40th Anniversary of the April 3-4, 1974 Super Tornado Outbreak

This map was assembled by Dr. Ted Fujita and his survey team after one of the 2 or 3 worst tornado outbreaks in U.S. history:

click to enlarge

What weather science learned from investigating this outbreak changed the entire warning system for the better. I discuss this in Warnings: The True Story of How Science Tamed the Weather. 

A new 5-Star review of Warnings was posted at Amazon last week. It says,

Really interesting book on how the warnings systems have progressed through the years. Did not realize the early links between air disasters and the building of the warning system. The pictures of the damage really help to bring the scope and importance of the warning system home.

Unfortunately, it is likely multiple tornadoes will occur in the central U.S. this week. While the National Weather Service, television meteorologists, emergency managers and private sector meteorologists will almost certainly do their normal great job, their efforts only pay off if you take the warnings seriously and act on them.

Remember, a watch means that weather conditions are favorable for tornadoes in the next few hours.

A warning means it is time to take cover.

Check back with this blog and with AccuWeather as the weather unfolds this week.


ADDITION: Stan Finger of the Wichita Eagle has a great story about the Superoutbreak here.