According to preliminary reports, the tornado that struck Tuscaloosa and Birmingham on Wednesday was a mile wide and traveled more than 300 miles.
Harold Brooks of the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, OK said that wind speeds could have reached over 200 mph, making the tornado at least an EF-4 and possibly and EF-5 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale.
Brooks said one of the reasons why there was such a huge outbreak of storms across the south this week can be attributed to a weakening La Nina in the Pacific Ocean.
La Nina is a recurring periodic cooling of the water in the Pacific that can change weather patterns around the world.
Texas Tech University tornado expert Chris Weiss said the storm that spawned the Tuscaloosa tornado formed in Mississippi and “lasted over 300 miles, and even for a super cell that’s pretty long.”
Weiss said there is no scientific consensus that global warming played a role in the creation of these storms.
At least 291 people were killed across six states. Alabama Governor Robert Bentley said his state had confirmed 204 deaths.
There were 33 deaths in Mississippi, 33 in Tennessee, 15 in Georgia, five in Virginia and one in Kentucky. Hundreds if not thousands of people were injured – nearly 800 in Tuscaloosa alone.
