Looks like this tornado outbreak will go down as the 3rd deadliest Feb. outbreak in U.S. history. #1 was "Enigma Outbreak", 1884 -- at least 420 dead...#2: "Mississippi Delta Outbreak", 1971 -- 121 dead...#3: "Super Tuesday Outbreak", 2008 -- 52 dead (prelim.)...#4: Kissimmee, FL, 1998 -- 42 dead.
Wow...where to begin. Many of the tornado & supercell tracks were very long -- in some cases over several hours & hundreds of miles. There were 417 severe storm reports -- including 78 tornadoes. The very damaging tornado in Jackson, TN is their third major tornado in less than 10 yrs. (1999 & 2003). A local viewer -- Belinda Hannigan in Ponte Vedra -- attended college at Union University & received this email (reprinted with permission) from a close friend regarding the Jackson tornado:
"Subject: Jordan's bad day...
OKfriends and family, it's now 5:52am and we just arrived home from a pretty awful night. Since so many of you have called and left messages, I will give you a quick recap so the story is conveyed as accurately as I can give it to you...
1st, we have Jordan (and some other kids) safely here.
As many of you know, we had tornado sirens and warnings for a few hours in Memphis, this seemed more serious than any I can recall and i was as prepared here as I could be. Dave was flying into Memphis so I was really worried about him and all of the passengers. When we got the all word on TV that the 1st round of storms had passed, we knew that Memphis had been hit with a few tornadoes and then I looked at the radar...straight at Jackson.
Jordan had called me during our bad weather to make sure i was OK, i called him and told him that the weather was really bad and to be sure to pay attention to weather reports and warnings. He said that they had soccer practice. a little while later, the news said that a tornado had been spotted near Jackson, I called him again and he said everything was fine and we were talking and then his siren went off. He said he had to run somewhere and i hung up.
Jordan and some of his friends decided to go downstairs to a common area and play ping pong while they waited out the alarm. he said that all of the sudden their ears all popped and they ran to the bathroom and shut the door, the lights went off and they felt a huge crush of wall on top of them. 7 boys were trapped under a collapsed building that has cinder block walls. they were being crushed and they screamed until they thought people might have heard them...
At this time, I am hearing that Union University has been hit by a tornado, his cell is not working...Dave is on his way home from the airport...he comes in the door and I tell him what has happened and we continue to try Jordan's cell. we begin to hear really bad reports and also reports that many of the kids have called their parents...but not our's...we got in the car and headed to Jackson...
We drove in a horrible thunderstorm and passes at least 10 semi trucks on their sides as we neared Jackson. In the mean time, we have heard that some students are trapped. Tim Kuhlman finally called us and told us that they had confirmed that Jordan was one of the trapped
students...2 hours had elapsed since the collapse. we finally got a message that Jordan was in an ambulance so we made our way to the hospital and finally found him, the other boys were still trapped.
Jordan was very shaken up, on IV's scratched and covered in debris. His clothes were torn and muddy. After spending the whole evening in the emergency room, the last of the boys was finally brought in alive.
Jordan said that the fireman had to break up a toilet and pull him through a small debris and nail filled hole so he could crawl out backwards, that is why he was so scratched up and cut, he had no other injuries.
All of the other boys from the bathroom are in the hospital. 3 are injured with various leg, chest injuries, 1 in surgery for massive leg trauma and 2 are listed critical. There were 58 trauma patients in that hospital alone. Kids were wandering everywhere cut, bloody, no cell phones etc. most of these kids have lost all of their possessions, their cars are all piled up and destroyed. Steve Gaines, the pastor at Bellevue Baptist Church came to the emergency room to talk to parents.
(his daughter is also a student)
So, that is it for now, we will all go to bed and probably sleep until noon then we will go and get these kids some clothes and drive back to Jackson so they can see what if anything they can salvage and be with their friends who are injured.
sorry this is so long, i could have said twice as much but tried to give you the details you might have asked so I don't lose my voice talking to everyone, Jordan is OK, extremely shaken up but grateful to be alive. I will cry my eyes out tomorrow, too much to do today. Thank you all for your prayers and don't wake us up anytime soon with a phone call!!!
Sherry"
Click here for some interesting insight from Union University regarding the tornadoes.
Below is a photo sent to me from a local viewer's brother in Atkins, AR. -- a large late day tornado northwest of Little Rock.
Obviously it'll take a while for all the storm surveys to be completed, but here's a list of the N.W.S. offices with preliminary assessments (nothing from Memphis yet):
-- Little Rock, AR
-- Nashville, TN
-- Birmingham, AL
-- Paducah, KY
-- Indianapolis, IN
-- Louisville, KY
As for this storm system/front as it approaches the First Coast tonight...the activity will be a mere shadow of its former self. A weakening line of showers will move west to east across the area with possibly a rumble of thunder & maybe gusty winds on the order of 20-35 mph. There is some potential for strong or even briefly severe storms in the Homerville, Waycross, Blackshear, Nahunta & Jesup areas this evening. The front will hang nearby Thu. leaving much cooler air in its wake along with continued on-&-off showers. There could still be a few thundershowers Thu. near & south of Jacksonville. Total rainfall through Thu. night should average a tenth to a half inch with a few isolated spots possibly picking up more.
This front will bring an end to the summer-like warmth. Jax hit a record-tying high Tue. of 85 (set in 1989 & just 2 degrees short of the all-time Feb. record high!) while Daytona & Melbourne broke records for the date.
The space shuttle is scheduled to take off at 2:45 Thu. afternoon. Weather, however, might get in the way. Skies will be partly to mostly cloudy with a shower or thunderstorm possible. Southwest winds will be 10-15 mph with gusts to around 20 mph...& warm temps. near 80 degrees. Here's a list of NASA's weather criteria for launch:
The basic weather launch commit criteria on the pad at liftoff must be:
Temperature: Prior to external tank propellant loading, tanking will not begin if the 24 hour average temperature has been below 41 degrees. After tanking begins, the countdown shall not be continued nor the Shuttle launched if:
Temperature exceeds 99 degrees for more than 30 consecutive minutes.
Temperature is lower than the prescribed minimum value for longer than 30 minutes unless sun angle, wind, temperature and relative humidity conditions permit recovery. The minimum temperature limit in degrees F. is specified by the table below and is a function of the five minute average of temperature, wind and humidity. The table becomes applicable when the observed temperature reaches 48 degrees. In no case may the Space Shuttle be launched if the temperature is 35 degrees or colder.
Wind Speed Relative Humidity
(kts) 0-64% 65-74% 75-79% 80-89% 90-100%
0 - 1 48 47 46 45 44
2 47 46 45 44 43
3 41 41 41 40 39
4 39 39 39 39 38
5 - 7 38 38 38 38 38
8 - 14 37 37 37 37 37
>14 36 36 36 36 36
The above table can be used to determine when conditions are again acceptable for launch if parameters have been out of limits for thirty minutes or less. If longer than thirty minutes, a mathematical recovery formula of the environmental conditions is used to determine if a return to acceptable parameters has been achieved. Launch conditions have been reached if the formula reaches a positive value.
Wind: Tanking will not begin if the wind is observed or forecast to exceed 42 knots for the next three hour period.
For launch the wind constraints at the launch pad will vary slightly for each mission. The peak wind speed allowable is 30 knots. However, when the wind direction is between 100 degrees and 260 degrees, the peak speed varies and may be as low as 21 knots.
The upper atmosphere wind profile must conform to either one of two wind loading programs developed by the Johnson Space Center. This profile is determined by a series of Jimsphere wind balloon releases from Cape Canaveral Air Station. A final recommendation is made by the JSC Launch Systems Evaluation Advisory Team (LSEAT) to the KSC launch director at Launch minus 30 minutes. The Space Shuttle will not be launched within 30 minutes of the time a determination has been made that the upper wind profile will adversely affect the performance of the launch vehicle.
A downrange weather advisory shall be issued by the Shuttle Weather Officer to the Mission Management Team for their consideration if the wind in the solid rocket booster recovery area is forecast to exceed 26 knots during retrieval operations. Seas in excess of Sea State 5 (8-13 feet) may also be a factor considered by the Mission Management Team.
Precipitation: None at the launch pad or within the flight path.
Lightning (and electric fields with triggering potential):
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lightning is a giant spark. A single stroke of lightning can heat the air around it to 30,000 degrees Celsius (54,000 degrees Farhenheit)! This extreme heating causes the air to expand at an explosive rate. The expansion creates a shock wave that turns into a booming sound wave, better known as thunder. Thus the name thunderstorm. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tanking will not begin if there is forecast to be greater than a 20% chance of lightning within five nautical miles of the launch pad during the first hour of tanking. The launch director with the concurrence of the safety director may make an exception after consultation with the Shuttle Weather Officer.
Do not launch if lightning has been detected within 10 nautical miles of the pad or the planned flight path within 30 minutes prior to launch. Launch may occur if the source of lightning has moved more than 10 nautical miles away from the pad or the flight path and a field mill, used to measure electric fields, is located within 5 nautical miles of the lightning flash.
The one-minute average of the electric field mill network may not exceed -1 or +1 kilovolt per meter within five nautical miles of the launch pad or the lightning flash at any time within 15 minutes prior to launch. This field mill criteria becomes -1.5 or + 1.5 kilovolts per meter if there are no clouds within 10 nautical miles of the flight path except those which are transparent. Also excepted are clouds with tops below the 41 degrees F. temperature level that have not have been previously associated with a thunderstorm, or associated with convective clouds having tops above the 14 degrees F. temperature level during the last three hours.
Do not launch when lightning is observed and the cloud which produced the lightning is within 10 nautical miles of the flight path. Launch may not occur until 30 minutes has elapsed since the lightning flash, or the cloud has moved more than 10 nautical miles away.
Today's topic -- appropriately -- for "Hazardous Weather Awareness Week" is tornadoes & thunderstorms. Since 1970, 2,400+ tornadoes have occurred in Florida!
CBS47/FOX30 & the First Alert Weather Center have teamed up with Publix & Midland Weather Alert Radio to offer programmable NOAA weather radios at a reduced rate -- $29.99 -- at participating Publix stores. Just look for a large cardboard display with the mugs of the First Alert Weather team.
