Wesley Wolfe

Storm chaser in Southeast Louisiana. Tracking and studying weather for my entire life. NWS trained spotter.

[Wesley Wolfe @wesleywolfe44]

Spooky looking clouds in Watson @SteveWAFB

[Wesley Wolfe @wesleywolfe44]

Top of a tree on a trailer at the intersection of Joe May and Walker south in Walker from this mornings storms. @NWSNewOrleans @SteveWAFB

[Wesley Wolfe @wesleywolfe44]

Trees down along Brown rd in Livingston parish south of Denham Springs
@SteveWAFB @NWSNewOrleans

[NWS New Orleans @NWSNewOrleans]

👀No your eyes don't deceive you. We do have
🌀 Tropical Storm Watches/Warnings in place
and at the same time those same locations are also under
🥵Extreme Heat Warnings/Heat Advisories

As far as we can tell this is the first time this has ever happened. #Bertha #LAwx #MSwx

[Wesley Wolfe @wesleywolfe44]

@NWSNewOrleans It’s been a busy past few days for yall.

[Steve Caparotta, Ph.D. @SteveWAFB]

Moving picture from Simmesport of a father carrying his child through floodwaters on Thursday. Pic shared by our sister station KALB in Alexandria.

[Wesley Wolfe @wesleywolfe44]

@SteveWAFB And it’s still just absolutely pouring there.

[Jonathan Petramala @jpetramala]

This is what the tornado did that crossed Lake Pontchartrain and hit just outside of Slidell, LA. #LAwx #tornado

[wdsu @wdsu]

INCREDIBLE:
Video shows the moment a tornado-warned storm tore through Montegut, flipping a boat on its side. https://t.co/1vljJfNnqC Source: Brandon Hebert

[Wesley Wolfe @wesleywolfe44]

@SteveWAFB the underpass on Acadian is closed due to water.

[PowerOutage.us @PowerOutage_us]

The last 24 hours of outages as seen in our utility dashboard, available to utility employees thanks to @TempestEnergy.

[Christopher Pipkin @ChrisPipkinWx]

5 years ago today... 🥶❄️ Radar + traffic speeds synced here. Green = moving, red/purple = stuck.

Look near Biscoe where many went 16+ hours stranded.

Where were you in Feb 2021? #ARwx

[Chris Bruin @ChrisBruinTV]

Widespread tree damage in Franklin, TN

[Sawyer Delatte @Sawyer_WX]

Large tree branch broke off on the campus of ULM due to the cold and ice. Fell on the road that runs through campus.
#lawx @NWSShreveport

[PowerOutage.us @PowerOutage_us]

Early outages in LA (over 40k) and TX (over 50k) from Winter Storm Fern.

Utilities need data to respond rapidly and providing situational awareness data is what we do best!

If your power is out visit https://t.co/R0EO0X3pFj to help get utilities the data they need.

[NWS New Orleans @NWSNewOrleans]

❄️Our thoughts on the potential winter weather this weekend!
🟠Medium chance (20-40%) of minor impacts for areas along and north of I-10/12
🟡Low chance (<20%) of minor impacts south of I-10/12
🌉Mainly minor impacts for bridges/elevated roads
❌No freezing rain or icing expected

[Josh Morgerman @iCyclone]

Man. #Hurricane #MELISSA. Incredible power. Perhaps the mightiest hurricane of the 83 I've witnessed.

My location (Crawford, a tiny beach town in St. Elizabeth Parish #Jamaica) took the full force of the inner right eyewall and may have seen the peak winds in this historic, record-smashing hurricane.

First pic: as it started to get scary. Bone-rattling gusts were making roofs explode into clouds of lethal confetti. The grand palm tree out front was starting to bend obscenely—in a way I found unnatural.

Second pic: after we bolted the door shut because it was getting too dangerous even to watch the storm. (I'd randomly ended up in the hotel's kitchen with a local family.)

The hurricane's inner eyewall was a screaming white void. All I could see through the cracks in the shutters was the color white—accompanied by a constant, ear-splitting scream that actually caused pain. (Notice the woman in the pic holding her ears.) The scream occasionally got higher and angrier, and those extra-screechy screams made my eardrums pulse. Meanwhile, water was forcing in through every crack—under the floor and between the window slats.

I remember shuddering at the thought of what was happening to the town—what this screaming white void was doing to people, homes, communities.

My fears were well-founded. The impact in this part of coastal St. Elizabeth Parish is catastrophic. Wooden structures were completely mowed down and in some cases swept from their foundations. Some concrete structures collapsed. The well-built ones—like my hotel—survived, but even they had major roof, window, and door damage. The landscape has been stripped bare—the trees just sticks. The roads are blocked with rubble and utility poles.

Nearby Black River—a unique old historical town right on the water—was smashed beyond recognition: historical sites destroyed, main streets filled with rubble, the town market twisted like a pretzel, even the regional hospital destroyed.

It's a good thing I wasn't in my hotel room during the storm because one of the windows blew out, showering the bed with glass and wood. The hotel lost most of its roof, and several third-story rooms were smashed open. But in the lower flooors, those grand old concrete walls protected us. And so far I'm aware of only two deaths in Crawford—a fellow who had a heart attack at the school next door (his body was still in his car and unclaimed the next morning, a sad and disturbing sight), and a woman who drowned in the storm surge in Gallon Beach. While walking down the devastated streets of Black River, I ran into the Jamaican Member of Parliament for this region, @floydgreenja. He's a great dude and I appreciate that he already has a gameplan for turning this catastrophe into an opportunity—to build this region back better. And I vowed on the spot that I'm going to make it my mission to spread awareness of this catastrophe and get that aid flowing in. I'll be talking about MELISSA a lot over the coming months—because it is both a fascinating meteorological event and a human disaster that demands an international response. (And I swear an epic video is coming out of this.)

[Tropical Cowboy of Danger @FlynonymousWX]

A thread of videos from today’s flight into Hurricane Melissa

In this first one we are entering from the southeast just after sunrise and the bright arc on the far northwest eye wall is the light just beginning to make it over the top from behind us.

[Tropical Cowboy of Danger @FlynonymousWX]

Third pass through Melissa. GoPro in side window as different camera looking forward shooting in ultra high res 8k. Not sure when that might get processed as the file turned out ridiculous. Barely had HD space for it and MacBook Pro promptly chocked when I tried to edit it