Great Plains Tornado Tours

Edit: I haven't seen a final death toll in a while and there were still several people missing(>100) last I heard, but I am going to put in a number that I heard last and that was 341 people killed and still some 100 people missing. Total damages are in the billions.

On Wednesday April 27th, 2011, a massive tornado outbreak occurred in the southeast U.S. As of this writing, there are 285 confirmed deaths and nearly 2000 injuries that have occurred in mainly six states. 207 died in Alabama, 34 in Tennessee, 33 in Mississippi, 15 in Georgia, 5 in Virginia, and 1 in Arkansas.
Alabama was particularly hard hit by several long track violent tornadoes. Many small communities were basically wiped off the map, and Tuscaloosa and the northern suburbs of Birmingham were also hit. Initial ratings have started to come out with a couple high end EF-4's already. So far there are no ratings for the Tuscaloosa and Birmingham tornadoes, but it is believed they were at least EF-4 and possibly an EF-5.
This day and storm system was forecast for days. The Storm Prediction Center had a high risk outlook for the areas of Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia the day before. Some of the composite indices used to gauge potential severe weather were literally off the charts. Often times, severe weather outbreaks that are forecast like this don't transpire to the possible levels that seem likely. However, this was one of those times where the large and violent tornadoes that were traveling across the countryside were hitting towns and hitting large cities as well.
Being someone who is obviously interested in weather and follows especially severe weather very closely, I was glued to the TV and internet all day. I watched the Weather Channel, even though I normally don't anymore, and I found the ABC channel out of Birmingham that was broadcasting over the internet on my computer. First off let me say both channels did an excellent job of broadcasting this event. TWC which has become a lot of times anything but weather stayed on the air for over an hour covering the tornado as it went from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham. I was watching on my computer as the local channel had a Tuscaloosa skycam up and watched with horror as the large tornado went into Tuscaloosa. It gave me chills to watch what was going on live before my eyes.
What's so horrifying about the numbers of casualties is this occurred with today's technology. Death tolls from severe storms like this haven't been seen since the 1970's and before. There were several factors that probably contributed to the high numbers of deaths. First. the sheer size and number of tornadoes that hit large populated areas. When tornadoes have winds over 200 mph the only way to survive is if you are underground. A lot of homes in the south do not have basements. Second, there are a lot more mobile homes in the South which provide no reasonable shelter. Third, there was a line of storms that went through earlier in the morning that took out numerous power lines, and communication towers. Also, supposedly one of the weather transmitter towers was taken out so warnings weren't being sent out to weather radios. The last thing I want to mention that almost certainly happened was complacency towards warnings. There will always be people who think when they hear a tornado siren that nothing is going to happen to them where they live. There have been numerous times when I have been out chasing, where I have seen people out walking their dogs, etc while tornado sirens were blaring in their city. People have got to learn to take warnings seriously!!
One other thing, I saw on the news tonight. There was a news reporter reporting from a particularly hard hit area in Tuscaloosa. It was low income housing district for people who receive government housing I believe. Most of these people have no vehicles to escape, no technology to receive warnings other than sirens, and again no basements for shelter. I believe more than 10 people died in this subdivision alone.
April 27th was a sobering, and utterly horrifying day to watch unfold. There were many times today where I was having to fight back tears watching and listening to some of the stories of the victims. I know this will be a day I will remember for a long time.
I'm going to post some of the radar images that I saved, and also links to stories and videos. As the storm surveys come out I will post those as well.

Tuscaloosa 509 pm

Storm Relative Velocity Tuscaloosa 509 pm

Tuscaloosa 513 pm

Tuscaloosa 517 pm

Storm Relative Vel Tuscaloosa 517 pm

538 pm

555 pm nearing Birmingham

555 pm close up- the purple circle is a debris ball!!

616 pm north of Birmingham. the red nearly complete circle is the circulation

616 pm SRV north of Birmingham

a classic example of yet another hook echo on a supercell in Alabama

videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ohIVzIZLuQ&feature=player_embedded -very close up video of tornado going near the University. guy sounds very scared throughout and at the end seems like he is crying and shaking. one of the most intense videos i've seen, and the human emotion at the end is raw
http://www.cbs42.com/mostpopular/story/Tuscaloosa-tornado-caught-on-tape-wreaking-havoc/hsK7dFmlUku5YlvteTFy6A.cspx -news station clip of tornado entering Tuscaloosa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIx26tN6pCk&feature=player_embedded - close call with tornado in tuscaloosa, lady comes running up to car near end of video hysterical
ground scouring Philadelphia, MS EF-5 tornado

damage surveys:
Birmingham WFO: http://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=BMX&product=PNS&issuedby=BMX
Jackson, MS WFO: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jan/?n=2011_04_25_27_svr
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jan/?n=2011_04_25_27_SVR_PNS
Atlanta damage survey
Huntsville, MS WFO
Eastern TN damage survey

a nice little severe storm blew threw omaha with 60 mph winds and penny to quarter sized hail. i worked til 7 and watched the storm on the radar. unfortunately, i waited too long to get out to take some pics, so i had to kindof take pics while driving. it was one of the cooler looking storms i've seen in quite a while! you could really see the rotation of the storm as it approached overhead, and on the northern edge of the storm where i was closer too at one point, there was scud rapidly rising in the updraft of the storm. sarah and i went north for a while before i could see that the storm was going to go further south so we went back south down 132nd street. we ran into very heavy rain and soon hail up to penny sized. it was coming down so hard that we had to pull over in our church parking lot until it let up! we headed home, and as we were coming down our street we first noticed one tree that had a fairly large branch broken, and then 2 houses down from us we saw an entire 15-20 feet tall tree was uprooted from the ground. i wish i would have gotten out about 1o minutes earlier to get some better pics, but it was still a nice little storm!