April 27th

If you Google “April 27th,” you will undoubtedly find links to articles and videos about a tornado outbreak in 2011.  The 6th anniversary of the outbreak past a few days ago, and that is what has prompted me to write this.  It was by all accounts a historic day.

I can recall sitting in some of my meteorology classes almost a week before the event looking at maps, knowing that severe weather was extremely likely.  It was just a matter of how bad it was going to be.  Even my professors were saying this was one to pay attention to.

I interned at WCBI during my junior year and did some fill-in work my senior year.  The week of April 27th, I had already signed a contract to start working there upon graduation (April 30th).  Jason, the morning meteorologist at the time, suggested that I come in on April 27th to help out.  He mentioned I would monitor the NWS Chat and look at storm reports.  He said they might put a mic on me to relay information.  I was a bit nervous about that but knew covering severe weather is part of being a TV meteorologist.

I woke up in the early morning hours on April 27th–2 AM, maybe?–and turned on my TV to find Jason on doing coverage.  I quickly got ready and drove to Columbus from Starkville.  Rob, the chief, was still there from his shift the day before and looked very relived to see me walk into the studio so he could go home to get some rest.  Jason was still on the wall, so I sat next to Alex, the weekend girl, who showed me how to navigate the radar system (Baron’s FasTrac).

Jason finally got a break, we had the normal WCBI Sunrise show, and then another round of severe weather started mid-morning.  Jason initially did the wall-to-wall coverage, but Russ asked if I would be okay doing some, too.  (He really just wanted some footage of me doing coverage for future promo material purposes since I was to start there full time in a few days.)  Since it was only going to be for a few minutes, I agreed.

I recall feeling very in my element and not nearly a nervous as I had originally anticipated.  Any nervousness stemmed from the weather situation, not being in front of the camera.

As many of you recall, there was a morning round of severe weather, and then there was the afternoon round.  Since Jason had been at the station since the early morning hours and in front of the wall for a lot of those, he and I alternated coverage for the afternoon event.  Rob eventually came back in, but that was mainly to relive Jason.  I stayed in the studio.  Even after Rob came back in, it felt like he only did coverage for 15 minutes before giving it back over to me.  At one point I was the ONLY one in the studio.  I had just learned to drive the radar system that day, and I had never done live severe weather coverage before then.  The closest to the real thing I had gotten was doing mock coverage in labs for school.  At one point I had some information pulled up on the radar that I couldn’t get to go away, so I had to say on air for Jason or Rob to come back in the studio so they could help me.  I wasn’t quite sure why I was left alone.  I guess I should take pride in the fact that they felt confident enough in me to broadcast life threatening information.  Our signal goes out to roughly half a million people in North Mississippi and West Alabama.  Jason did eventually come back and do more coverage and did a great job when our skycam picked up a tornado in Tuscaloosa.

Tornado warnings ended in our area around late afternoon.  I remember being so relieved when the last warning expired and everything was in Alabama.  However, the damage had been done.  I remember my senior year thinking how excited I was about being a TV meteorologist, but the only thing I was unsure about was doing severe weather coverage.  Hah!  And it turns out that other than a few fill-in things I had done for them, my first day with WCBI, my first time to really make on entrance on TV–much less my first time to do live severe weather coverage–was April 27th.

I am grateful to have gotten the experience.  I now feel like I can do any form of severe weather coverage and for any length of time.  However, I am sorry the day had to happen.  There were MULTIPLE EF-5 tornadoes in my viewing area including the Smithville, MS tornado that attracted nationwide support and tracked about 50 miles from my TV station.  There was also an EF-5 that originated about 60 miles south of the TV station in Kemper County.  The Hackelburg, AL EF-5 was also in my viewing area.  Some meteorologist cannot even say that they have covered one in their lives, much less more than one on the same day.

Looking at the storm reports from that day, 8 of 19 counties in my A counties (the ones that count for our ratings) reported at least one tornado.  13 more counties right outside of our DMA but that still receive our signal reported tornadoes.  According to the preliminary data, that means there were 17 tornadoes in my DMA and 34 in counties outside of my DMA that still get our signal.  That is a total of 51 tornadoes in my viewing area!!!

April 27th was a truly historic day and is one that will likely never be repeated in my lifetime.  And to think, it was my first time to ever do live severe weather coverage!  Too many people lost their lives that day, though.  I have enjoyed giving school and civic talks since then to educate people on severe weather and how to stay safe.  My thoughts and prayers and still with those towns that are trying to recover.

The damage pictures you have seen in this post are from when I went and looked at the tornado damage in Tuscaloosa (EF-4) damage.  The sunset is in Lowndes County after I left the TV station from doing coverage that day.