As Of Tuesday Evening, Tornado Outbreak Really Bad And Getting Worse

Tornado damage today in Paincourtville, Louisiana.
Photo via Twitter by Michael DeMocker, a photographer
with the New Orleans Times-Picayune.  

The big tornado outbreak in the southeastern United States is underway, and as I write this as of 7 p.m. EST Tuesday, it's getting worse.

Most of the damage so far today has been in Louisiana, but now things are spreading into Mississippi and Alabama.

The parent storm system causing this is much stronger than a normal low pressure system located in Texas and Louisiana.

Usually, such storms don't get this strong until they're lifting northward up the Eastern Seaboard or up into the Great Lakes.

This is causing conditions to its east that are extremely conducive to tornadoes, some of them strong and long lasting.

Since the parent storm keeps getting stronger and more organized, the tornado threat is increasing in the Deep South this evening.

Tornado damage Tuesday near
Belle Rose, Louisian. Photo via
Twitter @ayee_its_erinn  

It's kind of a worst case scenario. The worst of the tornadoes are developing after dark, when you can't see them coming. Some of them are really strong, all of them have a fast forward speed.

This threat will continue all night. No real relaxation of the tornado threat overnight, which you get in most tornado outbreaks.

Also, many of the tornadoes are wrapped in rain, making them hard to see. That's been true all day and will continue tonight. (You'll see some of this phenomenon in the videos at the bottom of this post.)

So far, I've seen one unconfirmed report of a death, and several injuries, some serious, in Louisiana.

NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has declared this a particularly dangerous situation, and we can expect more horrible news overnight from Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, the threat will move eastward during the day, and an area from extreme southern Maryland to Florida is under threat for more destructive tornadoes.

(It's very odd to have the tornado threat as far north as Maryland this early in the season. It's only February.)

It looks like the biggest threat Wednesday for big tornadoes is over eastern North Carolina.

Let's all hope that the inevitable particularly strong, long lasting tornadoes stay over rural areas and not hit any big towns and cities. But it's pretty populated in the areas under the greatest threat, and I worry that we will have terrible news of a tornado disaster when we wake up Wednesday morning.

The nation has had three years in a row, from 2012 through 2015  with below normal tornado activity. This year so far has bucked that quiet trend. Let's hope that trend does not continue.

Time for videos:

You can see how hard many of the tornadoes in this outbreak are hard to see as they're approaching.

Here's storm chaser Max Olson documenting one crossing Interstate 10 near Baton Rouge. I wonder how many people drove into this thing:



The New Orleans Times Picayune documented this tornado damage in Paincourtville, Louisiana:



Early reports indicate at least one fatality and several injuries at this RV park in Convent, Louisiana: