Historic Outbreak of April 27, 2011. James Spann Interview on the April 27, 2011 Tornado Outbreak. Tornado Videos - April 27, 2011 Cullman, Alabama F4 Tornado. April 27, 2011 Tornado Outbreak. Footage from Inside of a Tornado, April 27th 2011 Tuscaloosa Tornado Adam Melton. Tuscaloosa Alabama Tornado April 27, 2011. 4/27/11 - Tuscaloosa Tornado. An Error Occurred Setting Your User Cookie. Alabama tornado anniversary: Study shows victims heeded warnings. STR / Reuters An aerial view shows extensive damage to homes and businesses in the path of tornadoes in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on April 28.
By Mike Stobbe, The Associated Press ATLANTA -- Most of the victims of last year's epic tornado outbreak in Alabama had at least one thing in common: They knew the storm was coming. A year after the onslaught of dozens of twisters killed at least 250 people in Alabama and more elsewhere in the South, federal researchers are completing a study of who died and where they were when it happened. Among the conclusions so far: Nearly half of the people who died had been advised to take shelter. But many of the tornadoes were so fierce that few structures were able to withstand them. These were catastrophic winds that could destroy pretty much anything in its path," Cindy Chiu, an epidemic intelligence service officer, said in reporting preliminary findings this month at a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conference in Atlanta.
Tornado Outbreak April 27, 2011. Monster Alabama Tornado Spawned by Rare "Perfect Storm" ON TV: Witness: Tornado Swarm 2011 airs Sunday, May 29, 9 p.m.
ET/PT >> The monster tornado that devastated Tuscaloosa, Alabama, (see map) on April 27 was spawned by unusual "perfect storm" conditions, experts say. (See pictures of the Alabama tornado.) Those conditions—which stretched across Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia—included warm, moist air rising and mixing with colder, dry air at higher altitudes. Unfortunately for those living in the tornadoes' path, "weather conditions came together perfectly," said Tim Samaras, a Denver, Colorado-based tornado expert and producer of the tornado-research website TWISTEX.
"Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia had that down to a T. Upper-level winds known as the jet stream also caused the storm system to rotate, according to meteorologist Jeff Masters, director of the website Weather Underground. Rotating thunderstorms—known as super cells—spawn tornadoes. Storm Chasers: Reed's 2011 Tornadoes - Alabama Super Outbreak. Storm Chasers: Reed's 2011 Tornadoes - Alabama Super Outbreak. April's tornado outbreaks the two largest in history. The largest tornado outbreak and greatest one-day total for tornadoes in history occurred during last week's historic super tornado outbreak, said NOAA in a press release on Wednesday.
They estimate 190 tornadoes touched down during the 24-hour period from 8:00 a.m. EDT April 27 to 8:00 a.m. EDT April 28 (132 tornadoes have already been confirmed, with several weeks of damage surveys still to come.) NOAA's estimate for the number of tornadoes during the three-day April 25 - 28, 2011 Super Outbreak, is 305. This is nearly double the previous record for a multi-day tornado outbreak of 155 tornadoes, set just two weeks previously during the April 14 - 16, 2011 outbreak. Figure 1. Figure 2. The death toll for the epic outbreak continues to fluctuate, and has decreased substantially to 318. The Tuscaloosa-Birmingham tornado caused at least 65 fatalities. NOAA estimates there were more than 600 tornadoes during the month of April 2011, shattering previous records.
Figure 3. Figure 4. The April 2011 Super Outbreak. Tornado touchdowns in the U.S. from April 25-28, 2011.
Map by Katie Wheatley. Some 350 or so tornadoes — roughly 25 percent of which were strong/violent — scarred the landscape from April 25-28, 2011, in what has been dubbed the Super Outbreak of 2011. There were 321 people killed during this period, with 316 of those deaths coming on April 27 alone. On April 27, 15 violent tornadoes rated EF-4 or higher (including four EF-5s) struck the states of Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia. Alabama was the hardest hit, with 9 violent tornadoes touching down there, and 11 total crossing within its boundaries. It was well advertised that an event of an unusual magnitude was on its way, with forecasters and hobbyists taking notice about a week out, and the alarm growing stronger by the day. A tremendous longwave trough began to eject out of the West on the 25th as a frontrunning vort. max spawned a number of tornadoes across the South from Texas and to the east. 2011's Tornado Superoutbreak. By Dr.
Greg Forbes, Severe Weather Expert, with Introduction by Senior Meteorologist Stu Ostro (Twitter) Video: The Tuscaloosa Tornado Editor's Note: Shortly after the April 27, 2011 tornado outbreak, I was asked if the term "superoutbreak" could be used to describe it. I shook my head "no. " Super tornado outbreak of April 27, 2011: one year anniversary - Capital Weather Gang. Posted at 10:10 AM ET, 04/27/2012 Apr 27, 2012 02:10 PM EDT TheWashingtonPost.
Characteristics of Catastrophe: New Details on the April 27, 2011 tornado outbreak. Tornado, hail and wind report map. Historic_tornadoes.pdf.