re: Tornado outbreak, 94 dead, Upwards of 100 unaccounted for search/rescue & cleanup ongoing

This is from meteorologist Brandon Black (@backinblack_wx on Twitter) who, I believe is a NWS met in the Mobile market. I believe it is well said.

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One last thing before I go work radar. You will likely hear “it hit without warning somewhere from someone whose lives potentially changed in a matter of seconds 2in the middle of the night 2 weeks before Christmas”. Before getting bent out of shape reflect how you would feel.

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In the scale of a life time a tornado moving at 60 mph is almost nothing. In a thousand square mile outlook the odds even the largest tornado on record hits you is almost zero. No life altering event comes with warning. You don’t wake up and say todays the day I lose everything’s

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Yes I know it’s frustrating to hear that but we are all grieving. People lost homes, possessions and loved ones in a matter of seconds. Mets are fighting the feeling of doing their job and still not being enough to do what they swore to do in protect life and property.

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We are all grieving in the end. Don’t feel slighted by those comments. Try to understand they lost a lot and don’t know how to understand why them. Be there for them and help understand.

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You baws around here who are looking to get into the public-service meteorology field, remember this. Take it to heart that it will always "Hit without warning....". You will always question whether you did enough. The one thing that I have learned on my short time on this rock is that Nature always wins. Every person you can save is a win against the greatest of adversaries. It is an endless battle; just do the best that you can. We appreciate it.

Amazing

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Here's a still image taken from a video that was recorded last night near Union City, TN. Look at how many tornadoes were on the ground at the same time. I've never seen anything like this before.

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This video and pic would have likely been captured after the storm cycled at around 8:22pm. Union City would have been after that cycle on the approach to Mayfield. It would be interesting to see radar at that time. I don't believe I have any screenshots from that period.

ETA: If my memory is correct, the Tri-State Tornado was also likely a "tornado family".

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Duke

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Do you have any way to download/view GR2 data right now?

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She's a delivery driver and said the tornado tore the building's garage apart, so pretty much all of the delivery vans got lunched. Not sure what she's going to do...

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Bright spot for her is that Amazon surely has excess vehicles available at other warehouses. And I would think Amazon will help out their employees.

No but pretty sure I have a way to get another trial of Level2

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If Spann happens to be asleep, on vacation, or tipsy from one too many margaritas at the local Mexican joint, y

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Our pure James would NEVER do such a thing

The man is an example for us all

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have video for you. It’s on Facebook under Ryan Piscatelle. Cut me some slack for the iPhone quality.

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That is amazingly terrible damage.

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I'll add this, what are people supposed to do with the warnings with this baring down on you? The advice cant be "get in your car and run",

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I will say that I feel confident enough these days in my radar abilities to say that I will leave if given enough lead time. I do not under any circumstances believe that should be the guidance/suggestion for most tornadoes, however. Not everyone will survive violent tornadoes in a home above ground, but nearly everyone will die in a vehicle that is struck by such a tornado.

Know your plan, know your surroundings, know the storms in your area.

I have extended family who lived in Soso, MS. They left last year with a violent tornado bearing down on them. They had enough lead time to leave and lived in a relatively rural area. They were fine, their house was a total loss.

Evacuating is not the solution to every tornado. Most are survivable if you are in a well-built structure and practice appropriate safety measures. However, I 100% believe that, given enough lead time and given you aren't in a major city/metro, evacing is a viable option. That hinges strongly on one's own knowledge and situational awareness, though.

I do not believe that leaving should be the chosen guidance from the NWS and EMA offices.

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I will say that I feel confident enough these days in my radar abilities to say that I will leave if given enough lead time

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I feel confident you'd make the right calls too. You are not the general public though. I half thought about telling that Bama baw to run last night, but turns out he could have easily run into trouble and was fine at home.

And we're talking about tornado emergency, got debris lofted in the air, obvious violent tornados. The kind Im not sure a well built structure survives or not.