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| Law enforcement officers climb through debris looking for survivors early Saturday in Rolling Fork MS (Rogelio Solis/AP) |
Straight out of an epic Hollywood disaster movie.
How Mississippi’s tornadoes unfolded overnight and why they were so deadly
At least 23 people are dead in Mississippi following a terrifying Friday night in which large, destructive tornadoes tore across the state.
The violent twisters formed amid a severe weather outbreak that unleashed damage from Louisiana to North Carolina. They were fueled by record-setting heat and energized by howling jet stream winds.
The twisters formed from the same destructive storm system that barged into California’s Bay Area on Tuesday and produced deadly flooding in both the Desert Southwest and the nation’s midsection.
The twisters’ terrible toll can be linked to their utter ferocity, the vulnerability of the region they struck and for sweeping through at night, when it was difficult to see them coming.
How the tornadoes were unleashed
The rotating thunderstorm or supercell that spawned the deadly tornadoes swept across the entirety of Mississippi and continued through northern Alabama — an exceptionally long path for a single storm. Supercells contain rotating updrafts fueled by warm, unstable air near the ground and are twisted by changing winds with altitude.
The National Weather Service in Jackson, Miss., first issued a tornado warning for the storm as it entered Mississippi at 7:40 p.m.
Just before 8 p.m., it cautioned “a large and extremely dangerous tornado was located 7 miles west of Rolling Fork.” By 8:03 p.m., the Weather Service said the storm was located near Rolling Fork. “This is a PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION. TAKE COVER NOW!,” it warned. Rolling Fork was among one of several towns especially hard hit.
The wedge-shaped funnel was probably on the ground for the next 90 minutes covering 80 miles as it barreled across west-central Mississippi at high speeds. The Weather Service was compelled to declare multiple tornado emergencies, the most dire alert for twisters, as it carved a path through the towns of Anguilla, Louise, Midnight, Silver City, Tchula and Winona.
Along this path, tornado lofted debris 30,000 feet high, said Samuel Emmerson, a member of the radar research group at the University of Oklahoma, describing it on Twitter as an “extremely high-caliber” tornado.
Shortly after passing Winona, around 9:32 p.m., the tornado may have weakened or lifted for a time as the storm raced across northeast Mississippi.
However, it appeared to re-form and strengthen around 10:50 p.m. when the Weather Service office in Memphis declared yet another tornado emergency for the town of Amory and then the city of Smithville.
When radar displayed an unmistakable signature of debris immediately west of Armory, confirmation of the destructive twister, broadcast meteorologist Matt Laubhan for television station WTVA could not contain his emotion.
“Dear Jesus, please help them,” he pleaded.
The storm crossed into northwest Alabama shortly after 11 p.m. and continued producing tornadoes until it reached the northeast part of the state around 12:45 a.m.
The Weather Service received at least 10 reports of tornadoes in northern Alabama from this storm. Around Hartselle, which is about 30 miles southwest of Huntsville, the agency logged reports of damage to homes, people trapped and a tractor-trailer overturned.
Severe storm affected 7 southern states and it’s not over
The storm that swept across Mississippi and northern Alabama was one of many that raged through the South on Friday into early Saturday morning.
The Weather Service has logged more than 100 reports of severe weather from Louisiana to western North Carolina, including more than 80 instances of violent straight line winds that toppled trees and power lines and damaged homes. Tens of thousands lost power.
The Weather Service reported one person was injured near Nashville when a tree fell on a house.
On Saturday, the storm system will push off the East Coast but could still set off some strong thunderstorms in parts of the Southeast and Ohio Valley.
The risk of severe weather and tornadoes is much lower compared to Friday, however. The Storm Prediction Center has placed the zone from southern Mississippi to South Carolina as well as eastern Ohio, northern West Virginia and western Pennsylvania in a Level 1 out of 5 risk of severe thunderstorms; Friday’s risk in the Mid-South was a Level 4 out of 5.
As the storm front stalls across the South on Sunday, the risk of severe weather could increase again between Louisiana and Georgia, with damaging winds and a couple more tornadoes possible, the Storm Predicton Center said Saturday.
A deadly legacy
The larger storm system which spawned Friday’s tornadoes has a deadly legacy. When it slammed into California on Tuesday, at least five people were killed by trees toppled by winds up to 80 mph in the Bay Area. The same storm spawned the strongest tornado to hit the Los Angeles metro area since 1983.
As the storm exited California on its way toward the central states, it triggered severe flooding in central Arizona, where at least three people died after their vehicles were swept away by floodwaters, the Associated Press reported.
The storm unloaded more heavy rain that spurred flooding over an extensive swath of the central and eastern United States — stretching from eastern Oklahoma into northern West Virginia. The Associated Press reported a car was swept away by floodwaters in southwest Missouri, killing two passengers.
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