NASA pics of Tornado Damage:

[rasputin1952]

The first is a false color image using infra red, the second is a true color image:






The tornado damage inflicted on Tuscaloosa on April 27, 2011, was just one part of a tornado track roughly 80.3 miles (129.2 kilometers) long and up to 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) wide. On May 4, 2011, the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite observed another segment of the tornado track, closer to Birmingham, Alabama

<snip>

More text at: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=50462

[sharp_stick]

1. A contrail !!!

now we know how the tornado got it's directions :tinfoilhat: :tinfoilhat:

In all seriousness though, that is one nasty track of damage and not a single lift up either, just a massive line of destruction.

Anybody know if they've figured out the windspeed of that monster?

[rasputin1952]

2. Here's some more info...

"...With winds of 190 miles (310 kilometers per hour), the tornado resulted from a supercell thunderstorm that lasted almost seven and a half hours, and traveled from Mississippi to North Carolina, spawning several violent tornadoes.

Between 7:00 a.m. CDT on April 25 and 7:00 a.m. on April 28, a total of 305 tornadoes struck the southeastern and central United States, according to NOAA’s updated survey released May 4. The high-resolution version of this image shows two more tornado tracks, one to the north and one to the south, both running parallel to the tornado track through Tuscaloosa and Birmingham."

[sharp_stick]

3. Thanks

I've been trying to figure out how strong it was.