JoMo

Yeah, I just found the warning. I think it was on the CBS morning show (that's on at like 3-4 AM) that I saw the report and the reporter said "and they had no warning" BULLETIN – EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED TORNADO WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HUNTSVILLE AL 243 PM CDT WED APR 27 2011 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN HUNTSVILLE HAS ISSUED A * TORNADO WARNING FOR… NORTHERN CULLMAN COUNTY IN NORTH CENTRAL ALABAMA… SOUTHEASTERN MORGAN COUNTY IN NORTH CENTRAL ALABAMA… * UNTIL 315 PM CDT * AT 238 PM CDT…NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR WAS TRACKING A TORNADO 7 MILES SOUTHWEST OF LOGAN…OR ABOUT 15 MILES SOUTHWEST OF CULLMAN…MOVING NORTHEAST AT 50 MPH. REPORTS OF DAMAGE HAVE BEEN REPORTED NEAR CRANE HILL.

Was the Cullman tornado warned after it had already touched down? I saw a news report where they said there was no warning.

I'm not sure that's blood you are seeing. It's probably a combination of oil, transmission fluid, brake fluid, etc.. from the car.

This is basically what I was trying to say. I wasn't actually saying the on-air personalities did a bad job, they did a tremendous job. I'm saying the impression that they gave was that if people 'hunkered down' they would survive. Spann and whoever that CBS guy was both knew it was a violent tornado long before it hit the Birmingham area. Maybe there needs to be more education to the public about what kind of damage a violent tornado can do and that simply getting in a hall closet will probably not protect you during a violent tornado so you should look for underground shelter or get out of its way.

There's at least one mobile home park in this area that has a shelter. People do use it.

Yeah, I do understand that, but you may be giving people the false assumption that they will be safe if they do as they are told, even in the face of a tornado that has a low survivability rate. If people believe that they will survive if they go to an interior room, even though the tornado isn't going to leave anything on the foundation, you've just given someone who may have lived if they would have ran away the wrong advice. If they think 'well he said I'm going to be safe' so I guess I won't try to run from the storm. I'm probably not wording it right, or something though, sorry.

Well, I'm not saying it should be used in all situations, just especially rare ones like this in which you know a tornado is probably very violent. You are telling people that their best chance will be to hunker down and they believe that really is their best chance, but it may not actually be.

What if.... what if.... Well the fact remains that the TV personalities told people they would be safe if they 'hunkered down' and now it appears that was bad advice as the death toll rises. "You'll be safe if you get to the lowest level in an interior room" may have stopped people from actually being safe by getting out of the way.

Not always cost effective. This is probably the best solution but you have to be willing to pay upwards of $3,000+

I'm sure some of the people that died while hunkered down would disagree.

You could always get a safe room. However, they are pretty expensive and probably not feasible for a lot of the homes in the southeast due to the cost. http://www.missouristormshelters.com/

Find a sturdy shelter that can take an EF-5 Drive away. It worked during the Picher, OK EF4 tornado.

If they were warned and know they were warned, you can't really place 'blame' on anyone but them. You can't say they weren't warned and it wasn't a failure in the warning system. There are unfortunate circumstances where people like the elderly can't get to a shelter. I live in a house on a slab, meaning I don't have a basement, my neighbor does have a basement though and I can go over there assuming it isn't underwater at the time. You also have to deal with 'warning fatigue'. When an area experiences a lot of tornado warnings and 'nothing happens' at their particular location, they may not take action when that one time something does happen at their location.

I'm not sure about their warning systems down there, but there are warning systems (sirens) that are activated via a phone number and they are equipped with a battery backup.

Radar deflecting off of debris aloft. It's typically an area of extremely high reflectivity located near the hook. (mostly on the south side)

Warning people means nothing if people don't heed the warnings. The speed of these storms plus the strength of the tornadoes sometimes catches people by surprise.

yep, windows blown out, trees down, some awning blown off.

That's insane.

Yeah, hoping for more of a south trend with that system as I think the warm front will probably be just south of here on the 12z GFS. That's nasty looking.

Springfield MO BY MONDAY...MEDIUM RANGE SOLUTIONS AGREE THAT A NEGATIVELY TILTED UPPER LEVEL TROUGH OF LOW PRESSURE WILL APPROACH THE OZARKS FROM THE WEST...ONLY TO FIRE OFF ANOTHER ROUND OF SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS. THERE IS ALSO A SIGNAL FOR A SOLID EPISODE OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS AT THIS TIME...MOST LIKELY MONDAY AFTERNOON OR MONDAY NIGHT. WE WILL NEED TO WATCH THIS SIGNAL CLOSELY THROUGH THE WEEKEND AS THIS SETUP LOOKS TO BE THE BEST ORGANIZED PATTERN FOR SEVERE STORMS WE`VE EXPERIENCED SINCE NEW YEARS EVE.