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Thursday, 26 June 2008 |
By MIKE BURKHOLDER
Managing Editor
ST. MARYS — Several storm systems that ripped through Auglaize County Wednesday night brought heavy rains, thunder and lighting and a wall cloud, but no confirmed touch downs of funnel clouds.
Auglaize County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) Director Troy Anderson told The Evening Leader the first of three storm fronts spawned a wall cloud — a formation commonly linked to tornadoes. However Anderson said despite unconfirmed reports of funnel cloud touch downs, he has yet to see evidence of it.
“We are looking at it right now and there is one photograph that got sent over that was taken that shows a white funnel cloud,” Anderson said. “We have not seen anything that it actually touched down.”
Anderson said a wall cloud is a Z-formation within a storm front that can typically spawn funnel clouds. It is the tail end of the Z-formation that usually spawns a funnel cloud.
“If definitely showed a funnel cloud that was coming across,” Anderson said of Doppler radar. “I have numerous reports of funnels on Ohio 197 near Buckland and another one east of Ohio 116.”
As he surveyed reports across the county, Anderson said the storms did not cause significant property damage. Anderson said he plans to continue driving through the county to search for more evidence left behind by the systems.
“We did some preliminary drivings and were looking at patterns,” Anderson said. “I’ll be going back through and trying to see a direction and looking for a path. Last night we didn’t really see a path and it looked like the funnel clouds stayed about 100 to 160 feet above the ground.”
The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for Auglaize County just after 7 p.m. Wednesday. As tornado sirens blared in St. Marys, Anderson said the tools help to protect residents.
“Since the National Weather Service issued an all-county warning, the dispatchers hit the all-county button,” Anderson said. “Normally they give us which cities are involved and we could have just issued a warning for that particular area. When the dispatchers are sitting in the room and they see it is the entire county, it is the procedure to hit the whole county. At that time, most of the cell was in St. Marys and north. New Bremen and New Knoxville were clear and I am sure people there were wondering why the sirens were going off.”
The storm systems also dumped between 1.5 to 3 inches of rain throughout the county. Anderson said flash flooding was a concern during the storms.
“We had some flooding reports but it was flash flooding,” Anderson said. “I haven’t gotten any calls about water in basements.”
Auglaize County may see a repeat performance of Wednesday night’s storms. Anderson said another round of storms could move into the area today.
“The way the fronts are stacking up, it looks like we could get some more today,” Anderson said. “We will be watching that later to get a better idea. We were notified about that possibility earlier this morning.”
The east side of the city of St. Marys was without power for approximately three hours. Electric Distribution Superintendent Mike Dieringer said a lightning strike hit the east circuit and a tree limb fell on power lines near the Chestnut Street parking lot.
“The line took a hit and was burning on the ground,” Dieringer said this morning. “We got a call at 8:30 p.m. and threw the circuit back at 11:30 p.m.”
Safety-Service Director Tom Hitchcock said he has yet to receive reports of flooding within the city limits. Hitchcock encouraged residents with storm debris to place it in the tree lawn for pickup.
“It is a little early for us to get reports of down limbs, we usually only get them if they fall on a house,” Hitchcock said. “We will be picking up brush Wednesday.”
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 01 July 2008 )
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