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A beginner's look and walk through 4/27/11 and my decision not to chase.

Danny, I left a comment in your blog, so I'll keep this short and simply way, Wow. You have offered a fabulous writeup on the April 27 Super Outbreak, and everyone on Stormtrack should read it. Thank you!
 
I tear up reading your account of watching the 33/40 broadcast, because I know exactly what you were feeling. I didn't chase that day even though it was in my backyard. The days leading up before the event I really was excited for the possibility of the chase, but we went to Arkansas the day before and I knew I couldn't take two days off in a row. A tornado struck near my workplace by the MCS in the morning. They let us off work because we weren't going to get power back that day. I watched that broadcast, the radar, and everything. I knew I had friends out there chasing that I was worried about, and I also knew my friends and family were in danger. I can't explain the way I felt other than shell shocked. Our area still bears the scars from that day, and I felt a great deal of guilt for being excited about this setup. Severe weather in Dixie isn't uncommon, but I never could imagine anything like this would happen.

Your write up was superb! I love your explanations of how this setup played out. Very educational! :) Again.. thanks for posting!
 
Excellent analysis Danny, very easy to understand and helped me connect some dots in setups that I wasn't quite sure of before. Thanks for the great post!
 
Great job!! I loved the writeup and all the synoptic information as well. I was sitting at home this day and watching things unfold mainly on TWC. I did find the 33/40 broadcast online just in time to watch as the tornado began to tear through Tuscaloosa. I remember feeling the goosebumps, watching in horror as the tornado suddenly appeared. I have seen other tornado footage live on a webcam of a chaser, but this one was different watching it go directly through a large city and knowing it was probably killing people. I was actually surprised at how strong the feelings were that came over me as I watched, it was just so surreal!!
 
I had many of the same feelings watching both 4/27 and 4/16. 4/16 was especially intense anxiety-wise watching a strong couplet go over my brother and his wife's house in Raleigh, then hearing that buildings were destroyed a couple blocks away from their house. My brother and his wife were not home at the time, but trying to get back once they heard what was happening. I spent the next hour watching the TV chopper cams waiting to see if their house still had a roof or not. Finally they showed the path, and the house was intact, though they had some roof and porch damage and lost a couple of trees. April 4, my own house was damaged by a severe storm that snapped the top of one of my trees onto the roof, poking several holes, damaging the gutters, siding, plaster in 2 rooms and pulling down the power feed. The ordeal to get contractors working to fix the damage, fighting the insurance company and trying to manage the situation from 500 miles away is not something I want to ever do again.

Severe weather is different animal when it's affecting you or someone close to you.
 
Thank you for the kind words and comments left on the blog. I did another shorter one about 4/9/11 found back on the blog homepage. I noticed the timeline needs to be tweaked some because it was compiled a few days after the event and some of the information has changed. I enjoyed doing this... maybe I will do another one.
 
Hey Ken.... thanks for getting back to me. I noticed some of the comments in there were about the timeline and I do apologize... it was created a couple days after the event. Stuff has changed and I may have overlooked somethings. I may end up taking it out and retooling it to be posted later. I would have to go through NWSchat archives to fine tune somethings.

Furthermore I noticed a comment about how my information about the NOAA wx radio was erroneous ..... I actually used the information provided to me from the NWS service assessment team.... it states on page 6 of 77 that "Widespread damage had occurred from the morning storms not only affecting the public but also SEVERAL NWR transmitters.... in some places power was not restored before the stronger afternoon/evening storms" while I paraphrased that a bit the SAR team outlined that reason as a significant reason for loss of life. In fact that is their third bullet point ""damage to warning dissemination products ". At one point in time power WAS lost for a good chunk of Northern Alabama as well as several NWR. I'll have to come back later and post a link to the SAR as I am on my phone...
 
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Danny,
No apologies necessary. The intent of the post was to give the novice weather geek a understanding of the incredible dynamics in play as well as a "personal" insight into the day.

You accomplished all of that.

Re the NWR .... Bottom line....their backup systems were either not present, not adequate or simply failed. It's a sensitive subject for them, but from a end user, I don't give a rats (you know what) whether the "transmitter failed" or there were "non transmitter issues".... Bottom line ...no radio. Of course alternative sources of info should be part of your planning.
 
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