7 Years Ago Today: Super Tuesday Tornado Outbreak

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Seven years ago today, 57 people lost their lives in an early-season tornado outbreak.

It was a tremendously busy day for meteorologists throughout the South and Mid-South as warning after warning after warning had to be issued. 

It is also the seventh anniversary of one of AccuWeather Enterprise Solutions' many proud achievements. We provided sufficient advance warning to save lives at the Caterpillar plant in Oxford, Mississippi. No government warning was effect for that location at the time the tornado struck. Eighty-eight people were in the plant and took shelter before the EF-3 tornado struck. Other than some minor scratches as they climbed out of the wreckage, there were no injuries. 
It is a tremendous pleasure to work for AccuWeather Enterprise Solutions where our passion is to save people, property and profits. 

Comments

  1. NBOTECFebruary 5, 2015 at 8:43 AM

    Is this one of the rare time the NWS missed warning the area for the tornado?

    I'm glad your company was able to warn these people in time. It does pay to have an alternate source of information regarding warnings - sometimes you just never know.

    I asked Chuck Doswell back in 2013 about the Joplin tornado (and if he had read your book - at the time, he said no) but he did say this (direct quote): There seems to be a rather widespread notion that if the NWS doesn't hit EVERY tornado situation perfectly, with long lead time warnings, this is some sort of breakdown in the process. In some cases, the NWS in fact does a poor job, for any of a number of reasons. The NWS isn't infallible and not all of its staff are equally competent. In others, the main problem is that it was a challenging situation and there's little or nothing more that could have been done."

    As with you, I'm a big fan of the NWS and the work they do but sometimes, you just never know and it pays to have alternatives for warnings just in case. This is why I am so eager as to when your business products are become available for the public to use.

    Thanks for your work and time, Mike.

    Pete

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mike SmithFebruary 5, 2015 at 10:33 AM

    Thank you so much for the comment. The NWS failed in JLN. Normally, they do a GREAT job for the public. However, it costs a great deal to shut down and shelter at a plant like the one in Oxford. So, businesses and other enterprises use our warnings to make these costly and critical decisions.

    ReplyDelete

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