Alabama Catastrophic Tornadoes

[JEBar]

the Weather Channel is covering a tornado near Birmingham that has been on the ground for something over 90 miles .... major damage done and is still being done .... 5 known dead .... do hope our folks down there are out of harm's way

[fortyshooter]

Yep that time of year again....be safe!

[Grunt67]

Tornado season is upon us.

[JEBar]

6 now know dead and now its on its way to Tennessee and Western NC

[Shakey Jake]

Yep. Saw the devastation on the news. So sad to add these worries to what else has been going on the past year. It's been a bad year for insurance companies for sure.
Jake

[JEBar]

devastation indeed .... its mystifies me how a tornado can rip a home apart and do little, if any, damage to the one next door ..... its also hard for me to fathom a powerful one being on the ground for over a hundred miles

[cooperhawk]

When I first got out of the Army I worked for a company that put me through the US Weather Bureaus school and got me licensed to take observations and to brief pilots on weather. After spending all that money on me I got a better offer from the FAA and the boss said I should take it. He was a very nice man.
The first six months in the FAA I spent learning more about the weather, then I spent 32 years working with pilots and the US Weather Bureau trying to keep aircraft safe. I also wrote some college papers on the subject. I find it fascinating.

Tornados are hard to predict. Conditions can be perfect and none will appear. Then out of nowhere a giant funnel will destroy everything in its path. They can be as small as a dust devil and as large as a mile or more in diameter. They can swoop down for a hundred yards destroying everything, and then recede back into the clouds only to swoop down again. Twice I've had a tornado hit my back yard uprooting trees only to hop over my house and swoop down again on the other side. So far none has hit my house but I have heard them go over. There are clear air tornados associated with thunderstorms that can effect air craft five miles away from the actual storm.

I was on duty in the late 1990s when a huge tornado hit St. Peter, Mn. and wrought devastation for eighty miles. My Controllers were tracking it talking to pilots who could actually see it, and the Weather Bureau Forecaster was right there with me putting out warnings ahead of the storm. The next day I was off and the head meteorologist asked me to go with him to visit the communities that were hardest hit. We drove into one town and their were barricades across the road with police manning them. As we drove up they held up their arms and told us no one was allowed in. We showed them our IDs and the barricades came down and with a big grin we were ushered in. They had gotten the warning we had put out and everyone had taken shelter. Although there was massive devastation, no one was injured. It made us feel really good.

I really feel bad for folks that lose everything, and sometimes even their lives to these monsters. I wish there was something more we could do.

[JEBar]

thankfully, no tornadoes this time but heavy rains have flooded areas around Nashville, TN that are still recovering from that earlier storm .... the news has been showing a fellow being rescued off of the top of his overturned car .... hats off to the first responders who work through such dangerous conditions to help keep folks safe

[cooperhawk]

We were in Nashville one time when that river was flooding. Amazing all the low land around there.

[Wkeith59]

I live in central alabama the first week one touched down 10 miles south of me and destroyed about a dozen homes last week one touched down and went almost 100 miles passing about 15 miles north that one was about 3/4 mile wide. They are scary things, had one hit my home about 11 years ago and do about $30,000 worth of damage and it was just a ef2 can’t imagine a ef5 hitting weird stuff it took my garbage cans about 1/2 mile east but the bags of garbage were 250 feet west of house and no bag was torn