250 Mile Tornado Storm Track. A Record Breaker

[magicguido]

Last edited Sun Dec 12, 2021, 09:24 AM - Edit history (1)

A 250 Mile Taste of Climate Change

[calimary]

1. Good grief!

[Duppers]

2. Incredible!! nt

[BumRushDaShow]

3. Mets who specialize in severe weather

will be analyzing that for years!

Link to tweet

NWS Weather Prediction Center
@NWSWPC
·
Dec 11, 2021
Replying to @NWSWPC
The longest lived mesocyclone with numerous tornado warnings moved through multiple states, shown in this graphic by @ATXHarrisonTran & currently on wikipedia. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Radar_collage_of_a_long-lived_supercell_radar_on_December_10-11,_2021.png
Image
NWS Weather Prediction Center
@NWSWPC
It will take days for the necessary surveys to be done by @NWSLittleRock, @NWSMemphis, @NWSStLouis, @NWSPaducah, @NWSLincolnIL, @NWSLouisville & others to determine the scope of the possible outbreak and the strength/path length of the tornadoes that touched down.
6:44 PM · Dec 11, 2021

[love_katz]

4. Kicking for visibility.

[mountain grammy]

5. Holy crap!!

Most people must have sheltered.. amazing that the death toll wasn't much higher.

[LeftInTX]

7. The key is "severe weather" and "emergency alerts"

Radar identified tornadoes are not always "on the ground" continuously and they are not extremely wide. Also many times they do not hit major population centers.

I'm also amazed that the death toll wasn't much higher, mainly because it was night.

Death tolls from tornadoes have gone way down in the last 70 years, due to improved radar, Emergency Broadcast, Emergency Alert System, improved early prediction of severe tornadoes, definition between tornado emergency and tornado warning. Today's warnings are often geographically very specific. For instance a large swath might be under severe thunderstorm warnings with tornado watches, however a tornado warning area is often more geographically specific. This small area warning saves lives.

There are now also attempts by the NWS to distinguish between radar defined tornados (tornado warning) versus tornado on the ground. (Tornado warnings are sometimes ignored by citizens because the majority of warnings do not result in tornadoes on the ground and/or the on-ground portion is very short-lived). Nowadays debri fields are often picked up on radar, which indicate a particularly dangerous tornado on the ground.

On the downside, basements are becoming less common in construction.

[mountain grammy]

9. Yes, basements and storm shelters are becoming much less common

as they will be needed more and more.. hopefully that will be addressed in the rebuilding process as most assuredly this is not a one time event.

[LeftInTX]

6. The key is "The longest lived mesocyclone with numerous tornado warnings"

Tornados are known to move in and out of clouds and often become a series of tornadoes as a opposed to a single tornado.

Today the NWS counts a single tornado by the damage/debri pattern on the ground. In the past, multiple tornados were often attributed to a single tornado.

This tornado outbreak will go down in history as the absolute worse December outbreak in history. It may also be the worst nighttime outbreak in US history.

There are other record breaking outbreaks such as the 1974 and 2011 outbreaks.

[AwakeAtLast]

8. I live just 100 miles north of the path

And there were secondary tornadoes north of us!

I feel incredibly lucky today.

I also feel profound sadness for those in this storm's path.

[mountain grammy]

10. Glad you're safe..

it's like our forest fires, hit and miss. Those hit are devastated and those of us missed are incredibly lucky. We have to be there for each other.

[AwakeAtLast]

11. Thank you!

[llashram]

12. watching this

damn!!! Storm 'super cell' reality...