Columbus, Ga (WRBL)- 14 years ago today, the worst tornado outbreak of a generation was occurring. The 2011 Super Outbreak would go on to claim the lives of 321 people. The First Alert Weather Team has put together a miniseries… Dixie Alley: The Super Outbreak… to honor those lost that day and share what we learned from those storms.
The 2011 Super Outbreak spanned several days, starting on April 25th, and finally ending on April 28th. Wednesday the 27th would be the worst day of the outbreak.
Forecasting the Event: WRBL spoke to John De Block, the NWS Birmingham Warning Coordinator, who was part of the team in charge of issuing tornado warnings that day. De Block says that “We knew days in advance that this was going to be a massive event, that the ingredients, the parameters were kind of as high as they’ve ever been for an event.”
Early Morning Storms: The morning of the 27th actually saw three waves of severe weather. The first two were separate squall lines that moved across the southeast and produced primarily weak tornadoes…