Check out this excellent interactive feature created by Brian Crumpler on the Mayflower/Vilonia, Arkansas EF-4 tornado that touched down on Sunday. The feature blends together radar images, maps, and pictures of the damage to give you an in-depth look at how the tornado evolved along its 40-mile path.
Looking at pictures of tornado damage from the ground is one thing, but looking at the path of devastation from space quickly puts it into perspective. Strong, long-track tornadoes often leave long scars on the earth's surface that are easily visible from space.
The worst tornado outbreak to strike the Deep South in nearly two years came to an end yesterday after killing almost three dozen people and damaging hundreds of buildings. Meteorologists for the National Weather Service did an incredible job predicting the outbreak days before it happened, and they're directly responsible for saving countless lives.
The atmosphere over the Deep South is primed for a third straight day of intense, long-track tornadoes over pretty much the same areas that were slammed by severe weather yesterday. The worst storms will start to form over Mississippi early this afternoon, and begin to move eastward as they organize later this afternoon.
This door was lofted into the atmosphere by an extremely strong tornado in Louisville, Mississippi this afternoon, and it landed over 30 miles away on the campus of Mississippi State University in Starkville.
The second episode in a days-long tornado outbreak will unfold today across parts of the Deep South known as "Dixie Alley," an area of the U.S. highly susceptible to intense tornadoes. The Storm Prediction Center is calling this a "particularly dangerous situation" due to the high likelihood of seeing intense, long-lived tornadoes like we saw in Arkansas yesterday.
A large, devastating tornado northwest of Little Rock, AR lofted so much debris into the air that the tornado and its parent mesocyclone (broad column of rotation within the storm) were visible on 3-D radar imagery. The debris reached over 12,000 feet high as the up-to-a-mile-wide tornado tore a path through central Arkansas extending dozens of miles.
At this moment three years ago today, a large EF-4 tornado was getting ready to tear through Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The storm stayed on the ground for over 80 miles, tearing through Tuscaloosa and the Birmingham suburbs, killing 64 people and injuring over 1,500 more. The outbreak was the most prolific in recorded history (producing 358 tornadoes in 4 days) and most violent ever recorded in the southern United States.
A dangerous tornado outbreak is expected across parts of the southern and central U.S. today, with intense, long-lived tornadoes possible across Arkansas through the afternoon and evening. All of the counties shaded in red on the map above were under a tornado watch as of 2:00PM CDT.
Whether your tornado safe spot is a basement, a bunker, or a bathroom, this is a list of stuff you absolutely must have in your shelter in case the unthinkable happens and a tornado hits. The list is by no means exhaustive, but it's a good starting point to help you prepare for the worst.
Trailer parks are often the butt of jokes in American culture, and not the least among them is the idea that they seemingly "attract" tornadoes. A study by scientists at Indiana's Purdue University recently found that tornadoes really are more likely to hit trailer parks simply due to where they're located.
There's a lot of talk about a potentially major tornado outbreak across parts of the Plains states this weekend, with tornadoes possible from Texas to Nebraska on both Saturday and Sunday. There's a good chance that the hype is just that — hype. But there is also a chance that the hype is warranted.
Two of the most important terms that weathermen use are also the two terms that people mix up the most, and the confusion could prove lethal. When the atmosphere is ripe for tornadoes, meteorologists will bat around the terms "tornado watch" and "tornado warning" almost every other sentence, but people often get the two confused and don't always know what they mean.
As a weather geek, I'm often guilty of 'oohing' and 'ahhing' over a tornado signature on radar. Tornadoes are my favorite part of meteorology — I want to write about them even in the dead of winter when it's 20° and snowing. For as incredible as they are, the intense interest requires a delicate balance between fascination and sensitivity to what the storm is doing "in real life," so to speak.
This was a weather map drawn back on April 18, 1880, showing the weather at 1AM Eastern for every weather station in the United States. Less than 24 hours later, dozens of tornadoes would tear across the central United States, killing over 100 people.
I am not a fan of what became of The Weather Channel after NBC bought it. The station quickly started a downward spiral of suck that was a slap in the face to both viewers and science. But I have to give them credit when it's due: when they stick to the weather, The Weather Channel is surprisingly good.
Heavy rain across much of the country and the potential for a tornado outbreak in parts of the south will make for a crappy start to next week, followed shortly thereafter by a blast of cold air that could be the final gasp of the winter that won't die.
