2011-04-27 MISC: AL,TN,MS,KY,OH,IN,WV,GA

[Skip Talbot]

Contrast Bumped

Contrast Bump with area of variation circled

At first glance it looks like a precipitation shaft, or a gap between precipitations shafts. Notice how the contour of the feature follows the same contour of the precipitation shaft to the left. The shape suggests precip shaft too in the way it goes horizontal at ground level, whereas a tornado is usually perpendicular to the ground where it contacts, even if it does goes horizontal higher up. Kinda reminds me of this precipitation shaft optical effect I saw on July 13, 2010 on the MN/ND border:

http://skip.cc/chase/100713/10071305.jpg

Definitely could be an embedded tornado in there, even if this isn't it, and its worth investigating more.

 

[Trey Thee]

That's funny stuff.

Many private sector meteorologists are better trained than NWS meteorologists when it comes to severe weather. What do you do in that case? Why should a TV meteorologist "summarize convective outlooks" anyways?

Civilian/Corporate Meteorology has become very flawed, and Ive known of several tv stations both here in Nashville and back home in Kansas City, who dropped the ball repeatedly during outbreaks (5/4/2003 WDAF-TV Fox News made no mention of severe weather potential, they just said some thunderstorms would hit, when the SPC had issued an outbreak advisory 3 days prior). Nashville stations did the same thing here during the Good Friday tornado, when the SPC issued a Special Weather Statement the night before, but not ONE of those local stations said anything about possible severe weather or tornadoes.

[/QUOTE]

I agree, people will always ignore this stuff. It's not the government's job to force it into your head. There are countless resources available to keep people informed. Could some aspects be improved? absolutely, but it doesn't get much better than this week IMO. People just have to be responsible human beings. Part of the problem is we are overly dependent on someone else pulling our load and being responsible for us, too many people expect to be spoon fed everything from the government.

 

[Atreyu Neyhart]

I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but in Drew's pic, there is what appears to be a funnel, looks like a scud, but it does line up directly with that feature.

 

[John Farley]

I think the death toll can only be attributed to one thing and one thing only... people just don't pay attention to the weather. No matter how good the coverage is, or how many times they hear about the tornado threat, they usually say, "I had no idea it was coming. We had no warning," although warnings WERE issued in a timely manner.

I am sorry to be critical, but this simply displays a lack of knowledge of what disaster research has shown over the years. Yes, this does happen for some people, but saying "one thing and one thing only" will nearly always make you wrong. And it certainly does in this case. The fact is that there were many people whose situation made a life-saving response impossible, even if they heard and heeded the warnings. This includes many people who live in mobile home parks without tornado shelters, and in some cases lack of access to a vehicle makes their situation even more desperate - especially with half-mile wide tornadoes moving 50 mph. Additionally, as has been mentioned here several times, there appear to be many non-modular homes in the affected areas that do not have basements. An interior room is good in most tornadoes, but these were not "most tornadoes" - it is nearly certain that some of these tornadoes were EF-4 or higher, and in that circumstance, there are going to be some situations where survival may be impossible if you are not below ground. Add to that the possibility, mentioned in a number of posts in this thread, that power outages may have kept people from hearing the warnings via sirens, NWR, or TV, and you can see that there is much more to this horrible death toll than simply "people don't pay attention to the weather."

 

[Skip Talbot]

I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but in Drew's pic, there is what appears to be a funnel, looks like a scud, but it does line up directly with that feature.

There are several pointy lowerings in the cloud base. It could very well be a funnel, but the fact that there are several in one frame makes me think there is just a lot of scud activity here.

 

[MClarkson]

I dunno if anyone has posted this yet...

Boston Globe's usual collection of higher res higher quality pictures

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/04/tornadoes_kill_over_200.html?p1=News_links

 

[Scott Taylor]

I have to agree with Skip on Andrew's picture... my initial thought was "rain curtain"... definitely looks like precip, as there appears to be a core to the left. I would think any possible tornadic circulation with *that* storm (only can go by the picture presented), would be much more "left" in the picture, back beyond the core... of it not, maybe rain-wrapped?

Anyway, regarding all the coverage out of Alabama - I've seen tons of reports and photos out of Tuscaloosa, but very little on the Birmingham area (northern...) I finally came across some aerial footage, but haven't seen or read much else. When viewing the live coverage of it go just north of Birmingham, the wedge looked a mile wide or bigger. Anyone have any news links or other info?

Thanks,
Scott

 

[Chad Ringley]

Quick comment on the tornado count...while there are numerous double reports, I anticipate that there are several undocumented tornadoes and those will be added as the surveys are conducted. Case in point: 7 fatalities in Glade Spring, VA, and from the pics, most certainly a tornado...yet no LSR has been issued by MRX.

 

[Aaron Kennedy]

TERRA AQUA passed over AL today. Can easily pick out numerous tornado tracks. I labeled some of the more obvious ones along with a few cities in the area...

http://people.aero.u...AQUA_damage.jpg

 

[George Tincher]

It appears the Smithville, MS tornado (Monroe County) has been given a preliminary rating of EF4 with estimated peak winds of 190 mph and a 1/2 mile wide damage path.

http://kamala.cod.edu/ms/latest.nous44.KMEG.html

 

[Zack Hargrove]

Quick comment on the tornado count...while there are numerous double reports, I anticipate that there are several undocumented tornadoes and those will be added as the surveys are conducted. Case in point: 7 fatalities in Glade Spring, VA, and from the pics, most certainly a tornado...yet no LSR has been issued by MRX.

Two separate confirmed tornadoes in Bartow County Georgia as well aren't even up on SPC... I am expecting many more reports.

 

[E. Clark]

I agree, people will always ignore this stuff. It's not the government's job to force it into your head. There are countless resources available to keep people informed. Could some aspects be improved? absolutely, but it doesn't get much better than this week IMO. People just have to be responsible human beings. Part of the problem is we are overly dependent on someone else pulling our load and being responsible for us, too many people expect to be spoon fed everything from the government.

Maybe you forget or just don't understand that we have been paying taxes for education, technology, research, infrastructure and safety services that reflect Americans investment in these critical needs areas such as warning systems and emergency management during natural disasters.
This great American investment over the years by ourselves, our parents and great grandparents were designated to prevent loss of life. And it has worked amazingly well. I don't think anyone wants to go back to the days of relying on the Farmer's Almanac as opposed to being 'spoon-fed'. Or maybe some do, but not the majority of us. After all- it is a spoon that several generations of Americans have paid for and now own.

That being said, I still think we need to seriously look into the Japanese warning system that plays voice recorded warnings rather than just a siren.

 

[mikegeukes]

I saved this radar image of the Debris Ball yesterday.

Debris Ball Radar Image:
http://supercellweather.com/Debris Ball2.png

Jefferson County AL F5 Tornadoes: 1950-2010
04-04-1977
04-08-1998

Tuscaloosa County Al F5 Tornadoes: 1950-2010
03-13-1966
04-08-1998

Mike

 

[rdale]

That being said, I still think we need to seriously look into the Japanese warning system that plays voice recorded warnings rather than just a siren.

EMA's can't even afford $15,000 to upgrade a siren to digital so that they can selectively activate based on polygon... There is NO way they are going to spend half-a-million dollars to make everything voice, especially with the other methods of dissemination so much better.

 

[George Tincher]

EMA's can't even afford $15,000 to upgrade a siren to digital so that they can selectively activate based on polygon... There is NO way they are going to spend half-a-million dollars to make everything voice, especially with the other methods of dissemination so much better.

In addition to what Rob said, I'd like to point out that the difference between warning systems used in Japan and the United States aren't the systems themselves, but how people react to them. One can debate the merits of siren versus voice systems. But in the end, it is the responsibility of each individual to heed the advice given in official instructions.

Japanese society tends to be very orderly. When they receive a Tsunami alert with instructions to head to high ground, they generally do as they are instructed. In contrast, here in the United States, when an official tornado warning is issued and instructions given to seek shelter, all too often our reaction is to grab a Sony Handycam and head for the roof to get a better view. It is simply a difference in mindset between societies, rather than the warning systems used, that in the end makes the real difference.