A swarm of deadly and devastating tornadoes ripped through the Southeast U.S. on Monday, killing at least 13 people, bringing the two-day death toll from this week’s tornado outbreak to at least 29. Hardest hit were Mississippi and Alabama, which lay in the bullseye of the High Risk” area for severe weather issued by NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center early that afternoon. It was the second consecutive day a “High Risk” outlook had been issued by SPC, and the threat of strong and deadly tornadoes continues again on Tuesday, with a “Moderate Risk” of severe weather expected over Alabama and Mississippi.
The tornado activity in Mississippi and Alabama on Monday was remarkably violent and long-lasting; Alabama’s first tornado warning was issued at 12:37 pm CDT, and the last was nearly sixteen hours later, at 4:20 am (thanks to wunderground member sar2401 in Alabama for this info.) Mississippi suffered the highest death toll on Monday, with eight killed.
Three people died in Alabama, including a University of Alabama swimmer who died saving his girlfriend from a collapsing building. Two other people died in Lincoln County, Tennessee, near the border with Alabama. In all, for the 24-hour period beginning at 8 am Monday, SPC logged 64 preliminary tornado reports from five states, along with 135 reports of damaging winds and 49 reports of hail. An additional 33 preliminary tornado reports came on Sunday, bringing the two-day preliminary tornado total to 97.
Hardest hit on Sunday was Arkansas, where fifteen people died in tornadoes. Mayflower and Vilonia, Arkansas, located about fifteen miles northwest and north of Little Rock, had ten people killed by a tornado that has been preliminarily rated as at least an EF-3 by the National Weather Service. Sunday tornadoes also killed one person in Iowa and one in Oklahoma.
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2672
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