Less than 8 hours from now, the new season of Storm Chasers will air on Discovery Channel, featuring the prolific April 27, 2011 tornado outbreak that ravaged much of "Dixie Alley" as over 200 tornadoes touched down from Mississippi to Virginia. Three EF5 tornadoes, 11 EF4s , and 23 EF3s caused horrific damage across several communities in the Southeast U.S., including Tuscaloosa, Hackleburg, and Pleasant Grove Alabama; Smithville, MS; Ringold, GA, and many other communities in between, with over 300 fatalities reported on April 27 alone. The purple and red tracks in the map at right show how long-track these supecells and tornadoes were, with the parent supercell of the Tuscaloosa-Pleasant Grove, AL tornado developing in MS at around 230 pm CDT, and not dissipating until over the western NC mountains just before 11:00 pm. Extensive tornado outbreaks are not uncommon in Dixie Alley, and are often more damaging and
expansive geographically extensive than the major outbreaks in more traditional Tornado Alley of the Great Plains -- likely because of the faster storm motions, higher population density compared to the Plains, and more numerous tornado-producing supercells often clustered in distinct waves that can hammer the same areas repetitively during all hours of the day. April 27, 2011 is a perfect example of this phenomenon, as depicted below in the incredible water vapor loop of the evolution of this unprecented tornado outbreak. Interestingly, the southern "vort max" which was responsible for the Southeast tornadoes was aggressively pivoting around the main storm system to its north, firing wave after wave of intense tornado producing supercells moving rapdily northeastward over the same general areas. TVN had the opportunity to embed with the Alabama Task Force 1 during search and rescue operations in Tuscaloosa, who heroically facilitate the recovery efforts during and after the worst natural disasters in the area, and it is by far the worst damage I have seen since the May 3, 1999 F5 tornado in Moore, OK - damage to the smaller communities further north like Smithville, MS and Hackleburg, AL was unbelievably even worse. The season premiere of Storm Chasers tonight will feature the chase of this deadly tornado outbreak, including the pursuit of multiple violent tornadoes over MS and AL from extreme close range, including the birth of the Tuscaloosa EF4 tornado. TVN was just recently visiting Pleasant Grove, AL for the rebuilding of homes along with 125 other Discovery employees, and the damage path still looks like the tornado just moved through, and these people need all the help and exposure they can get during the likely several year-long recovery. Hopefully this episode will help in that effort. Please let us know your thoughts on the episode tonight and don't forget to tune in!
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