Tuscaloosa/Birmingham Area Tornadoes on Radar 4/27/2011

Unbelievable! Here are the tornadoes from Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, Centerville, Pleasant Grove, et cetera, on radar. Even worse than Raleigh, North Carolina. Keep in mind that downtown Birmingham did not get hit directly, although Tuscaloosa was unfortunately destroyed! Tornado season has only begun, and it seems my feeling of a major city getting a direct hit isn't so unrealistic. This isn't looking too good. Radar went down at 22:42 UTC for 15 minutes.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Tuscaloosa tornado
• Birmingham tornado
• Pleasant Grove
• Alabama tornado
• tornado
• radar
• hook echo
• outbreak
• velocity couplet
• 4/27/2011

[Prouisorsapientiae]

The motion and appearance of this tornado reminds me of Andover, Kansas 1991. I remember watching video of it on a VHS tape from The Weather Channel when I was a kid. It scared the hell out of me!

[jtoddel]

That's incredible. You can clearly see the "hook" that forms just prior to Tuscaloosa, and then that same hook echo passes just north of downtown Birmingham. What a monster storm.

[Prouisorsapientiae]

@jtoddel

If you look closely, before it hits Tuscaloosa, another thunderstorm merges with the mesocyclone. The rotation seems to weaken just before hitting Birmingham, and you can see a secondary area of rotation form to the west before becoming another strong tornado, and moving off of the map into Georgia.

[Toadster0515]

Awesome forecast

[Txlonewolf85]

truly nature at its worst. remind me of the radar loop from the outbreak of 99 in OK. so many hook echos that i lost count

[bigleague5]

@Prouisorsapientiae

yes the EF-5 cell eventually produced its own flanking cell due to the massive downdraft.