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Historic Tornado Outbreak April 27, 2011


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I have some relatives who live in Atlanta and have a weekend house up near Sky View/Dillard. Any tornado, if it was on the ground went close to their house. They'll be up there Friday and evaluate any damage at that time.

Glad they weren't up there attm. Lets hope the house was spared. good luck

Anyhow fellas, ladies.. im off to bed. Striper fishing @ 4am tomorrow..fml!

From a meteorological stand point, what an awe stricking day to observe such an event. As far as the human toll, too much death and destrcuction and i hope everyone fairs well the rest of the event. tomorrow's images are gona be a gut check.

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By my count, at least 27 fatalities in Mississippi, just from LSR entries.

Memphis CWA

3 in Chickasaw County (SE of Houston)

12 in Monroe County (4 at New Wren, 8 at Smithville)

Jackson CWA

4 in Clarke County (Snell)

1 in Choctaw County (near Eupora)

2 in Webster County (Mathiston)

3 in Kemper County (Nanih Waiya)

2 in Jasper County (Louin)

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The horizontal vortices that were so prominent with this tornado may be an indicator of the low-level shear present in the environment or may have been forced at the interface of the tornado inflow layer (lowest 50 m or so) and the air above it. Fascinating stuff.

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What an event. No doubt there will be numerous case studies about this.

On a personal note, I still haven't heard anything about my family in Tuscaloosa. Hoping it's just a case of the phones being down. Just surreal to see the images out of there...quite honestly I'm almost at a loss for words.

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EF4s and EF5s account for <1% of all tornados and >67% of all tornado deaths.

I think modern warnings may have made this percentage even higher. Less people are dying in the small tornados but there is still little that can be done to save yourself in 1/2 mile wide EF5.

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Agree, like many have said, you can put warnings out an hour in advance, but it is entirely up to the people to heed these warnings.

I don't know man. If you are living in Birmingham AL and you had an hour warning, how do you escape the wrath of that twister? I mean yea, I guess you could leave and drive out of town, but what more can people do when they get hit by a storm that strong?

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Probably almost impossible for a passenger to know whether or not they are over a tornado while flying commercially (I assume planes can fly over these storms without turbulence as long as they stay at maximum altitude)but I wonder what it looks like above these storms and if pilots have the technology available to know whether or not they are flying over a tornado. Just a different aspect.

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Probably almost impossible for a passenger to know whether or not they are over a tornado while flying commercially (I assume planes can fly over these storms without turbulence as long as they stay at maximum altitude)but I wonder what it looks like above these storms and if pilots have the technology available to know whether or not they are flying over a tornado. Just a different aspect.

Pilots do not fly over supercells, the updraft easily goes into the lower stratopshere.

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Probably almost impossible for a passenger to know whether or not they are over a tornado while flying commercially (I assume planes can fly over these storms without turbulence as long as they stay at maximum altitude)but I wonder what it looks like above these storms and if pilots have the technology available to know whether or not they are flying over a tornado. Just a different aspect.

No, they can't flow over overshooting tops exceeding 50k feet. They fly around.

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Probably almost impossible for a passenger to know whether or not they are over a tornado while flying commercially (I assume planes can fly over these storms without turbulence as long as they stay at maximum altitude)but I wonder what it looks like above these storms and if pilots have the technology available to know whether or not they are flying over a tornado. Just a different aspect.

these storms had tops well over 40k ft, no way a plane would dare try to fly over that mess. I can tell you right now, they avoid these cells like crazy because they technology is more than there for that. Having worked in Navy Aviation, this is for fact.

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Probably almost impossible for a passenger to know whether or not they are over a tornado while flying commercially (I assume planes can fly over these storms without turbulence as long as they stay at maximum altitude)but I wonder what it looks like above these storms and if pilots have the technology available to know whether or not they are flying over a tornado. Just a different aspect.

Airplanes steer around severe storms. Some today had 55k tops...way higher than commercial airliners fly.

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I hope they are okay. It is a trying event to watch from far away. Not going to be ashamed to say that I had tears in my eyes watching the Birmingham tornado and texting and calling friends down there. One doesn't see radar images like that and not know what is going on. Thankfully so far all of my friends are okay - haven't heard from many and prob won't know more until the next day or two.

Our local NWS director said this was a sickening day for him. Sickening is what he called it and I would say that is a good word for it.

A few days ago many thought this might impact areas from St Louis to Nashville and south.

Once again the tornado ingredient maps caught it days and days in advance. Kept rising the numbers. I swear by that - seems to work well.

Our region is saying waters continue to rise. I can now see the backwaters here at my place in central Massac County - when I look out to the northwest. We assume that is the Ohio River. Water is actually over the road down from me - went over today.

From a meteorological point of view this has all been incredible - stunning - amazing - dramatic - saddening - and emotional. It takes a toll day after day after day.

I shudder to think what will happen if this pattern keeps up into May. Surely we are getting some of this out of the way early. I don't know. Some people think the next 2-4 weeks will be extremely busy. I don't know and haven't looked.

Seems like the last few weeks have been extreme.

Time for a break!

Hope everyone's families in the forum are okay. I know several have been trying to get in touch with friends and or family.

Well said Beau. It has been an incredible day. I too hope that everyones loved ones effected by tornado and flood waters are safe.

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Probably almost impossible for a passenger to know whether or not they are over a tornado while flying commercially (I assume planes can fly over these storms without turbulence as long as they stay at maximum altitude)but I wonder what it looks like above these storms and if pilots have the technology available to know whether or not they are flying over a tornado. Just a different aspect.

I wonder if anyone has looked at the whole sprite/blue jet thing above strong tornadic supercells.

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You could warn an area until your blue in the face.

If it falls upon deaf ears, then there will be fatalities.

It is difficult to survive a direct hit from an EF4 or EF5 even with a warning. When you have these storms rolling through densely populated areas like they did today, there's nowhere to go. There are very few basements in the southeast due to the water table. You get in an interior room and try to protect yourself from a roof collapse but your wood-frame building is going to get blown to smithereens. The only warning good enough to avoid this is one that comes early enough for evacuation.

Personally, if I had been in the path in Birmingham and seen what happened in Tuscaloosa, I would have checked the traffic cams for congestion and gotten out of town. There's no way I'm going to try riding out an EF-4 or EF-5 in a wood-frame house if I had 40 minutes to evacuate. There are a lot more things that could be done with regard to these monster long-track tornadoes to avoid loss of life. I think the advice to stay in your bathtub and wait for an EF-5 to hit you is just insane. I use the bathroom for smaller events and quick spin-ups but that is not usually the case in these massive events.

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Thanks for the inputs. Kind of a ignorant severe weather newbie and don't have access to advanced data I have seen used on here. Obviously didn't even know the storms were above 40,000 feet into the atmosphere. I assume it would be even more fasincating to have an aerial view of some of these tornadoes today.

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Easily the most unnerving thing about the day for me was seeing random leaves falling from high out of the sky on at least 3 different occasions over the course of a couple of hours with no storm within 25 miles of me. Here in the southern suburbs of Birmingham we barely even had any rain at all. Just updated the Alabama death toll to 64.

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EF4s and EF5s account for <1% of all tornados and >67% of all tornado deaths.

I think modern warnings may have made this percentage even higher. Less people are dying in the small tornados but there is still little that can be done to save yourself in 1/2 mile wide EF5.

Evacuate!

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http://www.wrcbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=14521722

RINGGOLD:

Ringgold PD has requested a mass casualty area be set to handle fatalities.

Catoosa County has declared a state of emergency.

Massive devastating damage has been reported on the following streets:

Highway 151 (Alabama Highway)

Highway 41

Talley Road

Nashville Street

Bill Jones Road

Salem Valley Road

Salem Road

Cherokee Valley Road

London Lane

Apison Pike

Ware Road

10-12 commercial buildings have collapsed.

100-200 injured.

Super 8 Motel evacuated 125 from location due to damage.

Major damages to Ringgold High and Middle Schools (one entire wing missing)

Georgia Search and Rescue teams dispatched to the area.

TRENTON:

Possible tornado hit apartment complex. At least 2 dead, multiple injured.

Hamilton County lending service to help Dade County.

Dade County has declared a state of emergency.

FLINSTONE, WALKER COUNTY:

Multiple buildings collapsed at Eagles' Landing off 193. Substantial damage in area.

No reports of fatalities.

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From the same source:

CHATTANOOGA (WRCB) - Here's the latest update on damage from the storms that have hit the Tennessee Valley.

The worst hit areas are Ringgold, and Trenton in Georgia and Apison and Cleveland in Tennessee.

Due to lack of communication with many areas in the Tennessee Valley, and crews working in complete darkness, the scope of the damage will not become clear until tomorrow night

APISON, HAMILTON COUNTY:

Triage center set up for mass injuried at Apison Elementary.

Reports of homes collapsed, people trapped in homes.

Police on scene confirm at least 2 dead off Clonts Road.

Roads impassible.

CLEVELAND:

Communication extremely limited in Cleveland.

Knox County sending Search and Rescue teams Cleveland.

Chattanooga FD Urban Search and Rescue teams dispatched to Cleveland.

Scattered reports of buildings collapsed and people trapped.

McDONALD, BRADLEY COUNTY:

Widespread damage to homes. Multiple people trapped.

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