Horrible News
Horrible news:
According to CNN, the number of fatalities for this storm has increased to 45. Tragic.
Some comparisons to consider:
This outbreak is now, unfortunately, in terms of fatalities, on the same rank and scale as the
May 3, 1999 Tornado outbreak in Central Oklahoma that claimed 46 fatalities. The May 3 had far more injuries, at 665, I don't believe we have that amount with this outbreak at this time, with over 100 injuries reported at this point. The May 3, 1999 Tornado outbreak had 66 confirmed tornadoes. PRELIMINARY indications from the Storm Prediction Center are showing
68 tornado reports, but this will likely be trimmed as tornado reports are congealed into single tornado events.
This has been the deadliest tornado outbreak in 5 years, since the
May 3 - 11, 2003 "9 Days of May" TornadoFest that claimed in a period of 9 Days a total of 48 fatalities at that time.
This is the earliest tornado outbreak in a calender year since the Hazelhurst, Mississippi
Tornado Outbreak in 1969 that claimed 32 lives, not counting the Central Florida tornadoes of February 3, 2007 - that was only 3 tornadoes and not considered an outbreak.
DISCUSSION:
This tornado outbreak has been significant for several factors: The massive number of tornado reports, the early season factor, and all conditions coming together perfectly. The Storm Prediction center nailed this with a High Risk early in the day, with a forecast of a significant tornado outbreak.
As the day went on, scattered to numerous supercells developed well in front of an approaching strong cold front in a high shear environment. The abundant moisture, dewpoints in the mid 60s, an unusually strong jet stream and approaching front combined with the high shear combined to give the perfect ingredients for an outbreak. The storms developed rapidly in the mid afternoon, and rapidly exploded into tornado producing High Precipitation supercells.
Chasers were certainly on the scene. Tony Laubach, a storntrack member, flew from Colorado to the outbreak, and was rewarded with a multiple vortex wedge tornado. Other chasers also caught tornadoes as well, as chaser turnout and spotter activity was extremely high. Hard work it was however, with storm motions at 55-60 MPH.
These incredibly fast storm motions are partly responsible for the high fatalities as the high speed of the approaching tornadoes simply caught many by surprise, despite the urgency and constant blast of emergency warning sirens.
PERSONAL THOUGHTS
I was up at my computer most of the day yesterday watching these events unfold with 30 other storm chasers in the #stormchase IRC chat room and was saddened at each new large tornado report and damage report coming in. It was sad how many large population areas were direct targets this time around - and very stressful when you realize you can't do anything about it but sit and watch and hope for the best. IT was exciting to watch, but the excitement is dampened this morning with such a large loss of life.
This tornado outbreak will go down in history - and my thoughts and prayers go out to all families affected by this tragedy.
