364, 252, 4/27/2011...

364:  Number of days that have passed since the 2011 Super Outbreak in the Deep South.

252:  Number of people that died in the state of Alabama during the 2011 Super Outbreak.

4/27/2011 :  One of the deadliest weather days ever in the history of the United States.

Tomorrow marks the one year anniversary of one of the most devastating weather days in the United States, both from a human suffering and monetary cost.

The 2011 Super Outbreak affected the Deep South, especially Mississippi and Alabama.  Dixie Alley saw severe storms setting up on the 26th, firing in the pre-dawn hours of the 27th, then briefly dissipating before re-forming and kicking off the "main event" starting at around 2PM that day.

It was watching this event that I got to know a bit more about Alabama, and meteorologists James Spann and Jason Simpson from ABC 33/40, along with Mark Prater from CBS 42 in Birmingham, Alabama.

I am not going to go down to the fine details about this day.  They are well documented in a number of places elsewhere on the web.  If you have some time, go to YouTube and search for jbbbrown2's channel, then find the clip from ABC 33/40 at 2:00 PM April 27th and start watching.  It was heartbreaking yet intense, as the day progressed, watching a tornado on live TV tear through downtown Cullman, AL, then later in the afternoon, watching as an EF4 laid waste to the southeastern part of Tuscaloosa, AL.  James and Jason did a phenomenal job covering multiple storms with tornadoes on deck and doing damage, as did Mark on the CBS station.  I say that, not to blow sunshine at people, but to give credit where it's due.  Am I a "fanboy"?  Perhaps.  If I can pull off this "mid-season" career change into meteorology, I can only hope that if I am fortunate enough to become a broadcast met or forecaster, given a similar situation, that I can do a TENTH of the job they did under the gun with lives on the line.

Sadly, despite their best efforts, and the heroic efforts of other meteorologists from the Storm Prediction Center on down the line, combined with the efforts of local emergency services workers, 252 people died in Alabama when the dust settled.

I'll be frank, I shed a few tears watching that whole thing unfold.  It still makes the hair stand up on my neck, seeing those tornadoes knife through towns like that.  I guess it was training and focus that kept James, Jason, Mark and the other meteorologists in the game when the chips were down and so much was riding on their performance.

I e-mailed James Spann about a month after the outbreak.  I won't go into detail about it, but I will say this: you could sense without even being there, that people were seriously hurting across the board.  I told James that he and all the other mets needed to hear from someone far removed from the situation that, from what I could see up here in Michigan, they did the very best they could with what they had facing them that day, and they had absolutely no reason to be down on or blame themselves.  In hindsight, that same observation goes to the emergency services personnel, and those who became first responders of all stripes in the minutes, hours, and days after the tornadoes had moved on or lifted.


In the subsequent days and weeks, I could tell a lot of the weather types involved took that event hard, and took it personally after the shock wore off.  Ever since then, the warning and forecasting process has been picked apart and re-evaluated, with changes happening, some more swiftly than others.

This is one reason why I started the South Central Michigan Weather Zone.  I hope to make a career change at some point.  If I don't, that's fine too.  I enjoy science, the weather, and trying to solve the weather puzzle daily.  I hope that if you take time to read the blog, it's been useful thus far in some small way.  Most important, I also hope that maybe, even just doing a blog on the web at the opposite end of the US, I can possibly have at least a part of a finger or a toe in preventing so many from perishing due to a weather event ever again.

Take a moment, and say a prayer or send a good thought today or tomorrow for those who are still recovering, as what was April 27, 2011 soon becomes April 27, 2012.  There are still many in Alabama that need help, as they continue to travel the road of recovery.  If you can find a way to help, that's even better. Thanks for reading.