| Hurricane Ivan Tornado Outbreak: Dulles Airport!!! |
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Up to four tornadoes were reported locally as
the remnants of Hurricane Ivan moved across
Loudoun County this evening, causing damage
to numerous homes and a fire at Leesburg
Executive Airport. According to the National
Weather Service's Baltimore/Washington
forecast office located in Sterling, four
separate tornadoes swept through the area
Friday night, affecting Hughesville,
Lovettsville, Hamilton, and Dulles.
Flights were grounded at Dulles International
Airport, where the first tornado touched down
at 6:11 p.m., and for an hour and a half as
airport personnel waited for the tornado to
pass and staff members at the Sterling
weather station said that they could see the
tornado just outside their windows.
"We're located about a mile from the
airport," said Luis Rosa of the National
Weather Service. "We actually saw it from
here in the office."
Although there were widespread accounts of
damage to homes and buildings and many
residents were without power, no injuries
were reported. Loudoun County Fire and Rescue
crews began scrambling shortly after 5 p.m.
when severe storms began moving in from the
south, heading in a northwest direction
across the area. By 6 p.m., the visibility on
Rt. 7 was about 15 percent.
The storm cell, which spurred tornadoes in
the Opal and Warrenton areas of Fauquier
County, moved quickly through western
Loudoun. Downed trees and power lines forced
the closing of Rt. 704 west of Leesburg and
the storm's path could be followed with a
line of twisted and broken tree limbs to
Hamilton. The Hamilton Orchard subdivision
was hardest hit, with several homes damaged
by falling trees and limbs. That cell
continued north, causing damage in
Lovettsville before crossing the Potomac
River.
In some areas, rush hour traffic came to a
stop as motorists watched for funnel clouds
and dangerous weather. Those driving along
Rt. 28 and Rt. 7 got an up close view of a
tornado that moved up the west side of Rt.
28, passing behind the Wegmans store before
dissipating and moving across the river into
Maryland.
Meanwhile, one of the numerous lightning
strikes that occurred during the storm is
believed to have caused a fire at the Justice
Hangar at Leesburg Executive Airport. The
flames and heavy smoke were reported at the
facility and the large front door had buckled
outward. One plane inside appeared to be
severely damaged.
By 8:30 p.m. that evening, though the worst
of the weather seemed to have passed, the
National Weather Service has extended the
tornado watch until midnight in response to
the unpredictable system and Loudoun County's
Emergency Operations Center did not stand
down until 1:10 a.m. By 8 a.m. that following
morning, NWS recorded a total of 2.34 inches
of precipitation due to the storm.
"It was moving pretty fast—50 miles and
hour—so it didn't have the chance to dump a
lot of rain," said Rosa. "If it had been
going, say 15 miles and hour, we would have
seen about 10 inches of rain."
Tags : most amazing airport tornado spawned by hurricane ivan september 2004 |
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Affichage : 22682
Durée : 126 s |
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