As of 6:30PM CDT today, there have been 51 confirmed tornadoes since that historic severe weather outbreak began last Thursday morning. National Weather Service crews are still surveying the damage across North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, and likely won't complete these surveys until mid-week.
Jump the squiggle to recap the events.
Note: In the event of a..."reappearance"...don't feed the troll(s) anything but Krispy Kreme.
Thursday April 14, 2011
A low pressure center over the state of Kansas helped create the perfect conditions for nasty thunderstorms and tornadic development over the midwest as the day progressed. Warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico was sucked rather quickly towards the northwest by the low pressure center, and collided with a dry line coming out of western Texas. When these two airmasses collided, the thunderstorms exploded in a matter of 20 minutes.
The best dynamics for tornadic development set up over Oklahoma, where 17 confirmed tornadoes touched down.
The Tushka, Oklahoma Tornado
The worst of the tornadoes that touched down on Thursday was the one that hit Tushka, OK. The storm was rated an EF-3 by NWS survey teams, and the storm claimed the lives of 2 people. This storm destroyed 100 homes, 60 businesses, and the town's 93-year-old schoolhouse.
Left: Radar of the storm after destroying Tushka. Right: Base velocity image at the same time as radar at left showing winds rotating around the tornado.
City |
State |
Rating |
Tushka |
OK |
EF-3 |
Lake Eucha |
OK |
EF-2 |
Hominy |
OK |
EF-1 |
Dewey |
OK |
EF-1 |
Wagoner |
OK |
EF-1 |
Poteau |
OK (#1) |
EF-1 |
Poteau |
OK (#2) |
EF-1 |
Jumbo |
OK |
EF-1 |
Daisy |
OK |
EF-1 |
Talihina |
OK |
EF-1 |
Bache |
OK |
EF-1 |
Madill |
OK |
EF-1 |
Stroud |
OK |
EF-1 |
Little Rock |
AR |
EF-1 |
Scott |
AR |
EF-1 |
Burbank |
OK |
EF-0 |
Yanush |
OK |
EF-0 |
Smithville |
OK |
EF-0 |
Ringold |
OK |
EF-0 |
Hochaltown |
OK |
EF-0 |
Friday April 15, 2011
On Friday, the system moved east out of Oklahoma and Arkansas and took aim at Dixie Alley. Numerous supercell thunderstorms developed ahead of the cold front, and wreaked havoc on southern Alabama and Mississippi. I live in Mobile, AL, and the county to our north, Washington County AL, was under 14 separate tornado warnings in a 12 hour period between 10AM and 10PM.
There were several bad tornadoes that occurred during this period, the most infamous of the two being the ones that struck Clinton (Jackson), MS and Leakesville, MS.
Clinton, MS EF-3 Tornado
One of the supercells that developed out ahead of the cold front mid-morning Thursday aimed straight for the Mississippi capital city of Jackson. It dropped an EF-3 tornado on a Jackson suburb called Clinton, and made a mess of the place while injuring 10 people.
Here's a video as the tornado tore through Clinton:
Leakesville, MS/Vinegar Bend, AL EF-3 Tornadoes
A supercell that went through Leakesville, MS around 730PM CDT dropped two separate EF-3 tornadoes, one going directly through the city of Leakesville, MS, and the other going through Vinegar Bend, AL, about 10 miles to the east. Here's a radar velocity image of the storm as it was passing through Vinegar Bend:
The tornado warning associated with this storm covered a very small part of northern Mobile County, but was enough to trigger the tornado sirens to go off all across the county. Here at my college in Mobile, the university's tornado sirens went off. Naturally being the weather geek I am, I ran to the door with my video camera (only because I knew we weren't in any danger, 25 miles south of the storm).
City |
State |
Rating |
Leakesville |
MS |
EF-3 |
Vinegar Bend |
AL |
EF-3 |
Clinton |
MS |
EF-3 |
Tucker |
MS |
EF-3 |
Boones Chapel |
AL |
EF-3 |
Butler |
AL |
EF-2 |
Possumneck |
MS |
EF-2 |
Cuba |
AL |
EF-2 |
Geiger |
AL |
EF-2 |
Pisgah |
MS |
EF-1 |
Cadiz |
KY (#1) |
EF-1 |
Easton |
IL |
EF-1 |
Selma |
AL |
EF-1 |
Marion Junction |
AL |
EF-1 |
Paul M Grist State Park |
AL |
EF-1 |
Mulberry |
AL |
EF-1 |
Hesterville |
MS |
EF-0 |
Alabaster |
AL |
EF-0 |
Wilsonville |
AL |
EF-0 |
Cadiz |
KY (#2) |
EF-0 |
Athens |
IL (#1) |
EF-0 |
Athens |
IL (#2) |
EF-0 |
Saturday April 16, 2011
The National Weather Service is still surveying the extensive damage across NC, SC and VA today and for the next few days, but they have completed surveys in a few areas. As the cold front moved east into the mid-Atlantic region, supercells again developed out in front of the airmass and gave North Carolina its most active tornado year in recorded history.
Sanford/Raleigh Tornado
Out of all the tornadoes that touched down, perhaps one of the most dangerous situations was the tornado that went through Sanford and Raleigh, NC. A tornado touched down near Sanford, and tracked quickly northeast through the town. As it passed through, it completely leveled a Lowes hardware store. Thankfully, everyone inside was uninjured due to the efforts of the staff.
Image source: user on Twitpic
Once the storm moved through Sanford, it made its way right into downtown Raleigh, NC, home to over 400,000 people. WRAL was able to stay on air long enough to record the rain-wrapped twister coming into the city, before they got knocked off the air.
Here's the radar and velocity signature of the tornado, right as it was in the heart of the city. If you look closely on the velocity image, there's a gray dot in the middle of the circulation, which is the debris being picked up by the tornado and reflecting the radar beam.
As of right now, there was one EF-3 confirmed in North Carolina, that moved through Jacksonville in the southeastern part of the state. DailyKos' own FishOutofWater was in Jacksonville when the tornado went through, and published this diary before it hit.
Below is a preliminary list of tornadoes confirmed by NWS crews yesterday. Undoubtedly, this list will grow substantially as crews survey more damage tomorrow and Tuesday.
City |
State |
Rating |
Jacksonville |
NC |
EF-3 |
Dinwiddie |
VA |
EF-1 |
Ft. Benning |
GA |
EF-1 |
Macon |
GA |
EF-1 |
Salisbury |
NC |
EF-1 |
St. Stephen |
SC |
EF-1 |
Prospect Hill |
NC |
EF-1 |
Stuarts Draft |
VA |
EF-1 |
Vesuvius |
VA |
EF-0 |
If you'd like to help those affected by the tornadoes, you can use the following links to give donations and see how else you can help.
American Red Cross
Salvation Army
And please please please GET A WEATHER RADIO. A simple investment in a simple radio can simply save your life.