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Severe WX Severe Weather Threat 3/14-3/16

Hauntingly brings back the still images of the Greensburg tornado

greensburg-tornado2.jpg
It was a monster as well.
 
Yes, I was referring to this outbreak. I assumed Palm Sunday’s F4s were not super high-end because there weren’t any F5s, and I was under the impression that the F5 rating during that time period was far easier to achieve. Forgive me if I’m incorrect about that. I’d love to see damage photos from the tornadoes on that day.

I still believe Palm Sunday was more intense as well, by a pretty comfortable margin. But this outbreak, if it gets more than 5 or 6 violent tornadoes and ends up getting an EF5 tornado in Diaz, will absolutely be able to at least be comparable to it. I don’t want to get too sidetracked here so if you wish to carry this convo over to DMs I’m open to that.
Sorry to continue the OT convo, but here's some stuff to get started on Palm Sunday:



This was a major outbreak for sure, and of course we don't have the full picture yet, but Palm Sunday was on a whole other level. It definitely gets overlooked because of the lack of official F5s, but you could make a pretty good case for half a dozen of the F4s to have received F5s IMO. And at least as many again of the F3s to have received F4s, for that matter.
 
Sorry to continue the OT convo, but here's some stuff to get started on Palm Sunday:



This was a major outbreak for sure, and of course we don't have the full picture yet, but Palm Sunday was on a whole other level. It definitely gets overlooked because of the lack of official F5s, but you could make a pretty good case for half a dozen of the F4s to have received F5s IMO. And at least as many again of the F3s to have received F4s, for that matter.
Welcome back man! It’s been a while since i’ve seen you post!
 
FWIW, and I haven't seen too many people talking about it, this outbreak has a hallmark some seem to be missing. It shares it with Palm Sunday '65 and 4/3/74. The Palm Sunday talk reminds me of it.

Training/Trailing Supercells

We had Southern Michigan get hit by a pair of F4s during the 1965 outbreak that unfortunately were two supercells following the exact same path just minutes apart.

1974, Tanner, AL got hit by two tornadoes within minutes as well, probably the most well known example.

Now with Tylertown, MS, we had two tornadoes come through an hour apart. Both likely EF3/EF4.
 
Welcome back man! It’s been a while since i’ve seen you post!
Thanks! I can't resist the call of the violent tornado.

They Pull Me Back In Al Pacino GIF by The Godfather


On an at least somewhat on-topic note, the amount of wind damage up here in PA today has been pretty impressive (for our standards). Sounds like there may've been a brief tornado down near Latrobe, although I haven't seen anything clear-cut yet.
 
Thanks! I can't resist the call of the violent tornado.

They Pull Me Back In Al Pacino GIF by The Godfather


On an at least somewhat on-topic note, the amount of wind damage up here in PA today has been pretty impressive (for our standards). Sounds like there may've been a brief tornado down near Latrobe, although I haven't seen anything clear-cut yet.
Definitely some impressive wind up there. Have a friend who said it got quite wild up there.
 
I honestly think the tornadoes that happened in Alabama yesterday were more quality than quantity from what I’ve seen. (Gordo, Plantersville, I think a few more too. Plus most of them were 15+ miles according o DAT)
Really funny when seeing all the weenies on twitter get upset at Spann for saying “Birmingham was gonna get nuked” (he obviously didn’t say that) and write off the event as a whole when **** like this was going on. World revolves around them I guess.
 
Really funny when seeing all the weenies on twitter get upset at Spann for saying “Birmingham was gonna get nuked” (he obviously didn’t say that) and write off the event as a whole when **** like this was going on. World revolves around them I guess.
Tornado outbreaks can really show some people’s true colors.

Alabama had a 50/50 chance of doing what the models said could happen. And what ended up happening was we had destructive tornadoes that caused damage to life and properties. Yet still, we have selfish a*sholes that get butt hurt cause they don’t get their multiple swarms of EF5s.

People give me a headache sometimes.
 
Yeah, I definitely agree with you and think the very moist PBL contributed to a lot of the junk convection. That being said, the synoptic of 4/27 was absolutely one of a kind and pretty much perfect, which brings together all of the ingredients much more easily. The position of the trough to the north of the warm sector allowed the robust, strongest EML to overlap the warm sector perfectly. The surface low was removed to the north, and the excessive forcing leading to widespread rain/showers/convection was also removed well to the north. You had essentially a pristine warm sector, with the speed max swinging through perfectly timed with the peak parameter space.

Yesterday, your warm sector was located well to the East and North of the speed max, which as the trough trended slower should have been a clue that despite the similar trough geometry we were looking at fairly different setups. The strongest EML was slightly delayed and if anything the excessive forcing/lead shortwave contributed massively to the very widespread junk convection, over developed the early day stuff and if anything backed surface winds too much so that the highest end parameter space wasn't advected so much into AL when the trough ejection and wind profiles became even more favorable (arguably they were more not super well ventilated and conducive to shorter lived cyclic supercells)

Essentially, my point is, with a broad synoptic/setup like 4/27, the background conditions are already so favorable even with minor limitations the event still performs (for example I truly believe 4/27 would have performed almost exactly the same with moister PBL conditions, just tornadoes would have been extremely grungy). Whereas when the background is not perfect (as it is in the vast majority of cases, like yesterday), you need almost *everything* to go right to get an outcome even remotely close to a 4/27 type day.

Shortly after the super outbreak I read this article. He states halfway through that the environment from 4/27 was so optimal for violent tornadoes that we may NEVER see those exact conditions again.
 

Shortly after the super outbreak I read this article. He states halfway through that the environment from 4/27 was so optimal for violent tornadoes that we may NEVER see those exact conditions again.
It was just one of those days where every condition lined up to make it happen.
 
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