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Tornado tragedy

Posted at 7:01 AM on February 6, 2008 by Paul Huttner

Daylight will only begin to reveal the magnitude of the tragedy today in the southern states.

The numbers cannot tell the whole story, but they are remarkable. These numbers will change over the coming hours and days, but it's already apparent that we are looking at a "Super Tuesday Tornado Outbreak" that is as historic as it is tragic.

68 tornadoes
44 dead

Damage surveys will confirm the numbers and paths of the tornadoes, but there are reports that at least one of the tornadoes may have been a "long track" tornado, on the ground for more than an hour as it crossed the Mississippi River from Arkansas into Tennessee. These tornadoes are usually very strong (EF3 or stronger) spawned by well organized monster supercell thunderstorms. These are often the killer tornadoes, and can be more than a mile wide on the ground in places.

So far this year we've seen over 200 tornadoes in the U.S. The 3 year average for all of January and February is just 59.

SPC storm reports


Let's hope the trend of an active tornado year for 2008 eases up before tornado season here in the Upper Midwest.

PH

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