Wednesday, April 27, 2011, was that once in a generation tornado outbreak that's been looming since April 4, 1974.  With the death toll climbing over 200 as of this morning, it is easily the deadliest outbreak in the modern Doppler era. Seemingly every thunderstorm that formed after the noon hour spawned a violent tornado. Dozens of communities in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia took direct hits. The damage is staggering. Seasoned, veteran storm chasers and meteorologists agree that they have never seen anything like this.

Above are high resolution radar images from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, captured as the almost otherworldly tornado was tearing through the city. Reed, Joel and Chris observed this tornado just after its birth, but were unable to keep up with the storm due to an unfavorable road network and the high speed at which the storm was traveling. Based on the videos from various angles, I am willing to call this the most incredible tornado I have ever seen.

Something very fascinating which stood out about yesterday's event is that, aside from their very violent nature, so many of the tornadoes had numbers of horizontal vortices coming from the sides of the tornadoes themselves, as well as satellites from above. This is not something commonly seen, with maybe one or two tornadoes per year displaying these characteristics, and usually more subtly than the examples from yesterday. Obviously, the environment over northern and central Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia was perfect for these kinds of freak tornadoes. At one point yesterday afternoon, Storm Relative Helicity for the north-central Alabama area was coming in at >1,000 m2/s2. That index in itself is rather extravagant, but when you add in CAPE at > 3000+ j/Kg, the results can be horrifying, as we are now seeing. Below is Reed, Chris and Joel's video.

Beyond all of the destruction and loss of life, tornado outbreaks like this are also invaluable learning tools. People naturally want to dissect any given event to determine what worked, what could have been done differently, and to use what they learn to devise ways of doing better in the future. As it applies to yesterday, it is easy to say that National Weather Service personnel, members of the media, and storm chasers and spotters all worked in unison to provide and disseminate information that resulted in the best-possible warnings to those in harm's way, given the tools at their disposal. Thousands of people would have likely succumbed to the wrath of yesterday's storms without their efforts. Developing better warning systems is always something people like to talk about, but the real challenge, obviously, is how? It seems that we may have reached the limit of what's possible with Doppler radar and human-based warnings. A working NOAA weather radio in every home may be the best solution, one which would almost completely eliminate the "we had no warning" phenomenon.