Interesting that you say 3 days of warning time does no good for its citizens. State and local emergency managers, media sources, and local governments would disagree with you. It’s also contradicted by the fact that a few businesses and most schools were closed early that day. Was the reason for the early closure that it was a nice spring day? Of course not, and using your words, it was ‘due to the unusually high risk of tornadoes’. That action alone may have saved a few tens, perhaps hundreds, of lives because the population was dispersed and not concentrated in small areas (e.g. after school activities).

My point of the original post is that satellite imagery plays no direct role in tornado forecasting as Phil stated. This tornado outbreak was well forecasted and warned without the use of satellite imagery.

As for the rest of your post I am not sure what your point is. The government doesn’t have a magic wand that can repair power lines or build stronger shelters or restore cell-phone service instantly.

To repeat my third paragraph a little differently, it may very well be that this was a case of the best that the government can do to warn its citizens, but tragically the usual safety measures that people took were insufficient and overwhelmed due to the severity of the tornadoes that occurred. If there’s something that the government can do to better protect its citizens, or convey the danger, in future tornado outbreaks, they’ll do it. That’s what post-event investigations are all about.

Also, notice that the right of way for the high voltage lines is only 200 ft wide right next to the power plant, and much narrower elsewhere. That’s a bit larger than 10-lane interstate 565, which runs through the same area and definitely isn’t discernable. Meanwhile the confirmed width of the tornado track in that area is 1.25 miles.

Also, due to earlier storms which destroyed several main transmission lines, large areas of north Alabama were without power when the EF5 storm hit. Tornado sirens, cell phones, and some weather radio repeaters didn’t work. While forecasters might have offered 27 minutes of warning, many of the people in the path of those storms had no way of getting the message.

Severe weather outlook at 3 days in advance started to mention “enhanced” wording:

“…ELEVATED THREAT FOR A TORNADO OUTBREAK EVIDENT ACROSS THE MID SOUTH AND INTO PORTIONS OF THE CENTRAL GULF COAST STATES.”

http://www.spc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/outlook/archive/2011/day3otlk_20110425_0730.html

(Moderate risk outlooked at day 3 is rare)

Satellite imagery didn’t help and does not help “meteorologists track down and understand the conditions for such storms to form. Obviously, the better we understand those conditions the more prepared we can be.”

Forecasters were able to issue warnings on average 27 minutes prior to tornado occurrence and 90% of the tornadoes occurred in a warned area. (Private communication)

What we desperately need to understand is, with near perfect warnings during this event, why so many people died. I suspect after the investigations that most people did the right thing under the circumstances, but it wasn’t sufficient given the severity of tornadoes that occurred. Perhaps this will result more apartments buildings and homes with hardened shelters.

Satellite imagery doesn’t factor into this at all. Stick to astronomy, Phil.

This link, which provides a map of post-April 27 Tuscaloosa, should clarify what the destruction looks like.

The damage from even an EF3 is just incredible to behold. It will leave the land scarred for quite sometime. A rare event indeed. We’ve had several warning in years past only to be minor or a non-event. This was the real deal. We lost two people in our county but I’m surprised there weren’t more. Another EF3 hit the county next to us and yet another hit the county below us only a couple of miles from my parents house. Terrifying night to say the least.

I like to think that the advanced warning helped get people to safety. Go science.