Over the last two days, the first real tornado outbreak of 2010 has unfolded across the south. The National Weather Service issued a rare high risk area across a large portion of the southeast, meaning that there is a high risk of large, destructive, long-track tornadoes, very large hail and strong damaging winds in the risk area. Within the rare high risk area, there have been several tornado watches issued from the Gulf Coast all the way up to the Ohio Valley, two of which were labeled PDS watches, emphasizing the severity of the situation. Follow me over the fold for news and images...
Also, a personal plea here, can we keep the political jokes out of here for now? This isn't a time to make jokes and political cracks at the expense of others -- people just lost their homes, their jobs, their belongings, and some possibly lost their lives. There's a time and a place for stuff like that, and this is not that time. Thank you.
Here are the tornado watches in effect as of 5:27PM CDT. Click here for the latest watches from the Storm Prediction Center.
Here's the outlook from the Storm Prediction Center as of 5:27PM CDT. Click here for the latest severe weather outlook from the SPC. The areas in the pink high risk area are most at risk for severe weather, areas within the red moderate risk area are at a heightened risk for severe weather, and areas within the green slight risk area are at a general risk for severe weather*, areas within the brown lines are at risk for thunderstorms today.
*A severe thunderstorm is defined as having a tornado, winds of 58MPH or greater, and hail 1 inch in diameter or larger (quarter sized hail).
The Weather Channel is reporting that a large tornado has severely damaged Yazoo City, MS. I will post news updates as I find them. However, here is a radar image from Wunderground at the time of the tornado. If you look just south of Yazoo City as the bottom of the storm goes through, you can see an 'explosion' of purple, and the purple dot tracks northeast in the next few frames. This purple dot is the radar signature from the debris that the tornado kicked up. There is so much debris within the tornado that the radar was able to pick it up. Judging by the fact that the radar picked up the debris from Yazoo City, plus images of heavy damage from storm spotters on The Weather Channel, this is a very dangerous tornado. It is still on the ground as of the typing of this quickly-slapped-together diary, near Kosciusko, MS.
UPDATE 1 Here's a picture of the damage from Twitter:
http://twitpic.com/...
WAPT reporting 20 homes damaged with several injuries. Judging by the video that The Weather Channel is showing, the number will probably rise a bit throughout the night.
UPDATE 2 Storm spotter on The Weather Channel is on the scene in Yazoo City, MS and says that the entire town is leveled. TWC also reporting that the tornado was almost a mile wide.
Here is the link to donate to the American Red Cross. If the reports are correct, they'll need it, badly: Click Here To Donate
UPDATE 3 h/t to Ice Blue in the comments. There are some reports of a chemical plant in Tallulah, Louisiana that took heavy damage from the same tornado that hit Yazoo City. Since the filing of that report, as Ice Blue noted, the workers have been taken out to the hospital. The Weather Channel (great source of information right now) is also reporting that there is a possible nitrogen leak at the plant, but it's not confirmed yet.
UPDATE 4 h/t to msgalnca and Catte Nappe in the comments for the following, respectively. WAPT (link two updates up) is reporting the tornado was 3/4 of a mile across and that the damage is "extensive." Also, here is a link to storm reports from WLBT in Jackson, MS. Here is a link to donate to the Salvation Army to help with the disaster relief for those affected by the tornadoes.
UPDATE 5 h/t to Catte Nappe and Ice Blue, respectively. AP reporting a 'massive response' to the damaged areas after the tornado tracked across the entire state of Mississippi. Link Also, Weather Channel reporting 2 deaths related to the tornado.
UPDATE 6 Dr. Greg Forbes on TWC says that judging by the damage from videos, the Yazoo City tornado is at least EF-3 rated right now. Click here to read about the Enhanced Fujita Scale. Also, as a side note, I want to sing the praises of the National Weather Service a bit. They did a great job forecasting this outbreak, and they also did a great job at warning the citizens in the path of this tornado, as well as emphasizing the severity. Yazoo City was put under a Tornado Emergency, which is enhanced wording used in a Tornado Warning to emphasize the severity of the situation, before the storm hit.
UPDATE 7 As temptxn said below, The Weather Channel is reporting 11 deaths with the storm:
-2 in French Camp, MS
-7 in Kilmichael, MS
-1 in Holmes County, MS (unconfirmed)
-2 in Yazoo City, MS