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Super Outbreak
Mon Apr 05, 2004
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton for The Weather Notebook. Thirty years ago this weekend, a
swarm of twisters rampaged across the heart of America. Correspondent Bob
Henson takes a look back at the so-called Jumbo Outbreak of 1974.
BH: It happened long before TV viewers could follow Doppler radar at home. But
anyone in the South or Midwest that day could tell you that some nasty weather was
brewing.
HB: Forecasters at the time recognized that this was an unusually favorable pattern for
tornadoes, but no one expected it to be as prolific as it turned out to be. And as we look
back in hindsight, we've started to realize what an incredibly rare event it was.
BH: Harold Brooks, of the National Severe Storms Laboratory, says that even veteran
meteorologists were stunned by the day's fury.
HB: Well, April 3 and 4, 1974 is the greatest tornado outbreak in US history. 148
tornadoes were observed on the one day, and over 80 of them were strong or violent
tornadoes.
BH: All told, the Jumbo Outbreak killed 307 Americans from Alabama to Michigan.
What if the same outbreak were to happen today?
HB: Our technology now, in the last 30 years, has improved dramatically. We can see
things a whole lot better than we used to be able to see them. We can communicate
that information to forecasters, and forecasters at offices considered to be
downstream of where the outbreak is occurring would have a much better heads-up
that this was happening for them. It's likely that if the Jumbo Outbreak occurred again
the death tolls would be much, much lower -- in fact, would almost certainly be below
100 deaths on the day and perhaps even below 50.
The Weather Notebook is produced with the generous support of Subaru of America
and the National Science Foundation.
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