Super Tornado Outbreak 4/27/11

Edit: I haven't seen a final death toll in a while and there were still several people missing(>100) last I heard, but I am going to put in a number that I heard last and that was 341 people killed and still some 100 people missing. Total damages are in the billions.

On Wednesday April 27th, 2011, a massive tornado outbreak occurred in the southeast U.S. As of this writing, there are 285 confirmed deaths and nearly 2000 injuries that have occurred in mainly six states. 207 died in Alabama, 34 in Tennessee, 33 in Mississippi, 15 in Georgia, 5 in Virginia, and 1 in Arkansas.
Alabama was particularly hard hit by several long track violent tornadoes. Many small communities were basically wiped off the map, and Tuscaloosa and the northern suburbs of Birmingham were also hit. Initial ratings have started to come out with a couple high end EF-4's already. So far there are no ratings for the Tuscaloosa and Birmingham tornadoes, but it is believed they were at least EF-4 and possibly an EF-5.
This day and storm system was forecast for days. The Storm Prediction Center had a high risk outlook for the areas of Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia the day before. Some of the composite indices used to gauge potential severe weather were literally off the charts. Often times, severe weather outbreaks that are forecast like this don't transpire to the possible levels that seem likely. However, this was one of those times where the large and violent tornadoes that were traveling across the countryside were hitting towns and hitting large cities as well.
Being someone who is obviously interested in weather and follows especially severe weather very closely, I was glued to the TV and internet all day. I watched the Weather Channel, even though I normally don't anymore, and I found the ABC channel out of Birmingham that was broadcasting over the internet on my computer. First off let me say both channels did an excellent job of broadcasting this event. TWC which has become a lot of times anything but weather stayed on the air for over an hour covering the tornado as it went from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham. I was watching on my computer as the local channel had a Tuscaloosa skycam up and watched with horror as the large tornado went into Tuscaloosa. It gave me chills to watch what was going on live before my eyes.
What's so horrifying about the numbers of casualties is this occurred with today's technology. Death tolls from severe storms like this haven't been seen since the 1970's and before. There were several factors that probably contributed to the high numbers of deaths. First. the sheer size and number of tornadoes that hit large populated areas. When tornadoes have winds over 200 mph the only way to survive is if you are underground. A lot of homes in the south do not have basements. Second, there are a lot more mobile homes in the South which provide no reasonable shelter. Third, there was a line of storms that went through earlier in the morning that took out numerous power lines, and communication towers. Also, supposedly one of the weather transmitter towers was taken out so warnings weren't being sent out to weather radios. The last thing I want to mention that almost certainly happened was complacency towards warnings. There will always be people who think when they hear a tornado siren that nothing is going to happen to them where they live. There have been numerous times when I have been out chasing, where I have seen people out walking their dogs, etc while tornado sirens were blaring in their city. People have got to learn to take warnings seriously!!
One other thing, I saw on the news tonight. There was a news reporter reporting from a particularly hard hit area in Tuscaloosa. It was low income housing district for people who receive government housing I believe. Most of these people have no vehicles to escape, no technology to receive warnings other than sirens, and again no basements for shelter. I believe more than 10 people died in this subdivision alone.
April 27th was a sobering, and utterly horrifying day to watch unfold. There were many times today where I was having to fight back tears watching and listening to some of the stories of the victims. I know this will be a day I will remember for a long time.
I'm going to post some of the radar images that I saved, and also links to stories and videos. As the storm surveys come out I will post those as well.



Tuscaloosa 509 pm

Storm Relative Velocity Tuscaloosa 509 pm

Tuscaloosa 513 pm

Tuscaloosa 517 pm

Storm Relative Vel Tuscaloosa 517 pm

538 pm

538 pm

555 pm nearing Birmingham

555 pm close up- the purple circle is a debris ball!!

616 pm north of Birmingham. the red nearly complete circle is the circulation

616 pm SRV north of Birmingham


a classic example of yet another hook echo on a supercell in Alabama

videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ohIVzIZLuQ&feature=player_embedded -very close up video of tornado going near the University. guy sounds very scared throughout and at the end seems like he is crying and shaking. one of the most intense videos i've seen, and the human emotion at the end is raw
http://www.cbs42.com/mostpopular/story/Tuscaloosa-tornado-caught-on-tape-wreaking-havoc/hsK7dFmlUku5YlvteTFy6A.cspx -news station clip of tornado entering Tuscaloosa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIx26tN6pCk&feature=player_embedded - close call with tornado in tuscaloosa, lady comes running up to car near end of video hysterical
ground scouring Philadelphia, MS EF-5 tornado

damage surveys:
Birmingham WFO: http://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=BMX&product=PNS&issuedby=BMX
Jackson, MS WFO: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jan/?n=2011_04_25_27_svr
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jan/?n=2011_04_25_27_SVR_PNS
Atlanta damage survey
Huntsville, MS WFO
Eastern TN damage survey

Killer tornado outbreak 4/14-4/16

I'm going to post some links and info on the tornado outbreak that occurred over a 3 day period, April 14th-16th. It started with tornadoes in Oklahoma on the 14th, moved to an outbreak on the 15th in Mississippi and Alabama, and finally the last day was the deadly outbreak in North Carolina and Virginia.
As of this posting, 45 fatalities have been reported. Of the reported 45 fatalities, 22 occurred in North Carolina, 7 in Alabama, 7 in Arkansas, 6 in Virginia, 2 in Oklahoma and 1 in Mississippi. Tornado reports initiated from North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri and Louisiana.

Here are some of the storm surveys:
Oklahoma: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/?n=events-20110414 - tons of links at the top of this page!
another weather office: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=tsa&storyid=66688&source=0
Arkansas: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/lzk/?n=svr0411b.htm
Mississippi: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jan/?n=2011_04_15_tor
Alabama: http://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=BMX&product=PNS&issuedby=BMX
North Carolina:
http://www.erh.noaa.gov/er/rah/news/content/20110416_raleigh_survey.pdf
http://www.erh.noaa.gov/er/rah/news/content/20110416_fayetteville_survey.pdf
http://www.erh.noaa.gov/er/rah/news/content/Damage.Photos.from.Fay.Dunn.Tornadic.Storms.pdf

Some youtube videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh29Ta9YpXs&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC52No_LdKw&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf5ebTswhSM&feature=player_embedded
guy sitting in his truck as the tornado passes right by. he seems to think it's not that bad as he can only see "leaves" flying around. then it hits a house and tons of debris get thrown at his truck! very lucky guy to not be injured!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgwJfoZ-12c
video taken by a 12 year old as his dad(?) drives right into the tornado! at the end you can tell one of the windows was knocked out of the car. more stupidity!!
http://www.wral.com/news/video/9456892/#/vid9456892

4/9/11 Iowa chase

This day was already my 2nd chase of the season which is pretty impressive for this time of year in my area. Last year, I don't believe I went out until the end of April! This day was well advertised for almost the whole week with the only differences being on location, and also how strong the cap would be. The last part was a concern because it would be possible despite the unseasonable warmth and moisture, no storms would form due to the cap in the atmosphere. Finally, the night before the forecasts focused on northeast Nebraska into Northern Iowa as the prime area. Besides the extreme instability that was forecast to develop, there would be a lot of shear available for supercells with large hail and tornadoes.
I hung around Omaha waiting for signs of initiation. At about 430, i took off up I-29 with a plan to go to Onawa, Iowa. There was a storm forming slowly in northeast Nebraska west of Onawa, moving in the direction of that city. I made it up to the exit and went west of town about 3-4 miles. I had a great view of the storm the west and north of me. The storm didn't look all that great for about the first 30 minutes i was sitting there. The only thing that was impressive about the storm at first was the amount of lightning up in the clouds, and also soon after i was parked, the inflow winds into the storm increased like crazy to consistently 30-40 mph. There were new storms firing back by Madison and Norfolk Nebraska. I was just about ready to leave the original storm i was watching and head west about 50 miles towards the new storms which were supposedly in a better environment for tornadoes. I was literally typing in the new city in the garmin when i looked up at the back of the storm and started to see all kinds of rotation. At one point I almost felt unsafe enough to move as an intense area of rotation that looked like it was trying to form a funnel was right above me!
I filmed this for a bit and then looked out to the northwest and saw all kinds of dust blowing around. I immediately noticed that rather than it just being blowing dust, what i was seeing were gustnadoes forming. These aren't true tornadoes because they normally aren't attached to the cloud base but are still signs of strong shear, updrafts, and rotation very near to the ground.
I proceeded to take some really cool video over the next 10-15 minutes. Near the beginning of the video, I am suddenly hit by one of these gustnadoes as it goes right over the top of me! I also filmed a strong RFD go across the field and into the trees about 1/4 to 1/2 mile away. It was cool to see all the debris and dust being carried by this and when it hit the trees a bunch of birds went flying out! The storm was now really getting its act together and was tornado warned. I checked the radar and the main area of circulation was right over the top of me!
The storm was beginning to move into western Iowa further now. I hopped in the car and headed back east through Onawa. The sirens were blaring, but of course I saw several people including kids out playing and walking around still. I got out east of town a few miles and had another great view of the storm to my north. It was again kicking up these gustnadoes. I pulled over and started filming and not more than 30 seconds two very large, intense ones formed in the corn field in front of me. They were intense enough and large enough that for a while i thought for sure I was seeing a tornado form. I kept looking up at the clouds though and didn't see any real strong rotation. You could even see these little tiny suction vortices form right in front of me about 50 feet or so and kick up some dirt and old corn stalks. The other circulations were strong enough that there was now old corn stalks falling from the skies!! The larger gustnado kindof fell apart and moved onto the east so I hopped back into my car and went east as well.
The storm was heading towards Mapleton, Iowa, so I continued east down Hwy 175. This is where I made my "mistake" of the night. 175 turns north and comes into Mapleton from the southwest. I was taking a look at the radar and felt there was no way I could beat the storm to Mapleton, so I continued east on Hwy 37 until county road L32 where I headed north. This road would take me into Mapleton from the south and also give me options to go east if need be. As i got within a couple of miles, I began to see reports of tornado going through Mapleton. I was approaching the storm and could begin to see a very dark area that was kindof fuzzy/hazy in the center of the storm. Along the edges of this dark area, it seemed to be rotating. At first, I wasn't sure whether this was the tornado. After seeing other reports and video, though I am sure I saw the ending of the tornado and what I was seeing was all the dust being thrown around in the air from the tornado. I still wish I would have gone up on 175, but I wanted to make sure I could go east if I wanted to and not have to take a gravel road, so who knows what would have happened.
It was now nearly dark, so for a while i headed east(on mainly gravel roads) and wanted to find a good spot for lightning shots. I was close enough to the storms yet though that there was usually strong winds or light rain falling, so I never did stop for pics. I did stop at one point because i could see a wall cloud being illuminated by the lightning, but never saw a tornado. I started heading home all the while watching on radar and online the reports of a major tornado outbreak ongoing. I never chase at night if possible, but this night I wish I would have kept on chasing. The storms continued to allow great visibility of the tornadoes even after dark. There was constant lightning with the storms and the flatter terrain allowed great visibility as well.

Below are some of the radar grabs of the storm and the severe weather outlooks:


curved hodograph showing the amazing directional shear


moderate risk from Omaha on north and northeastward

tornado probs

very high probs of large hail

severe storm just as it was developing at 615 pm(i'm located at the white circle with the dot in the middle)

storm relative velocity grab at 647 pm. notice the purple box is a tornado warning. i'm still located at the white circle. the small purple triangles are signals of strong rotation

hook starting to form as storm heads towards Mapleton

large hook on storm as possible tornado heads towards Mapleton

monster supercell heads towards odebolt and arthur, with tornadoes later confirmed

Here are some of my pics. I didn't take a lot as I was mainly videotaping the gustnadoes, etc. I have my brand new HD camcorder for this season, but it didn't come with the cord I need to transfer video onto my computer, so my video will be up in a week or so.

view of storm to the west near Onawa

storms really starting to grow

view of a somewhat lowered base to the storm

multiple cells starting to form

view of back side and flanking line going into main cell

swirling dust in field west of Onawa

one of the first gustnadoes

here you can see the RFD really kicking up the dust on the ground to the left, and a gustnado forming in the middle of the screen

another one forming east of Onawa

2 of them at once!! the focus isn't the best I was trying to record video at the same time

here are some links to damage surveys:
Mapleton tornado: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=oax&storyid=66512&source=0

other Iowa tornadoes:
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=dmx&storyid=66541&source=0

cool twin tornadoes near Pocahontas, IA:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF5kEbCBYMI&feature=player_embedded

Mapleton tornado:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_NWt0JRP2Y&feature=player_embedded#at=38

TOTAL MILEAGE: 272 miles
TORNADOES: 1
HAIL: NONE
WINDS: estimated 50 mph

First chase of the season!! Iowa 3/22/11

Today was the first chase of the 2011 season. It was an earlier chase than usual, as a seasonably strong storm system moved through and temps were more like April or May. The high today in Omaha was 78!! This time of year chasing can be tricky because often times storm motions are very fast due to stronger storm systems that have faster upper level winds which steer the storms.
Today was no exception. The storms were forecast to move at 40-50 mph, but most of the time were moving at 50-60 mph and sometimes even 65 mph!! This can make it hard to catch up to a storm if you're behind it or to stay out of its way if you need to be safe!
I went out chasing with a buddy and we left town around 330. We immediately had a tough decision. There were storms west of Omaha moving almost due north, and there were storms in southeast Nebraska moving northeast into southwest Iowa. We decided to go to southeast Iowa. We went south on I-29 and then went east on Hwy 34 towards Red Oak. On our way there, the storms up by Omaha turned east and were now tornado warned with a confirmed tornado by Missouri Valley, Iowa! Again, with the fast storm motions there was no way to get back up that way even though we were only about 40 miles away.
We continued on to Red Oak just barely staying in front of our initial storm. The storm was only severe warned for large hail. We decided at that point to head back north towards Atlantic, Iowa to get closer to the warm front where there should be a better chance for a tornado. While driving north we were overtaken by the original storm, and it was now tornado warned! The storm didn't look that great though for a tornado and we were hit by some quarter to possibly a little larger sized hail. We made it back to I-80 and at this point thought we could make it back to the tornado warned storm that was heading towards Harlan. It was weakening though, so in an effort to still get a tornado and with enough daylight left we headed east on I-80 towards more storms coming up from the south. One of the storms was massive and went through Greenfield with a report of a rain wrapped tornado. Just exactly what we didn't want. A tornado you couldn't see and moving at 50-60 mph! We positioned ourselves south of the storm on Hwy 92 and tried catching up with it as we continued east, but never did. We finally ended up in Winterset, Iowa where we decided to fill up and get something to eat. One more last storm moved over us while we were there with tons of marble sized hail. The back edge of the storm looked pretty interesting so we went out east of town to look at it. The motions in the clouds were absolutely intense! It was almost enough to make you motion sick with the way clouds were spinning and rising and falling. Nothing came close to producing a tornado though. While we were sitting there, we hadn't noticed an intense line of storms that were forming along the cold front that was moving in from the west. These storms were producing large hail and for a while went tornado warned as well, but again didn't look real great tornado wise. We went north on Hwy 169 to let the storms come over us. Using my radar we tried to position ourselves in the main hail core which the radar was showing to be up to 2.5" in diameter!! While driving into position, I saw something I've never really seen before. Often times when storms produce really big hail, there aren't as many stones falling to the ground. So you can be driving and not actually be getting hit by hail despite seeing these large chunks of ice falling all around you. This is what was happening to us as we were driving. We finally ended up getting hit by a couple of the large stones, that I'm sure left some more dents! Lastly, as we continued north we ran into some damage to a farmstead right along the highway. There was a report of a tornado hitting the house here. We stopped and took some pics of damage to the buildings and telephone poles in the area, before heading home. Overall, it was a fun trip with lots of activity. We were in hail several different times and experienced hail golf ball sized and even a bit larger. We didn't see any tornadoes, but it was a tough day to chase.

Here are some pics below. I didn't end up with very many because we were constantly on the move and never had time to stop and take pics. These are from the last line of storms that we waited to overtake us north of Winterset, and then some of the damage to the farm.

Omaha shelf cloud 9/15/10

a nice little severe storm blew threw omaha with 60 mph winds and penny to quarter sized hail. i worked til 7 and watched the storm on the radar. unfortunately, i waited too long to get out to take some pics, so i had to kindof take pics while driving. it was one of the cooler looking storms i've seen in quite a while! you could really see the rotation of the storm as it approached overhead, and on the northern edge of the storm where i was closer too at one point, there was scud rapidly rising in the updraft of the storm. sarah and i went north for a while before i could see that the storm was going to go further south so we went back south down 132nd street. we ran into very heavy rain and soon hail up to penny sized. it was coming down so hard that we had to pull over in our church parking lot until it let up! we headed home, and as we were coming down our street we first noticed one tree that had a fairly large branch broken, and then 2 houses down from us we saw an entire 15-20 feet tall tree was uprooted from the ground. i wish i would have gotten out about 1o minutes earlier to get some better pics, but it was still a nice little storm!



radar grabs of the storm as it moved through the town