A Story from the Tornado Zone   
       
   Editor's Note:On Wednesday, April 27th, Science@NASA writer Dauna Coulter   
   found herself near ground zero as a super-outbreak of tornadoes ripped through   
   North Alabama. This is the story about the science of the event she wrote and   
   submitted from within the disaster zone.   
       
   April 27, 2011: Tornado sirens wailed all day long. They'd sound off and then   
   wind down for a little while, only to start up again a few minutes later as   
   forecasters spotted yet another hook echo on their radars and ad   
   enaline-revved storm spotters confirmed the twisters that dropped from   
   seething skies one after another.   
       
   We lined our bathroom closet with blankets and pillows for my grandson. My   
   husband kept going outside to look at the sky. If an atmosphere can become   
   sentient, the one out there was a malevolent, living thing. This was not your   
   usual storm. Even our Golden Retriever was pacing the floor.   
   [...]   
   Storm clouds approach Huntsville, Alabama, on April 27th. Photo credit: Nancy   
   Vreuls of NASA/MSFC   
       
   In the late afternoon, we lost power. We scrambled to find our radio,   
   batteries, flashlights, candles, and matches, as tornados continued to train   
   across the area. The wind finally died down around 10 pm.   
       
   April 28, 2011: The power was still out when I woke up the morning after the   
   storm. I made coffee on our camp stove in the back yard and sat in a lawn   
   chair to listen to the radio. The news was worse than I'd expected. As the sun   
   rose to begin an apologetically brilliant, clear day, I said a silent prayer   
   for those who had lost their lives in the storms. They were, and still are, on   
   my mind and in my heart. (More than a week later, all the missing have yet to   
   be accounted for.)   
       
   I couldn't check on family or friends by cell phone until that evening, and   
   even then phone service was spotty, as it would be for two more days. The   
   people I finally reached said they'd been trying to call me. Science@NASA   
   editor Tony Phillips was among them. When we finally talked, he made sure I   
   was okay and then said something that blew my mind: "I want you to write a   
   story about this."   
       
   With no lights, no computer, spotty cell phone coverage?   
       
   "Okay," I answered, and then began figuring out how to do it.   
       
   April 29, 2011: The next morning I located a friend who lived near the   
   Tennessee border, 30 miles away, and had power and internet. The route to her   
   house led through one of the "war zones." There was nothing left intact.   
   [...]   
   A tornado so wide that its funnel shape is not immediately obvious approaches   
   Huntsville, AL. Video by Sissy Brown at the Fairview Baptist Church. What had   
   caused a storm of this magnitude?   
       
   I emailed prospective interviewees at NASA and the National Weather Service,   
   hoping they'd have internet service - and some answers. I urged my contacts to   
   call me as I had no computer access anywhere in Huntsville and was headed back   
   there.   
       
   By mid-afternoon, no one had called back, so it was time to try another tack.   
   [...]   
   I drove to the National Space Science and Technology Center, a leading-edge   
   severe weather research center housing investigators from NASA and the   
   University of Alabama as well as the National Weather Service's Forecast   
   Office in Huntsville. Ironically, the historic line of tornadoes had torn   
   through the skies right above the center on the 27th, causing it to be briefly   
   evacuated except for key weather personnel.1   
       
   I was glad to see a few cars in the parking lot and hear the hum of a   
   generator. Using my badge to enter the building, I made my way through   
   semi-dark hallways to the Weather Service Office. There I found Larry Burgett   
   of their Public Service Unit along with forecaster Jennifer Lee. Both of them   
   were part of a large team that had worked from 3:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. central   
   time, nonstop, the day of the storm to track the event and alert the public.   
       
   "It was a day unlike any other," said Burgett. "We've never issued so many   
   warnings in rapid succession. And we've never had so many damage reports in   
   one day."   
       
   The field survey team2 examining the damage in north Alabama reported one   
   twister as an EF-5, a ranking reserved for the most violent and destructive   
   tornadoes. It had peak winds of 210 mph, was 1.25 miles wide in spots, and   
   stayed on the ground for 132 miles.   
       
   "Not only was there a tremendous outbreak of tornadoes - but many of them   
   ripped along the ground for a long time," said Lee. "It's very unusual for   
   that many funnels to stay down that long."   
       
   Burgett described some unbelievable sights: "Some homes were hit not once but   
   twice - by one tornado on the heels of another. That's unheard of. Maybe in a   
   rare case you'll hear of a home being hit twice over several years, but not in   
   the same day. And everywhere a tornado touched down - there was major damage."   
   [...]   
   Tornado tracks color-coded by intensity. The most powerful EF-5 tornado, which   
   passed by Dauna Coulter's location in Huntsville, is denoted in violet.   
   Credit: NWS [more]   
       
   I drove home, digesting and mourning all I'd learned that day, yet no one had   
   explained to me how this century-class catastrophe had happened. How did this   
   storm brew enough energy to transform itself into such a monstrous   
   tornado-machine?   
       
   Later, NASA meteorologist Walt Petersen3 and UA-Huntsville meteorologist Tim   
   Coleman called me with some facts.   
       
   "A deep cold batch of air in the central US seeped toward the southeast behind   
   a cold front that trailed a ground-level low pressure system," explained   
   Petersen. "Moist air from the Gulf of Mexico streamed in toward the   
   lower-pressure area like water heading for an open drain. Above that moist   
   air, we had very strong winds with lots of wind shear. That means that the   
   wind turned and sped up with height, causing the updrafts in the storm to   
   corkscrew as they ascended into the turning wind. Collectively, those   
   ingredients turned deadly, causing storms to form and intensify, and at the   
   same time rotate because of the wind shear."   
       
   Coleman added: "This kind of set up in the atmosphere is extremely rare. We   
   have a number in meteorology called the EHI (Energy Helicity Index)4 that   
   indicates the likelihood of tornadoes developing. With an EHI over 2 you can   
   expect some tornadoes. Over 5 and you can expect some significant tornadoes.   
   The EHI predicted by computer models the day before this event was 10, and   
   that prediction was correct."   
       
   Coleman admits that he was frightened by what he'd seen developing. And as   
   part of a storm survey team sorting through the rubble the day after the   
   mega-storm, he found that his fears had been realized.   
       
   "Brick homes were blown apart. Even above-ground walls of their basements were   
   gone, and there were mountains of debris - including concrete blocks and large   
   pieces of lumber - on basement floors. Some of these tornadoes were almost   
   unsurviveable. Only in a well-built storm shelter would you make it through."   
   [...]   
   Humor amid tragedy. Photo credit: Dauna Coulter April 30, 2011: As time   
   allowed over the next few days, I worked on this story outside under a shade   
   tree in daytime and inside by candlelight at night. Though I stayed busy the   
   rest of the time heating water to wash dishes, waiting in long lines to buy   
   ice and gas from the few stores with generators, and checking on my elderly   
   parents, life had, in a sense, slowed and quieted. No televisions blaring, no   
   air conditioners humming, no weed eaters buzzing. (The extra gas was needed in   
   cars.) Even the dogs were unusually silent. I've never slept better.   
       
   In any other circumstances, you'd think we were all enjoying an extended   
   holiday. People were out all over town walking to the store, biking, visiting   
   with one another. And they kept their good spirits and sense of humor through   
   it all. One neighbor posted this sign.   
       
   In the evenings, our neighbors brought the contents of their defunct   
   refrigerators and freezers over to share, and we cooked out on grills and the   
   camp stove. Communities all over town had similar gatherings. My 86 year old   
   father, who cares and cooks for my semi-invalid mother, reported each day on   
   what their neighbors had brought them for supper. "We've been eating better   
   than we ever did with my cooking!" he said.   
       
   At night the city was so dark, it was like living in a different century. I   
   rode my bike under the stars. Replacing the gaudy glare of incandescent   
   lights, a soft glow of candlelight issued from the windows of neighbors'   
   homes. Some families gathered around backyard fires. And with not even a moon   
   in view, I saw stars I'd never seen before. There above me was the whole Milky   
   Way!   
       
   May 2, 2011: It's been a bittersweet week.   
       
   I was sitting in the back yard last night as a wave of cheering and yelling   
   started in the distance and seemed to roll toward me. It grew louder and   
   louder, closer and closer, building to this crescendo: my son leaning out the   
   back door and shouting, "We have power!"   
       
   People were cheering as the lights came on swiftly, street by street, across   
   the neighborhood.   
       
   "Let there be light!" (That was me, joining the sound wave.)   
       
   I'll remember these experiences for a long, long time: Slow, halting drives   
   through the city with no street lights working, waiting in long lines for a   
   ration of ice or gas or to buy a few hotdogs for the grill, curfews, taking   
   ice cold showers, fumbling around in the darkness for my toothbrush, stubbing   
   my toes in dim rooms . and thinking of those who were not as fortunate.   
       
   Author: Dauna Coulter | Editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA   
       
   More Information   
   Footnotes   
       
   1. The Huntsville Weather Service Office has a generator and large battery   
   computer backup system for emergencies.   
       
   2. Survey teams conduct field surveys of tornado damage, examining the length   
   and width of the tornadoes' paths and the severity of damage. The team uses   
   these observations to determine where the twisters touched down, how long they   
   stayed on the ground, their size, and the velocity of their winds.   
       
   3. Walt Petersen's personal account: "We ran the ARMOR Radar at the NSSTC   
   throughout the event until the power went out. As the worst storms approached   
   in the later afternoon, we decided to run low-level (that is, low elevation   
   angles near the surface) scans back-to-back so we could get the most frequent   
   updates on any tornado developments, because at that point public safety was a   
   clear concern. In other words, we switched our thinking from trying to collect   
   data over the full depth of the storms for research to continuous collections   
   at low levels of the storms to enable rapid updating for monitoring of tornado   
   circulation development. As the system continued to move into our area from   
   the south and southwest around 4 p.m., we could see things that were looking   
   potentially bad. For instance, we could see occasional debris signatures in   
   the radar data, and all of this was moving right at us. I left at about 4:45   
   p.m. and headed home to be with my family. Once I got there, I monitored the   
   ARMOR Radar at my home with my computer. As I watched, I saw one vortex that   
   seemed to be heading for my neighborhood. Atmospheric scientist that I am, I   
   had to take a look outside too. I did that until at one point I saw all the   
   trees in my backyard twist, in unison, toward the northwest. I also heard a   
   loud noise on my roof. I knew, from all this, that the circulation was nearby.   
   That spooked me and I headed downstairs where my children were. When we were   
   sure all was clear, we climbed the stairs in the darkness, assuming the house   
   was okay. We did have a sizeable leak in the ceiling. The next morning I went   
   out and saw a 4-inch tree limb stuck in the roof like a spear. Later that day   
   I had to drive from Madison to Athens, and the landscape was just surreal."   
       
   4. Meteorologists calculate the EHI by combining the wind shear that flows in   
   and makes a storm rotate with the instability that makes a storm grow: more.   
       
   Here are pictures of what I passed by on way to my friend's house to get on   
   internet. The neighborhood is called Anderson Hills and it's in the outskirts   
   of Huntsville.   
       
   Storm Survey Information from the north Alabama April 27 Super Outbreak   
       
   Satellite views of the tornado tracks   
       
   NOAA storm summary   
       
       
   Regards,   
       
   Roger   
      
   --- D'Bridge 3.61   
    * Origin: NCS BBS (1:3828/7)