SIX MONTHS LATER

 

It’s been right at six months since a tornado swept through parts of St. Louis. It cut across the northwest corner of Forest Park and moved into residential neighborhoods to the north, much of which contained old homes in lower income areas. Here in the park many damaged trees were cut to stumps at ground level. However, one huge tree was toppled and pulled up much of its root ball. Lots of it has not been cleared.        

AFTERMATH, PART 2

A more dramatic example of storm damage found in Forest Park. The tornado went through around 3 PM on Friday and this car had the misfortune of being parked at the wrong place at the wrong time.                   

AFTERMATH

I went to our largest city park to see what might be visible from Friday’s storm and tornado. A lot of trees were down and there was some structural damage. I wish there were a person in this picture to give it scale but this is a big tree. The right side of the shard in the center foreground is about as high as an average person.

It seemed better to avoid the residential area nearby that suffered worse damage. Some of the streets are narrow and the relief crews didn’t need me in the way. However, tomorrow we’ll see a more striking example of the damage.                 

CITY DAILY PHOTO JUNE THEME - CLIMATE

The climate in the American Midwest can be violent in the spring and summer. This photo was taken some years ago when my office was on the 23rd floor with a nearly unobstructed view to the south. Severe thunderstorms rolled through our area, spawning a few tornadoes. Here, one of them crosses the Mississippi River not far away. It did not quite touch down, avoiding severe damage.        

Get the weather report from City Daily Photo members all around the world at https://citydailyphoto.org/category/theme-days/.

PANDEMIC IN SPRINGTIME - SIGNS IN THE SIDEWALK

Found along a walkway in Forest Park next to each other. Some people visiting the park were staying safe while others were careless. The writing below is a bit of scrawl but we think it says "Follow Photography Friend 816 on Insta [gram?]. I don't do Instagram. Maybe a user can check it out and report back.

To my Midwestern eye, the words look like they are being sucked into the top of a tornado. I have seen a tornado once in my life, from the 23rd floor of an office building while it was crossing the Mississippi a safe distance away. It was awesome in the most traditional sense of the word.     

Thursday Arch Series

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Another line of severe thunderstorms, this one hundreds of miles long, rolled across the Midwest yesterday. I assume that most of the world heard what happened a few days ago in Joplin, located in the southwest corner of our state. The death count - such a cold term - from their tornado is now 125. Hundreds more are still missing. So when tornado warnings were issued for our area around noon, people got nervous.

I sent my staff home about 3:15 PM. One other lawyer and I decided that, if a twister struck, we would be safer in the stairwell of our steel and concrete office building than our wood frame houses. The warning sirens started going off repeatedly about 4 o'clock. We followed the storms on the web. Reports of funnel clouds came from all around. Several areas had tennis ball sized hail. There were high winds and driving rain but no tornadoes seem to have touched down.

I had a hunch this morning that something dramatic might happen so I brought my good camera. This shot was taken from my office window at 4:40 PM.

There is an even more dramatic picture on Downtown St. Louis 365.

April Showers

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The tornado warning sirens went on and off all last evening. Welcome to springtime in the Midwest, when masses of cool, dry Canadian air collide with warm, wet flows from the Gulf of Mexico and go boom. No tornadoes in our immediate area, although there were a few to the northwest. I sat out on my front porch and watched the show for a while.

Saturday morning update: reports say that tornadoes touched down in the northwestern suburbs. Several homes were destroyed. A church lost its steeple during Good Friday services. Lambert St. Louis International Airport is closed indefinitely after suffering extensive damage to the main terminal and one of the concourses. See photos on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's website here.

Are there such things as Anglican dogs? See Downtowm St. Louis 365.