The April 27th Super-Outbreak: A Meteorologist's Recollections of Death, Destruction and Chaos

April 27, 2011 will go down in history as one of the most expansive, deadly and costly tornado outbreaks in U.S. history. On a day when there nearly 122 tornadoes, 316 deaths and $4.2 billion dollars in property damage, a meteorologist sat in the epicenter of the event, tacking violent storms for nearly 20 hours. Alan Raymond is a University of Oklahoma graduate and has worked in some of the most active severe weather markets in the country, but spear-heading marathon wall-to-wall coverage of this super-outbreak, left him with an incredible perspective regarding warning dissemination and how the role of new technology and social media aided in the quest for information saturation to the viewership. Alan is the meteorologist that used his iPad and the RadarScope app to track an EF-5 tornado, after a catastrophic loss of power left all of the radar products , in the studio, uncontrollable. Alan will discuss how he prepared for the event as an operational forecaster, how he handled warning information while multiple violent tornadoes raked North Alabama and the emotional impact as the scope of the destruction came into focus. He hopes that sharing his stories will help other meteorologists implement plans to organize, prioritize, and pointedly direct the stream of life-saving information that is so vital during such chaotic times.