted correctly.