29 April 2011
Incredible Video of Tuscaloosa Tornado
Posted by Dan Satterfield
This was posted on YouTube today. This is the likely EF-5 tornado that destroyed part of Tuscaloosa, Al. on Wednesday afternoon.
This is what the radar looked like at that moment.
The debris ball is just south of the upside down triangle (that indicates the location of the tornado). Thanks to Meteorologist Terran Kirksey for saving this image.
The blob south of the hook echo is called a debris ball, and you see this only in very large tornadoes. It’s caused by the radar beam reflecting off of debris in the air around a tornado. weather radar is designed to see objects the size of rain drops, so there must have been an incredible amount of debris in the air to show up like this. It’s the biggest debris ball on radar I have seen in 32 years as a forecaster.
Dan Satterfield has worked as an on air meteorologist for 32 years in Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama. Forecasting weather is Dan's job, but all of Earth Science is his passion. This journal is where Dan writes about things he has too little time for on air. Dan blogs about peer-reviewed Earth science for Junior High level audiences and up.
Are the flashes lightning or power lines shorting out?
Most probably powerflashes from the shorting of powerlines. But storms of this size have lightning too. So sometimes, the tornado might not get you, but the lightning will.