Unbelievable tornado outbreak overwhelms southern U.S.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011, was that once in a generation tornado outbreak that's been looming since
Super Outbreak April 1974. With the death toll climbing over 200 as of this morning, it is easily the deadliest outbreak in the modern Doppler era. Seemingly every thunderstorm that formed after the noon hour spawned a violent tornado. Dozens of communities in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia took direct hits. The damage is staggering. Seasoned, veteran storm chasers and meteorologists agree that they have never seen anything like this.
Above are high resolution radar images from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, captured as the almost otherworldly tornado was tearing through the city. Reed, Joel and Chris observed this tornado just after its birth, but were unable to keep up with the storm due to an unfavorable road network and the high speed at which the storm was traveling. Based on the videos from various angles, I am willing to call the most incredible tornado I have ever seen.
4/27/11 - Tuscaloosa TornadoSomething very fascinating which stood out about yesterday's event is that, aside from their very violent nature, so many of the tornadoes had numbers of horizontal vortices coming from the sides of the tornadoes themselves, as well as satellites from above. This is not something commonly seen, with maybe one or two tornadoes per year displaying these characteristics, and usually more subtly than the examples from yesterday. Obviously, the environment over northern and central Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia was perfect for these kinds of freak tornadoes. At one point yesterday afternoon, Storm Relative Helicity for the north-central Alabama area was coming in at >1,000 m2/s2. That index in itself is rather extravagant, but when you add in CAPE at > 3000+ j/Kg, the results can be horrifying, as we are now seeing. Below is Reed, Chris and Joel's video.
April 27, 2011 Tornado Outbreak - Mississippi and AlabamaBeyond all of the destruction and loss of life, tornado outbreaks like this are also invaluable learning tools. People naturally want to dissect any given event to determine what worked, what could have been done differently, and to use what they learn to devise ways of doing better in the future. As it applies to yesterday, it is easy to say that National Weather Service personnel, members of the media, and storm chasers and spotters all worked in unison to provide and disseminate information that resulted in the best-possible warnings to those in harm's way, given the tools at their disposal. Thousands of people would have likely succumbed to the wrath of yesterday's storms without their efforts. Developing better warning systems is always something people like to talk about, but the real challenge, obviously, is how? It seems that we may have reached the limit of what's possible with Doppler radar and human-based warnings. One new method that is being explored right now involves infrasound technology. Tupelo, MS-based
Hyperion Technology Group (who you may recognize as the team who builds the radar and cannon array for the Dominator) was in the field yesterday, in partnership with TVN, in an effort to collect some initial data in support of a tornado infrasound research mission. One of the primary goals of this research is to find and sample a detectable infrasound signal produced by a tornado and received at various ranges away from the tornado (i.e., essentially a warnable signal that a tornado has formed or is imminent). They intercepted two tornadoes, including the Houston/Okolona, MS tornado, which was large and strong. (This same storm eventually produced the Smithville, MS tornado, which, evidently, was violent based on Hyperion's assessment of damage afterward.) They successfully deployed sensors on a subsequent supercell, around the time of the Tuscaloosa tornado (but not in the immediate vicinity of that storm). So, in the middle of yesterday's catastrophic outbreak, some very cutting-edge science was being was being put to use, with hopes that something can be gained to allow the meteorology and engineering community to build on finding that "something better" for devising warnings. We'd consider Hyperion's efforts a very successful trial run for this new research project, and are looking forward to being able to perform multiple data collects as the heart of the tornado season is upon us. Below are some radar images from the initial storm
Hyperion was sampling.
http://www.tornadovideos.net/component/content/article/36-tornadoes/1356-unbelievable-tornado-outbreak-overwhelms-southern-us
