No Escape

It's Sunday evening and I'm getting ready to watch a Discovery Channel feature on the tornadoes that hit Alabama recently, including the storm that went right through Tuscaloosa killing over 30 people.  As much as I follow the weather, even I can't keep up with everything that goes on.  Generally, and perhaps strangely if you know me, many times I'm made aware of things through social media.  There really is no way to get around it and frankly I'm embracing it.  Stories, pictures and updates get out so quickly.  So when I went to my Facebook bookmark, which is a weather page of course, my jaw dropped when I saw the latest post.

Unfortunately, the ingredients needed for tornadoes is perfect across a good majority of the United States, east of the Rockies to the southern coast.  Better than anywhere in the world.  Some seasons are worse than others, and this one right now is taking the cake.  The video of these beasts are incredible but it's almost getting hard to watch them anymore.  

It has been Raleigh, St. Louis, Tuscaloosa and today Minneapolis joined the list of major metro areas that have been hit by violent storms.  And then the post I read.  24 dead in Joplin, Missouri.  The city of 50,000 took a direct hit from a massive tornado.

This is what the hospital looks like after taking an obvious direct hit.  If you notice, every single window and every single floor of each building is completely blown out.  It just doesn't get sadder than this.  These people probably had little to no time to do anything.

It just seems like it's been non-stop this year.  What's worse is that the tornado season is just getting started.  And already it has been one of the worst seasons in years if not history.  It simply does not matter where you live.  Central plains, southern coast, woods, farms or cities.  Nothing stops these things except time.  All we can do is try our best to stay informed.

To make things worse, this same area is in the target zone for tomorrow.  I will make sure to keep this blog updated as much as possible over the next week.  

THE STORM PREDICTION OUTLOOK FOR 5-23-11