Storm chaser Aaron Rigsby reported live on the afternoon of April 2, as dangerous storms began developing across multiple states.
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00:00For the latest, we head live to storm chaser Aaron Rigsby.
00:02Now he joins us from Alamo in West Tennessee,
00:06where they're under a tornado watch and a flood watch
00:09this afternoon.
00:10Aaron, getting hit with both of the risks
00:12we've been highlighting.
00:15Yeah, good evening, guys.
00:16I tell you, it's just going to be one of those weeks.
00:18There's no way around it.
00:19We have a PDS, actually flood watch,
00:21issued for Arkansas on top of a PDS, particularly
00:24dangerous situation, tornado watch,
00:26which is the highest caliber of watches
00:28that they can issue on both fronts.
00:30And I tell you, within the last hour,
00:32from a chasing perspective, the storms of interest
00:34have been having a very concerning look, typically
00:37of what we see precursor to a tornado outbreak.
00:40A lot of the storms that have fired out ahead of that line
00:42are taking on that kind of kidney bean shape, which
00:44they're very early in their life cycles,
00:46but they're already showing those kind of hook features
00:49that we look for, which indicates how much wind
00:51shear is up in the upper atmosphere today.
00:53And it puts into perspective just how volatile
00:55the atmosphere is here.
00:57I mean, over such a widespread area,
00:59all the way from southeast Arkansas, clear up to Indiana,
01:02and up into Ohio as well into the overnight hours.
01:06And Aaron, as you were driving throughout the day,
01:09you actually encountered a dust storm as well.
01:14Yeah, that's absolutely correct.
01:15We get fixated a lot with these storm systems
01:17on the immediate tornado and flood threat,
01:19but there's a lot of hidden elements
01:21to these big powerhouse systems.
01:23And this was one of those cases today.
01:25There was anywhere from 40 to 50,
01:27upwards of 55 mile an hour wind gusts.
01:30Now, it kind of went through some
01:31of those drought-stricken areas that
01:33have a lot of that loose topsoil and a lot of the farmers
01:35getting ready for planting season.
01:37And it was carrying that across I-55,
01:40creating absolutely blinding conditions.
01:42Now, this is typically an event that you
01:44would see those pileups start to happen.
01:46Now, thankfully, to my knowledge,
01:47that did not occur today.
01:49However, there were a couple of close calls
01:51where some of that traffic started to slow down.
01:53Some of the traffic behind it didn't see that,
01:54and they really had to slam on their brakes.
01:56And these can come up just all of a sudden,
01:58which we have seen with every single one
02:00of these big systems that have come through here
02:02to start off spring of 2025.
02:04So it's a very hidden danger that folks
02:06need to really recognize if they have to go out
02:08and travel in these conditions.
02:10All right, Storm Chaser Aaron Rigsby,
02:12joining us right now from Alamo in Tennessee.
02:15Thank you so much for that update.
02:16We'll be checking with you periodically
02:17coming up for sure, Aaron.