![]() An arid wind blew in more dry air from the Desert Southwest and the Mexican Plateau. A layer of air from the western United States, raked across the Rockies along with the incoming storm system, warmed and dried as it descended along the eastern slopes of the mountain range. For the next several days unsettled weather continued, producing scattered thunderstorms, hail and a handful of tornadoes in Colorado and Kansas as the low plodded across the Rocky Mountains and toward the Northern Plains. As the week drew to a close, forecasters became increasingly concerned that the weekend could bring a more significant outbreak of severe weather.Īs the weekend approached, an explosive chain of events began to take shape. ![]() The storms blew up quickly, dropping nickel-sized hail and spinning up a few brief tornadoes east of Denver. The system first made its presence known on Tuesday, May 17, as the hot, sticky air rose, condensed and ballooned into tall cauliflower-shaped clouds over eastern Colorado. As the system ambled northward, a southerly flow pushed vast quantities of warm, moist air into the Southern and Central United States. A low pressure system originating in the Gulf of Alaska dropped south to the West Coast before migrating north and east toward the Rocky Mountains. Several weeks passed with little activity, but by the third week of May the pattern had again begun to change. After the utter devastation of April 25-28, however, the large-scale weather patterns changed and conditions became less conducive for tornadoes. Three major outbreaks pushed the monthly count to a staggering 758, obliterating the previous record of 542 set in May 2004. By the time the sirens wailed to life, the single deadliest tornado in more than six decades had already begun its path of devastation.Īpril of 2011 had been the most active month of tornadoes in recorded history. A scattering of debris soon followed, prompting Piotrowski to issue his desperate plea. Lowering from the sky to engulf the horizon was a massive, billowing cone of clouds. The doppler radar inside Jeff’s vehicle indicated an extremely intense circulation just minutes from town, but one look to the southwest left no doubt. The murky clouds heaved curtains of rain and a spattering of hail as storm chaser Jeff Piotrowski pulled alongside a police cruiser near Seventh Street and Black Cat Road on the south side of Joplin, Missouri. The brilliant blue springtime skies had become a malevolent, roiling mass of charcoal grays and diffuse blue-greens. The sense of urgency, bordering on panic, was palpable. The half-mile-wide storm tore up entire neighborhoods in Smithville, Miss.“Get the sirens going, get the sirens going, I’m telling you!” April 27 was also the day of the first giant twister classified as an EF-5 in three years.That one storm is thought to have killed more than 200 people, as part of an outbreak that killed more than 300 that day. The deadliest single tornado so far this year was the April 27 twister that devastated Tuscaloosa, Ala.Several state records were broken during the wild weather of April, which included a deadly outbreak of violent tornados across the South. April set a new record for total number of tornadoes in that month. ![]() The deadly storm adds to an already record-breaking year for severe weather in the United States" Officials will measure the swath of damage from edge to edge to determine the diameter of the tornado, since it's impossible to measure such things using radar and other meteorological tools. "It's heartbreaking and even more mind-boggling to realize it happened over a very short distance." "It was only on the ground a short time, and it caused staggering injuries and fatalities," Boxell said.
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