April 27, 2011 Historic Tornado Outbreak - ABC 33/40 Live Coverage 3:30am-9:00am
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- Live coverage of the generational April 27, 2011 tornado outbreak from ABC 33/40 in Birmingham. This is the morning part of the event, that killed 5 and left 250,000 or more without commercial power. The worst would come later in the day and that night. Jason Simpson and James Spann anchor coverage.
When they're already putting out tornado warnings at 0330 in the AM, you're looking at a day straight out of hell itself
Literally nightmare fuel, nothing is worse than a nocturnal tornado.
@@RT-qd8ylthere really isn’t much worse. Ask Rolling Fork and Mayfield.
@@RT-qd8yl Prior to good radar, it must have been hell.
Now, with good modern radar, the entire county doesn't need to huddle in the dark awaiting what may come. You get your smartphone or computer and can see quite clearly when and if you're under the gun.
3:01:15 "If the principal gets mad, tell them to call me." I chuckled at that a bit. I've never been to Alabama but hopefully things have obviously improved in the 5 years since this day. Y'all should be proud to have weathermen like this to help protect your lives.
We are very proud of both Jason & James. We wouldn't have survived that day or many other times they've took care of us.
Brandon If Alabama had better infrastructure then what we still have, things would be better. Most country powerlines were put in over 60 years ago. Plus alot of sirens haven't been updated since before the end of the Cold War. We just have old equipment.
The saddest thing of this comment is the fact that school wasn't canceled to start with that day now looking back at it. We cancel school for a small chance of snow flurries but school was only delayed and some let out early if at all in most locations that day.
@@soccermastax for all these years I thought school was canceled! Holy crow. So when the tornado hit Cullman (wasn't it around 2:30pm or so?) kids were in school?
Who went to school that day
Everyone gives James Spann his flowers, and rightfully so, but Jason Simpson was outstanding on this day - both alone in the early morning, and then afterwards assisting and providing additional info when Spann was on
I have not watched the whole video, but was Jason Simpson on the air for about 2 straight hours by himself, without a break? That's nothing short of heroic.
And he also had family that was in the path of one of those storms. He was really worried about them and didn't find out until hours later about their welfare. They talked about this in an interview five years later.
Larry Copeland yes, then throughout the rest of the day into the night. It was a very long day.
He is definitely a hero. They saved a lot of lives that day. Mine included.
Up here in Huntsville we call him "Goob" because he's always naming off all the little tiny ass towns around here where he knows all the roads and shit
He's cool tho
uuuultra I live in one of those little towns.
At around 3:10:50 Jason Simpson is discussing the possible tornado in Cullman County where his family who lives in the Holly Pond area are trying to reach out to him informing him what's going on. You can tell he was nervous reporting the possible tornado as it was happening. It's hard to imagine what was going through his mind at that moment. Fortunately, his family escaped the tornado and he did a superb job covering this severe weather coverage throughout the day, especially in the beginning where he was by himself .
I assumed the man was born and raised there solely from his knowledge of his television market. I don't think I've ever seen a meteorologist name off so many small locations in an emergency like he did. Instead of pointing to a place on the map he named businesses and restaurants and churches and factories and all kinds of places. I mean I could be wrong because it's rare for a meteorologist to land a job where they grew up because of how difficult it is to find an opening for a local news agency but that type of knowledge is something you only have if you were raised there.
My personal favorite was during the Tuscaloosa tornado where he mentioned it was heading to the place they take the cars if you have an accident and he was absolutely correct about that because you can see it in the damage path. Impressive
@@erselley9017 James and Jason definitely know the area very well. The fact that both of them were born and raised in the area, as well as talking at schools in the area and taking the roads less traveled, make their knowledge of the area almost geographic. I would love to have them in my area here in Ohio!
@@jeremybelcher1727 Agreed, I think everyone in America wants their own 33/40 crew.
Everybody on this broadcast did such a great job of staying composed... especially Jason Simpson, who had to deal with a storm hitting right where his family was.
Larry Copeland Must have been horrifying. Jason held it together so well. Everyone there had loved ones to worry about yet they soldiered on . They're all heros.
Larry Copeland amen. I live In Tennessee and watched him for this one and the 8 hour one later in the day. I would love to have a group of people like these. Amen
Yes, he stayed very calm during all of this, and so did James Spann.
battle bombers productions clash what part of the state..southern middle Tennesseean here..so blessed the morning batch of rain squashed the chance of what happened just miles to the south, from happening here
amazing too cause he worked pretty much all day. Even longer than Spann did. Both guys were impressive that day as well as others
Jason Simpson and James Spann are pure legends.. they saved many lives that day, even though so many were lost
Those 2 were being brave
Jason doesn’t get enough credit especially for the morning- James needed some sleep and admits he didn’t expect anything big THIS early
@@tylerjerabek5204 I feel like you. Everybody praise James but nobody talk about Jason.
@Johnny Smith do you know where Jason went?
@@tylerjerabek5204 from what was said on Twitter, he went back to Birmingham at one of the new stations
Damn, watching these guys is literally like taking a graduate level course in meteorology
This is the highest level of service to the public. We will never know how many lives their work preserved. We can only mourn what we lost.
when the meteorologist says "we are in full outbreak mode" you know you're in some deep shit
So many people were without power in central Alabama when the main event fired up in the afternoon due to these early morning storms.
It was a crucial event that doesn't get talked about that much.
Yeah, the amount of people lost would've been different had this round hadn't done so much.
True, The first round wasn't expected hit hard as did that night. I hate saying it but they didn't prepare as best as they could have. The first round was overlooked for upcoming storms in the day
RollTide1987 Im in Tennessee I got a tornado warning March 1 and 27 on 2017
But the work of local TV meteorologists (especially James Spann) may have saved hundreds or even thousands of lives.
altfactor
The Weather Reporters were being brave and helping people get through these scary storms
My family and I are survivors of this historic day. The tornado sirens would go for a bit then back off and on again several times in a matter of a few hours. Power was out for a week where I lived and we had damage and personal belongings that the wind carried from several hours away of the original location, from other people. You would just look up in the sky and see papers, roofs, trash, anything the tornado ate. The saddest part was talking to rescue crews and seeing them break down and cry when they told about finding body after body, especially children. Hearing it on the scanner was just as bad. Not something I want to go through ever again. I now have PTSD because of this day. Anytime a storm comes, no matter how small, I start crying and having a panic attack, even tho it's been years, makes me wonder what other poor souls go through what I do now. The ef- 5 was so close to where we live it destroyed a church that was featured on the weather channel and that was about 5 mins. From our house. Anyone who lived in Alabama, at this time, will never forget this day or forget the ones who lost their lives.
I have PTSD because of the outbreak in the 70's. I have very little recall of the whole day. The smell of pine smells like tornadoes. I live in Montgomery now so we don't get that many. You couldn't pay me to live up there anymore. It's sad because it's home and I love it up there.
The news showed the tornado as it went through Tuscaloosa. I cried because there were people who were going to end up like me. I felt immobilized. It felt like the apocalypse. I knew when it got down here it was going to kill me and my family. 😭😭😭
Glad your safe now. Reading your story broke my heart and cried as it touched me. I too am a PTSD survivor but not by what you experienced. I can't even begin to think what you went through in the days that followed. I can only say God was with you and still is. God Bless You.
Have a plan in place for when tornadoes are a possibility - it'll help ease the anxiousness a little. Even if it's something simple, knowing you've got a way to protect yourself helps.
Sounds like secondhand PTSD
I have family in Ottawa,ON. It was hit hard by 3 tornadoes on September 21st 2018 all EF2 and EF3. The tornadoes didn’t hit where my family lives but they knew people who lost everything. I went to Ottawa that night and during that weekend I saw some damaged areas and from what I saw it was very bad there was a huge substation destroyed by it. As well I saw several trees knocked over. Thankfully no one was killed but about 100 people where injured. They know people who get anxiety when a thunderstorm comes. Back in the end of June I was visiting my family in Ottawa and a huge thunderstorm blew up and my aunt was getting stressed out over it and yelling at my sister, my cousins and I to get back inside to the house from the old barn that is on my grandparents property on the outskirts of Ottawa
I know James got a lot of the accolades that day covering the gut of the outbreak, but Jason did an equally fine job during those scary AM hours. These morning storms knocked out power to a lot of communities and undoubtedly played a role in the tragic loss of life that day by cutting off vital communications.
Please never get angry at your local TV weather crews for preempting your game or show for severe weather bulletins. You might have a phone app to warn you, but someone else with a tornado or flash flood bearing down on them may not.
Jason is such a good presenter and I am sure viewers felt safe and reassured by him despite the severity of the situation which transpired on that day. Keeps his audience calm
I'm so glad someone posted the early morning event of this day. The bigger outbreak later that day kind of overshadowed the morning event, but the morning event quite bad as well.
We had one or two fatalities that morning in Cullman Alabama
The morning event was the primary reason the tornado count was high. That was a very significant and RARE qlcs (quasi linear convective system)
I have watched the afternoon/evening coverage several times now, but I have not gotten more than an hour or so into the morning coverage. Just to hear the desperation in their voices when they talk about what was potentially coming that afternoon.... Thank God for people like them that care and do what they can for others. Way more than just a Weatherman...
This outbreak definitely changed the outlook of schools delaying vs. closing schools. In Madison County, school was always either delayed or nothing. I was in Buckhorn Middle School on this day. My mom came and checked me and friend out, as we left, a tornado dropped down behind the school in a field, prompting us to turn around and go back to the school for shelter.
2:47:04 James Spann enters the building.
Elvis enters the building*
That means he came in about 6:15 am, and stayed until midnight. Granted they were off the weather from 9am to 1pm, but still...
Jason held his own though. He was exceptional.
"Principal get mad. Tell him to call me,"
Me: *W H E E Z E*
My oldest daughter was at her dad's house that day and they lost their home and his aunt was killed. There was a Ford pickup truck laying right on top of where my daughter's bed was. I didn't know if my daughter was dead or alive for about 4 hours. It was TERRIFYING!!!
This man deserves a medal.
William Carmickle he's now up here in North AL where I live & we just love him. He's honestly the only one I trust other than Spann.
Yep. We just had a severe weather day in Alabama and Jason Simpson is by far the best meteorologist in North Alabama and has an amazing team at WHNT.
Amy Kennedy why did he move to north AL? Just curious
I know you didn't ask me, but I got the notification too... Haha. But shortly after April 27, the Chief Meteorologist position at a local Huntsville affiliate, WHNT, came open after Dan Satterfield left the station for Maryland. I can't say for sure why he took the job in Huntsville except that I know he grew up in Cullman County and is used to North Alabama. He does a great job here so I'm grateful that he did.
William Carmickle
Both he and James Spann
Those two men did an amazing job with this coverage, knowing full well that this was merely a prelude to one of the worst days in Alabama state history. They saved a lot of lives that day, and deserve a ton of respect.
Who's here 13 years later?
Me, lived in Florence during this storm, had to take shelter cause of tornados, went outside when there was one coming, luckily the Hackleburg storm didn't hit, that would've killed me 💀💀
🙋♂️
Jason and James both did a phenomenal job reporting this while maintaining calmness and professionalism. My heart goes out to the families of Alabamans who lost their lives because of these deadly storms. I remember hearing about this while studying meteorology on my own at that time and to this day this storm by far for Alabama was the worst.
3:01:18 "ready for school, don't worry about that. If the principal gets mad, tell him to call me"
Me: IM DEAD XD
Lol
Been looking for this for months, thank you so much for this upload, as well as the afternoon coverage. Great job.
Jason an amazing guy reporting on the storms and knowledgeable countyand infrastructures. Jason and James right mix to the station.
At 1:36:37 there is a reverse, to correct that go to this time 2:23:23
You are the best.
Thank you! Thought I’d gone mad 😂
I saw the Tuscaloosa storm on the webcam.. slept in 20 mins later.. woke up and saw the storm again 😅 thanks dude haha
I've been looking for this. What a brutal warm-up to the worst tornado outbreak of the 21st century.
Your average squall line doesn't produce 76 tornadoes, that's for sure
@@crossbowftw3833 2020 is bad as well.
This is one I’ll never forget. But Jason and James are amazing for lives they saved that day.
I admire the courage these men have! To be up at 3:30 am and doing a broadcast from then until EVERYTHING is over is a really hard task! Especially when the storms are on top of them and their own families. And they stay calm! This is how meteorologists should act during a storm! Excellent jod Jason and James!
Not a metrologist but I have worked storms while in radio that could be affecting my parents home. I got lucky out of college and got a radio job near where I grew up
With the way tornadoes were firing off the previous two days west of the region, plus with all the moister, fronts, and on and on coming together over the area, the first meteorologist was likely there since midnight. Even James usually doesn't come until noonish.
Chilling how James predicted that there would be a major tornado outbreak in the afternoon. The man knew. I don't think he realized how bad but he knew it would be bad.
Tracy Frederick they all knew that. If a high risk is issued, then they have to assume that a massive outbreak is likely.
Go watch his weather extreme videos,..start with april 19th and watch u until the 26th..he started sounding the alarm a week in advance and by the 21st he was saying that this would end up being the type of event it ended up being
RainbowDiamond25 MC right. Very few high risk days have busted..the southern row of counties in Tennessee was included in the high up until the mid day SPC outlook update and trimmed out the southern row after it appeared the atmosphere was stabilized from convection in the early-mid morning
@@DemonzSlayer49 not would have , but could have. So many times it doesn't get as bad as they say it cam. ( thank god)
I don't think anyone absolutely knew. Either way those two are heroes.
Yeah, no doubt he's an incredible meterologist! But it wasn't some magical power that he predicted this would happen. Like others commented here , there is data that meterologist read well ahead of time. Like a recipe...theres actual ingredients they look for to predict a outbreak. Dewpoint moisture ,wind shear/lift in the atmosphere ect.. They study and analyze all this info.
Glad to see the morning coverage finally up. What a day that was!
This brings back so many horrible memories. Cordova got hit HARD in the morning and even worse in the afternoon. Had it not been for our NOAA weather radio we would of never got the second warning. I was in jasper on the second half of the storms with my mom and we were standing outside while the second tornado came through Cordova and we were watching the sky and you could see stuff falling out of the sky and then all of a sudden it was sucked back up and went flying again. There was a milk carton that fell from the sky. It was just the craziest thing I’ve ever seen and the tornado was like 12 miles away.
During the second tornado we came back to help my husbands family clean up. We couldn’t get through our road, the town, no where. Our phones wouldn’t work. The police wouldn’t let anyone go into town because there was two bodies of kids that had died laying in a ditch. The kids were playing outside and the mom told the kids to run to the piggly wiggly to take
Cover but the piggly wiggly closed early and the kids were banging on the door and no one answered it and the kids were killed by the tornado. I also think the mom was killed because she was in a trailer. We had to park 4 miles away and walk to our house.
@@callmegabzplz that’s horrible. I think I read their obituary. They were very small children
The second tornado that hit Cordova came right over my house, I live in Parrish.
Jason is working for Huntsville now. I imagine he could have gone just about anywhere after this. To be mentored by James Spann is an honor. To be under his wing ...AND HOLD HIS OWN .... during an event like this? He is a blessing to this state.
so sad that he left us :(
Jason has, unfortunately, entirely left the weather enterprise.
@@BlueBomber79 really?
@@jaredpatterson1701 he actually, the day I posted that comment, announced that he was going back to Birmingham to one of the TV stations there.
Then he went back to NBC13 (Birmingham).
Jason did an absolutely amazing job being on top of the situation very early. With that many tornadoes lives are guaranteed to be lost. Many many more would have been lost had Jason or James not have caught this threat and told people early to take cover long before the threat was real. These folks are true legends. If I am correct, this outbreak tore Jason apart mentally and emotionally and he did move on from meteorology. I may be wrong. For those who think these guys aren't heroes (if you have a conscience) Imagine seeing these monsters going through towns and cities, begging with people to take shelter long before the tornadoes reached them, knowing that people are dying. Gary England put it plainly in a documentary of the Moore Oklahoma tornado... We absolutely knew people were dying, we just didn't know how many. Imagine having to deal with that mentally.
James Spann constantly mentions the number 225. This represents the people who died "on his watch". Well over 10 years later he still repeats that number daily.
To this day, I remember this once of a lifetime super outbreak very well. I lived in Knoxville, Tennessee at that time on April 27th and we had a moderate risk of severe storms including tornadoes, large hail and even damaging winds. These storms were so widespread that so many rounds kept coming due to so much tornado warnings going off that afternoon to late morning. It was so bad out there that schools and businesses had to be let out early due to the weather. We an hour and a half from the high risk zone because that's where Knoxville and the rest of East Tennessee had saw destructive tornadoes but also very large hail for most of the time. Thousands lost power during the magnitude of these 2nd to 4th or 5th rounds of these storms. My family and I had to stay at a family friend's home for the remainder of the outbreak so we can seek shelter in a closet or bathroom in an apartment building when the lights started to flicker. Thankfully we made it through to the next day coz far south and west it was much much more worse than Knoxville itself as we had the interior of those bad storms. Luckily we weren't in the high risk area, but we were still in the moderate risk area because it meant serious business as well; had the city been under a high risk, us people wouldn't even make it out alive or been injured by the tornadoes and very large hail to destructive straight line winds and Knoxville fully wouldn't be prepared to face the wrath of strong or violent long track tornadoes round after round. High risk means very very serious attention and business because those are very life threatening and dangerous to let your guard down with these storms and same for moderate risk as well.. these storms are the strongest magnitude of their kind when it comes to tornado season being in the interior of February to early July with March, April, May and June being the worst tornado months on record that may include high risk of severe storms a few times in those months or in a year.. Best advice, Never let your guard down on high, moderate and now enhanced risk of severe storms because those are very dangerous and pose life threatening to life and property!!! #Stay safe y'all and protect you and your families & loved ones from these once in a lifetime super outbreak events
If there was no James I'd still feel confident in Jason. Dude was by himself didn't let pressure get to him and stayed on top of critical information. He and Spann are the perfect team to call storms.
At 1:46:34, he metions Hackleburg, which would be leveled by an EF5 tornado that afternoon.
🙁
Leveled? Some would suggest it was temporarily erased from the map. It was bad.
Wayne Beckham it was the exact definition of wiped off the map..people don’t realize that even in 2013 it looked as if the tornado occurred recently ...even today you can clearly tell the geography is altered
@@mikeridgland4783 I know that. It has had some rebuilding that is why i said temporarily. In the end, i still remember the tornado outbreak in 2012 in my area (over 30 died) but what happened there...I will always pray for the healing of all survivors. That was beyond horrible
I was just looking at streetview images of Hackleburg and Phil Campbell and as someone who doesn't live in Alabama I was thinking some areas in and around those towns didn't look too bad till I looked at images of the same areas from 2008 and realized those areas all used to be deep woods and neighborhoods on tree-lined streets and now there's no trees for miles and every house is either gone or rebuilt since then.
Great job by 2 pros. But as for the state of Alabama, why not just close the damn schools? All the school delays and closings did was add more chaos to an already horrible situation. At the first mention of tornadoes, I can assure you my kids would not have even had to think about school. And as for any parent who thought it would be smart to get out in the storms to drop kids off at school, that is just sad.
About a hour and 30 minutes in the thing restarts so then skip to 2:22:32
As many have said, if not for what happened in the afternoon, this line of storms would have been national news. As it happened, it was completely overshadowed. This thing clobbered North Alabama from Florence to Georgia!
And the outbreak the week before
This outbreak made national news. I was living across the country and knew my family was dealing with it but didn't understand the devastation until I saw it on national news.
PDS WATCH, 35 ALSO KNOWN AS a particularly Dangerous situation! Should be retired. If you have never looked at the the details of that tornado watch, take a look and be astounded.
Until this year 2021 I was unaware how much this event affected the weather in the upper Midwest that summer. Had heard on the news about the event but since it wasn't on my doorstep and I didn't put one & one together until very recently.
Both Jason and James are one-offs.
I've watched the full coverage of this event numerous times as well as this video.
Jason is really the man...he pretty much ran the whole thing on his own for 3 hours.
epic.
i love jason and i’m so thankful he came to WHNT in huntsville.
3:01:17 greatest line ever uttered by a weatherman
Jason was getting emotional because it hit one of his relatives home. Very tough to be on tv doing coverage
It was the family farm I believe. His uncle texted him saying they were going to be hit/it was right on top of them (while Jason was on the air) and he didn't hear back from them after the fact for a couple hours.
Everything about this day is just so surreal, how everything seemed to work in lock step with each other:
The early morning squall line, which the Midday squall line followed, and then the supercells
Then the fact that those morning storms knocked the power out, making things even more dangerous by later that afternoon.
It was literally the worst case scenario in every single way.
Then the sun came out too lol
@@jaredpatterson1701 Jason said it perfectly when he said if the sun came out it was game on. The sunshine destabilized an already extremely unstable atmosphere and when the capping inversion broke mid afternoon about 2 PM all hell broke loose,
3:01:02 to 3:01:21 is the hallmark of this coverage.
Without a doubt, morning storms left boundaries that the afternoon storms were able to ride and strengthen to catastrophic proportions
Yep, and to think many thought the event would be killed by the morning convection
@@nickdavis965 I was hoping it would be and I held out some hope...until the sun came out and I knew the atmosphere would recover rapidly. Oftentimes, rain-cooled air will make it less unstable, but not in this case. I think that with or without the morning wave, what happened in the afternoon and evening still would've occurred.
@@ILoveOldTWC The storms would have BUT, the most significant impact of the morning storms was that they knocked out power for a huge area of the state. So large regions didn’t have access to weather coverage, sirens, news coverage etc. That’s a huge reason the death tole was so high from the afternoon storms.
The Weather Channel's "Torcon" index for northern Alabama that day was a 10, meaning a 100 percent chance of a tornado within 40-50 miles of one's location.
It was the first time since that index was created that a Torcon Index of 10 had ever been issued for any location. I don't think there's been (as of March, 2018) another Torcon Index of 10 ever issued by that network anywhere in the United States.
They did a 10 over Kentucky and surrounding areas for March 2, 2012.
Thanks for the correction!
Do you know if the Weather Channel has issued any Torcon index of 10 anywhere since 2012?
Those are the only two days, before or after, they have ever gone above a 9.
The 2012 outbreak was rough for us in Cincinnati with some EF0's hitting the immediate area and deadly ones all around. As for the outbreak in this video, i was very concerned for everyone there
altfactor I remember. Torcon was first launched after in June 2007 Greensburg Kansas and Enterprise,AL’s Tornadoes which had high death tolls. TWC created Torcon because they learned that only 3 out of 5 People heed weather warnings and often disregarded Tornado Warnings, and often don’t Take Tornado Watches seriously. That’s why PDS Watches were created. The NWS in Mobile, Alabama had already issued a PDS Watch in MS/AL around 2 AM EDT that Wednesday and it wasn’t set to Expire until 2 PM, what happened is that the Watch was EXTENDED. Which is Rare. There was a Stationary Front stalled on top of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It refused to budge. And fired up enough deadly energy to spawn Rotation Rich Thunderstorms with enough Updrafts to produce healthy Twisters.
Long, long day in Alabama. I gotup and was driving to work at 6:30 AM that morning and saw trees down and we had the worst coming. We watched it all day as one tornado after another dropped. I came home early and called my parents and friend as I was watching the Tuscaloosa tornado head my way and told them I will call you in an hour..or I wont. I love you all. Lost 2 great friends this day. One of the most disastorous days in American history but doesn't get talked about because it happened in Miss and Alabama. Had this happened in NYC we'd have a national holiday for it. There was zero relief efforts except from people with Bama connections..ie Bo Jackson. The rest of the country didn't care.
It’s not the the rest of the country didn’t care. We probably didn’t know it happened or how bad it actually was. I live in Kansas and know how bad and disastrous an outbreak can be.
@@morganm.6256 we were left in a post-apocalyptic state. i mean absolute destruction. you couldn’t walk 10 ft and not step on debris. the only help was alabama first responders and the alabama national guard. we didn’t get relief efforts from any other state who wasn’t affected. the disaster areas took so long to get back up and running because we were so short on help. north alabama was left without power for upwards of 2 weeks because the power plant was destroyed. it really seems like the rest of the country didn’t care. i mean, who would? it’s alabama. the best we got was a visit by obama and a bill that declared us as an emergency with help at 75% of funding. of course we needed money, but we needed boots on the ground helping people pick up their lives. we were forgotten just a year later, as we were still recovering both mentally and physically
I remember living in Florence and when schools opened back up (I was in kindergarten) I kept on hearing about family members dying in Hackleburg.
trees on the ground, I think windows broke, power was out for days, an entire road was blocked by debris.
It was a disaster, this storm is the tornado equivalent of Hurricane Katrina.
It's crazy to see that we're nearly 9 years later since the Super Outbreak of 2011.. I was in Knoxville, Tennessee at that time when we dealt with the storms like everyone else, but luckily they let out school early in time before the storms hit
The 67 dislikes are the tornados
The mega tornado outbreak of the 21st century. That was the day I would never forget because I knew there were lots of tornadoes expected across the South.. Not only my city (Knoxville, Tennessee) and the rest of the eastern parts of Tennessee, Virginia, Georga, and the Carolinas were all under a moderate risk of severe storms, but Chattanooga and southern parts of Tennessee, all of Alabama, Mississippi, and parts of western Georgia were each under a high risk of severe storms, including a major tornado outbreak within the deep bullseye of North Alabama, East Mississippi, Southern Tennessee and western Georgia. There were three rounds of severe storms, the first wave that knocked out power to a quarter million people in Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi that caused the NOAA weather transmitter sites to be out of service for the remainder of the outbreak but also caused people in the dark not to have any warnings of approaching tornadoes later on, the second wave that produce couple more tornadoes in mid morning, and last the final wave that produced dozens and dozens of strong and violent tornadoes across the South, including 4 of them EF5 that caused massive power failures and outages due to many transmission lines or towers being knocked down and caused widespread blackouts across parts of the South, namely the transmission towers being toppled near the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant that lost external power and 3 reactors being scrammed. The 2011 Super Outbreak was responsible for over 300 tornado deaths, 20+ lightning or flash flooding deaths and over thousands of injuries and millions of dollars in damage. This gives you a complete example on why the Dixie Alley, a secondary tornado alley, is vulnerable to strong and violent tornadoes due to them being wrapped in rain and difficult to see because of very high instability, CAPE values, water vapor and extreme wind shear from the nearby warm Gulf of Mexico and cold air aloft from the North and Rocky Mountains. 9 to 10 times out of 10 there are lots of HP or high precipitation supercells across the Deep South and eastern United States.
I remember this day like it was yesterday we had an E.F. 4 tornado
Remember this day the day I will never forget it’s was very emotional 😭
The same here. Cullman got hit very early in the morning and my son had to move trees out of the road to get to work and then when he finally got there they sent him home. lol we spent the day in the basement with my elderly mother. I was upset to hear that some people were killed in their underground storm shelters. I hadn’t heard about that.
@@janblackman6204 that was a very long day but it got more worst in the evening hours.
Amazing job, Jason.
There were 5 people that died during this morning round of severe storms alone. Watching on the 13th anniversary.
Jason Simpson is a champ
Mornings event: Principal gets mad tell them to call me.
Primary afternoon and evening event: All you can do is pray for those people.
On such a historical day these 3 worked so flawlessly together to get life saving information out and to get weather information out to warn people not only about that round but the secondary threat later on that which we all know firsthand was terrible
A thunderstorm passed over me and the same storm an hour later produced a tornado
3:01:18 lol
Lol yea fuck the principal lol
I was in 6th grade when this happened. I wasn't in the morning storms, given that I was in Georgia , but when the afternoon-evening storms happened and the tornado left Alabama, I saw trees in the back yard blowing hard, I told mom and since it was raining she blew it off as that. A few minutes later, we had to go into the hallway and my mom was holding the kitchen door closed. I had to get my sister and niece.
Then, about 30 minutes later,granddad walked in with McDonalds. (No that's not a joke.) and dad was still in the bedroom. I remember at one point, the EAS mispronounced my town name. . Yeah we lost power that night but we didn't get hit,thank god. I certainly hope an event like this never happens again.
Bre Shore unfortunately, this is my second. The 1974 outbreak and this. But I hope so too.
1/4th of the way to another
Every weather nerd in America knows James Spann. He is without a doubt right at the top of the meteorologist hall of fame. But I can't say with enough emphasis how well Jason Simpson handled the first round of these storms. He was clear, he was direct and never let himself get lost even when he was tracking 4 or 5 storms at the same time. Then, he stayed on for the entire weather event that started at 3pm. Dude was on the air close to 20 hours! I was so sorry to see him move on but...he was too good to play back up weatherman...even to Spann. I think he's a chief some place now.
3:02:54 you can see the power go out.
I was 6 when this happen, I had no idea what the hell was going on, I remember being outside, waiting for my parents, They came late, we were kept in the hallway and I had no idea why, then the power went out and Target, the customer there looked like they were stocking for the apocalypse, then we went to Gulf Shores until the power came back on
and now you've grown up to have a troll picture on your youtube account. lol
I’m glad I woke for a workout at 5:30 that morning to catch this when it was coming. Fortunately, it hit above my area on Hwy 280 which we later found out was a tornado in Cahaba heights. I never thought I’d ever see every red light completely black at one time. Going to work was fun that day 😆
I lived in MS on this day. I was 5 months pregnant with my first child.. I had lived through Hurricanes in Florida. I would rate this day up there in terms of fear for me. I was driving leaving my job when we heard about the storms. And then the subsequent damage in Tuscaloosa etc.. such a sad tragic day.
Couldn't get better coverage during a super outbreak
3:01:18 James Spann is a savage.
Jason did a fantastic job because that morning storm was no joke at all.
3:01:20: if the principal gets mad tell them to call me 😂😂😂
Near 3:07, Jason mentioned Charles Daniel, who would replace him when Jason left for Huntsville.
* 03:07:00 cuz just putting it as you did take you to the beginning if you click it lol
Little known fact, all weather models this day totally missed the morning event.. I think they were expecting some storms but the models missed the severity .. caught all meteorologists off guard
I watched the afternoon coverage live (almost 11 years ago now!) I come back to this every April
3:01:10 At this moment, James Spann gives one of the best one-liners in the history of weather broadcasting. He's willing to take the heat from principals and teachers if their kids aren't at school. What I love about James Spann is that his one goal is to keep people safe. He did it the best he could on 4/27/2011, and I know he was deeply saddened about those who lost their lives that day. He is a true hero, and one of the greatest meteorologists of all time.
1:01:20 those areas had no idea what would happen later that day.
Anyone notice the footage loop back on itself in the middle of the video?
I remember when this happened, (I was in 3rd grade) and we went to school after the bad morning storms, and about 30 minutes after I got there we had to go to the hallway and do the dreaded tornado position. Then when I got home more storms. We lost power for 2 days (then we got a generator) without the generator we would have lost power for at least a week.
Where were you? They cancelled school for a lot of places after the morning.
I'm not telling you my exact location but I live in part of north central Alabama.
+The Aeronautics Guy Cullman?
+The Aeronautics Guy lost our power for a whole week! i was a kid back then too
Next to new market
Jason Simpson now works for WHNT 19 as chief meteorologist.......
I'm surprised any school districts in these areas were open at all. Personally, i wouldn't want my kid out of my reach on a weather day like this. I would want to know where they were on a moment's notice when this day's shit goes down.
Jason's family, I believe it was some aunts/uncles/cousins did get hit by a tornado that morning. It's been a while since I've seen the interview but the family farm was hit. His uncle texted him saying that it was on top of them or going to hit them, and it wasn't until a couple hours later that Jason finally heard they were okay.
I apologize if I got any of that wrong but that's the jist of it.
@ altfactor: Louisville, Kentucky was struck by a tornado on March 02, 2012 as well as June 22, 2011.
Have you ever listened to WHAS radio from the 1974 Louisville Tornado as part of the Super Outbreak. A much different time in Tornado Warnings but still outstanding coverage.
ONE of the most vicious tornadoes ever was the EF5 that struck Rainsville and killed 35 people at the same time the world was watching the Tuscaloosa tornado strike Birmingham. PROBABLY 90% OF THE POPULATION DIDN'T EVEN KNOW ABOUT IT UNTIL THE NEXT DAY. iT WAS RIPPING CONCRETE AND STEAL EVERYWHERE!
wow that lightning looks killer
This coverage should go in weather archive saved a lot of lives this terrible day
3:00:55 I think they missed a small spin up on accident, look at that particular power flash, not the first explosion on the left (which was lightning) but the second to the far right. the cloud contrast above it appear to be a Wall cloud structure that was partially hard to spot due to poor visibility of heavy rain fall, that particular power flashed exploded right under the area I was talking about which making me think they had a live tornado on that particular camera and didn't even realize it.
whetherMANE 1993 I thought so too but it's possible that it's straight line or inflow winds... The best evidence would have been debris lofted...
It's very possible that's the EF2 tornado that hit the Cahaba Heights, AL area. That's just a little southwest of Cahaba Heights in the footage highlighted there, and that very well could've been the tornado before it got into Cahaba Heights.
Fred Gossage you may be a little more familiar with that area than I am, based on what you said they may have been that particular EF2 you was talking about, if The damage path was right underneath that lowering
Aametrii Graham true !
whetherMANE 1993 they actually stated that there could be small spin up tornadoes . That could be how they missed it.
Lovely Spann! Wonderful Spann!
i wonder how many calls from principals spann got
Ringgold, GA never ever gets mentioned in this outbreak 😞
The scary part of watching this now is knowing what happened that afternoon and made this look like a passing summer shower... 😢
Aametrii Graham not really , because tornadoes were hitting then too. People were dying.
Aametrii Graham unfortunately tornadoes can happen at anytime during the year. I live in Texas and we had a tornado the day after Christmas in 2015. I wasn't hit but it was an EF4
RainbowDiamond25 MC yep. We usually have a Christmas tornado somewhere in Alabama
Tracy Frederick wow... 😳 see? Tornadoes are very scary. I live in Allen Texas, and we haven't had a tornado in years, and last season, we weren't under ONE tornado warning! But April 27,2011 was one of the scariest mornings of my life! (I was a third grader at the time and I am now a sophomore in high school)
think back in 2012 or 2013, Mobile, Alabama had 2 tornadoes the week of Christmas...
As horrific and widespread as this outbreak was, I fear a day when an outbreak not necessarily of this magnitude happens over a major metro like Atlanta or Dallas. A whole lot of quickly built subdivisions and people that are used to warnings but almost never see strong or violent tornadoes. Imagine the devastation of an EF4-EF5 directly through a place like Alpharetta or Lawrenceville in the Atlanta area.
And those people probably don’t have storm shelters
@@janblackman6204 the vast majority of people I know in Georgia do not have one. The most shocking place I've been to without many was Kansas. My sister had the only one in her neighborhood and it definitely was not community sized.
@@davidmatheny1993 I live in Cullman Alabama and I think its safe to say we get more tornadoes than most other places. I have a deep basement but the city and the county has built community shelters all over the county while a large city like Huntsville does not. They have wonderful meteorologist but no place for people to safely go. What good are forecast If there is not a safe place to go.
@@janblackman6204 hopefully you and your family was ok if you lived in Cullman back in 2011. I lived in the Atlanta area then and watched James Spann cover the Cullman and Tuscaloosa tornadoes from my laptop. I stayed up most of the night until I was sure my family and I were not in the path of anything. An EF-2 barely missed my hometown of LaGrange and my uncle and his kids were missed by the Ringgold EF-4 by a mile.
@@davidmatheny1993 you don’t hear a lot about the ring gold tornado but it was horrible.
This is my favorite news station on The Citadel.
It was so hard for me to watch this because I remember it so clearly
Potato Same here, Potato
Awesome coverage!
This tornado outbreak was worse than the ones from April 3rd and 4th 1974, and November 15th 1989.
I was in Knoxville we weren’t hit too bad but I remember me and my family plus all my dogs huddled in the bathroom all night the worst touchdown near us was an f3-f4 in the Smokey mountains I don’t know if there were any touchdowns In Knoxville I think only a few were reported but it was definitely something I won’t forget.
1:24:15 ish HUGE power flash!!
Jason Simpson is VERY good.
He is experienced and knowledgeable.