The Historic Tornadoes of 2011: A Case Study on Weather Preparedness

The 2011 Super Tornado Outbreak was the largest, costliest, and one of the deadliest tornado

outbreaks ever recorded, affecting the Southern, Midwestern, and Northeastern United States.

There is no exact science to predicting one of nature’s most perplexing phenomena. We often

struggle to know how strong a tornado will be, what path it will follow, or how long it will last.

So what can be done? We try to implement preparedness measures to insure safety, but the

remedy is not so simple. Using the Historic Tornadoes of 2011 National Service Assessment as a

case study, this presentation will highlight key situations that may have caused problems during

the Super Tornado Outbreak event, and also go into depth about why we continue to struggle

with community safety and possible solutions to help address these gaps. This project will also

focus on the effectiveness of weather education to communities, communication across

Weather Forecasting Offices (WFO) as well as proper planning in the event of extreme weather

events, and improving WFO outreach. Finally, this work will utilize the tactics in the NOAA Risk

Communication Best Practices Guide to recommend strategies for addressing gaps in

communication practices.