2230:00z
UNISYS Water Vapor Satellite of the North and West Hemisphere (click here for 12 hour loop)
The vortex absorbed the energy from the system and consolidated it into a very powerful system.
NASHVILLE, TENN. - Tornadoes, high winds and hail battered the U.S. midsection on Friday, with reports of nearly three dozen tornadoes causing damage across five states and prompting urgent warnings to take cover across the region.
No deaths were reported, but seven people were hurt by suspected tornadoes in northern Alabama. Additional tornado sightings were reported to the National Weather Service in southeastern Tennessee, and along the Ohio River Valley in Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky....
People have to accept there are dangers, they need to be cognizant of the potential for those dangers. People cannot live in bliss of denial of the possibility today is the day the storm could come to me. They have to be willing to act and to have a plan. School children practice drills for fire and people have to have a plan no different than if there was a fire in their homes or office. Citizens have to not only be 'aware' of the warnings that will come, but, to act on those warnings to protect their lives.
From the New York Daily News
Tornadoes wipe out two Indiana towns and spread fear and havoc across much of nation (click title to entry - thank you)
BY / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: Friday, March 2, 2012, 11:59 AM
Updated: Friday, March 2, 2012, 6:20 PM
...Authorities reported the three deaths in southern Indiana, where Clark County Sheriff's Department Maj. Chuck Adams said the 1,900-person town of Marysville is "completely gone." Extreme damage was also reported in the nearby town of Henryville, home to about 2,000 people....
...The rural town about 45 miles north of Louisville is known as the home of Indiana's oldest state forest and as the birthplace of Kentucky Fried Chicken Founder Colonel Harlan Sanders.
To the northeast, Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport was closed briefly because of debris on the runways. By late afternoon, one of three runways had reopened.
Forecasters at the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Oklahoma said tornado threats as serious as Friday's only happen several times a year.
"Maybe five times a year we issue what is kind of the highest risk level for us at the Storm Prediction Center," forecaster Corey Mead said. "This is one of those days."
The powerful storm system was also causing problems in states far to the south, including Alabama and Tennessee where dozens of houses were also damaged. The threat of tornadoes was expected to last until late Friday. The outbreak comes two days after an earlier round of storms killed 13 people in the Midwest and South....
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