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Discussion of April 27, 2011 Outbreak

andyhb

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That person is aware and they have done it!


"This is a day where we could see some violent tornadoes, perhaps long-tracked tornadoes, that get down on the ground and stay down for 20, 30, 40 miles or longer, and I'm afraid we will have multiple instances of these today."

"This is a violent tornado situation, it's a life threatening situation. Please take cover anytime you're under a tornado warning on a day like this. Again a few times in your life are you going to see anything like this..."
 
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"This is a day where we could see some violent tornadoes, perhaps long-tracked tornadoes, that get down on the ground and stay down for 20, 30, 40 miles or longer, and I'm afraid we will have multiple instances of these today."

"This is a violent tornado situation, it's a life threatening situation. Please take cover anytime you're under a tornado warning on a day like this. Again a few times in your life are you going to see anything like this..."

The whole weather enterprise had quite a job of it that day trying to get the message across that this was going to be really bad even by the standards of other high risk days.
 

Bama Ravens

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The whole weather enterprise had quite a job of it that day trying to get the message across that this was going to be really bad even by the standards of other high risk days.
Thinking back on it, I don’t feel like I was even able to imagine it could reach the level that it did. The idea of so many EF-4’s and EF-5’s in such a short period of time was just not something I had ever even thought about. It’s like, even though I knew it was going to be a bad day, I never imagined it being that bad.
 

warneagle

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The whole weather enterprise had quite a job of it that day trying to get the message across that this was going to be really bad even by the standards of other high risk days.
I remember coming back from class that morning and opening up the Day 1 and seeing "...MAJOR TORNADO OUTBREAK EXPECTED THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING ACROSS THE TN VALLEY AND SRN APPALACHIAN MTNS EXTENDING NWD INTO THE SRN OH VALLEY..." and thinking "wow, I don't think I've ever seen them say that before". I also remember how concerned Greg Forbes sounded on TWC that morning. The only other time I remember him being that anxious was the day of El Reno 2013.

Of course, it created the paradoxical problem where people expect every high risk to be like that and think it's a bust when we don't get multiple EF5s.
 

cincywx

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no clue if this has been posted yet, but this is an impressive video of the cullman tornado:

given how low-res the video quality is, it is very impressive that you can make out a plethora of debris.
 
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no clue if this has been posted yet, but this is an impressive video of the cullman tornado:

given how low-res the video quality is, it is very impressive that you can make out a plethora of debris.

I've never seen that one before. I either didn't know, or forgot, until recently that the Cullman tornado didn't achieve EF-4 intensity until well beyond the city of Cullman.
 

buckeye05

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I've never seen that one before. I either didn't know, or forgot, until recently that the Cullman tornado didn't achieve EF-4 intensity until well beyond the city of Cullman.
Some of the damage to brick buildings in downtown Cullman was rated EF4 IRRC, but yes, it reached peak strength in the Arab area.
IMG_2688_900.JPG
 
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Some of the damage to brick buildings in downtown Cullman was rated EF4 IRRC, but yes, it reached peak strength in the Arab area.
IMG_2688_900.JPG
Do they list all officially rated damage indicators on the official tracks? They don't have anything above EF-3 on the map through Cullman proper. Same with Cordova also. No indicators above EF-3 in the city itself.
 

akt1985

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Here is something I thought of lately. We've had plenty of discussion on this thread about the EF4s during this outbreak that would have been rated F5 on the old Fujita Scale. However, does an opinion about any of the EF3s from April 27th that might have been rated F4s under the old scale?
 

TH2002

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Here is something I thought of lately. We've had plenty of discussion on this thread about the EF4s during this outbreak that would have been rated F5 on the old Fujita Scale. However, does an opinion about any of the EF3s from April 27th that might have been rated F4s under the old scale?
Barnesville, GA and Haleyville, AL for sure.
 
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TH2002

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Barnesville, GA and Haleyville, AL for sure.
Haleyville: The Winston Furniture manufacturing facility was destroyed and partially leveled to the ground. This may be indicative of low end F4 damage per the old F Scale. Some of the tree damage was also pretty significant.
IMG_0257C.jpg

5.JPG


Barnesville: Horifically lowballed tornado. I'll let the photos speak for themselves:
Fig-57-danny.jpg

Fig-59-Becky.png

Fig-66-Danny.png

Fig-75-Danny.jpg

Fig-74-truman.png
 

warneagle

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I used to drive past the area where Barnesville crossed 75 when I lived in Georgia. Even five years later the scar was very obvious.
 

buckeye05

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Haleyville: The Winston Furniture manufacturing facility was destroyed and partially leveled to the ground. This may be indicative of low end F4 damage per the old F Scale. Some of the tree damage was also pretty significant.
IMG_0257C.jpg

5.JPG


Barnesville: Horifically lowballed tornado. I'll let the photos speak for themselves:
Fig-57-danny.jpg

Fig-59-Becky.png

Fig-66-Danny.png

Fig-75-Danny.jpg

Fig-74-truman.png
Both the Barnesville and Crowe Springs, GA are definitely EF4 candidates. Barnesville is particularly absurd. EF3s don’t produce that kind of debarking. Ever.
 

TH2002

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Both the Barnesville and Crowe Springs, GA are definitely EF4 candidates. Barnesville is particularly absurd. EF3s don’t produce that kind of debarking. Ever.
It's absolutely appalling that Barnesville caused that type of damage but got an EF3 rating while Newnan caused noticeably less intense damage, but got an EF4 rating. Of course not everyone agrees with Newnan's EF4 rating but one thing is certain that if Newnan got rated EF4 Barnesville should have certainly been rated high end EF4 at a minimum, if not EF5.
 

andyhb

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Cross posting from the Sig Tor Events thread, but here's the footage of the Cordova tornado traversing the rough terrain closer to the Walker/Cullman/Blount County lines.

 
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Cross posting from the Sig Tor Events thread, but here's the footage of the Cordova tornado traversing the rough terrain closer to the Walker/Cullman/Blount County lines.



I just link that video any time anyone says tornadoes can't climb hills/hilly terrain weakens tornadoes, etc.

If I have one criticism of 33/40's coverage of that day, it's that Jason Simpson spent a little too much time going off on a tangent about how the terrain northeast of Birmingham may have contributed to the weakening/dissipation of the tornado, when radar and ground observations pretty clearly depicted nothing more than a normal cyclic supercell occlusion process.
 
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Cross posting from the Sig Tor Events thread, but here's the footage of the Cordova tornado traversing the rough terrain closer to the Walker/Cullman/Blount County lines.


When I see a video like this, it makes me laugh to think about how so many people in Memphis used to think (maybe some still do) that the city is protected from tornadoes by Crowley's Ridge in NE Arkansas (from topo maps is maybe a 250-foot rise) and/or the Mississippi River bluffs, which are about as high as an embankment for an interstate overpass.
 

andyhb

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Papers from Manda Chasteen, whose PhD project was primarily focused on various meteorological aspects of the 4/27/2011 outbreak, are out now in EOR.

 
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