Aerial Survey, Lowndes County MS and Lamar County AL

I had an opportunity to fly on the ABC 3340 helicopter today to do an aerial survey of the damage in Lamar County as well as the damage in Caledonia, MS.

The first couple of shots are of me and downtown Birmingham. Then the images go to the damage in Lamar County including the destroyed doublewide mobile home followed by the damage in Caledonia, MS. We landed at the school and did an interview with the school principal. When we stopped at Fayette airport to refuel, there was a spectacular sun dog in some beautiful cirrus.

When we left Caledonia, we flew the track all the way from there to just west-northwest of Vernon, so the tornado path crossed from Lowndes County, Mississippi, into Lamar County, Alabama. I do not have an exact length of the track because we did not travel southwest of the school at Caledonia. When I spoke with Steve Wilkinson, Warning Coordination Meteorologist at Jackson NWS, he said the track extended southwest of the school about three miles. Based on my rough estimation, the track length will be something around 10 or 11 miles with a width approaching one half mile.

2008 has certainly gotten off to a bang of a start after the first January tornadoes in Illinois since 1952 and now this in Mississippi and Alabama.

-Brian-

Category: Uncategorized