Virginia... about 60 miles west of Richmond...

RTD says that one of those was not a tornado per an officer who was visually tracking it. He was quoted by his Chief as it only being a funnel cloud while over the college, once it left the college grounds he stopped tracking it. There is damage outside of the college that suggests it may have touched down but nothing confirmed. Could have been a Gustnado instead which can do some pretty good damage itself. It's just like a tornado except it's below the wind speed threshold and is usually with a funnel cloud.

Here's an RTD page with updates on everything. The Glade Spring one was stumbled upon by the responding officer when they got a call of a tree that had fallen onto a truck on 81. He realized real fast that he had come upon a war zone.UPDATE: Officials reduce death toll to 5 in Va. | Richmond Times-Dispatch

Just parked at the Flying J in McCalla, AL (deliver in Bessemer in the am). On the drive down, I didn't see a horrific amount of damage along I-65/I-20/I-59. Close to the 350mm in AL along I-65, there's a stretch where there's not a single billboard left standing, but the posts are still there. Around the 295mm, there's a stretch of about 2 or 3 miles where you have to be careful in the slow lane because of all the trees that are blown over. Just north of Birmingham on 65, you can see a *LOT* of trees down. I didn't see anything at all on the 20/65 stretch, but it's only, what, 10 miles I was on it?

The Petro at exit 100 on 20/59 is closed today. Not sure about the Loves at the same exit. The Flying J is open with no problems.

If you're running down south, be careful at pretty much every exit ramp that has a gas station close to the exit. Cars are backed up everywhere to buy gas. That's from about 20 miles north of the TN/AL line, all the way down. I didn't see any truck backups for fuel - only cars. There's a lot of cars parked on the shoulders the entire drive as well. No idea why though. The people are still in them. Only thing I can think would be running out of gas.

It sure has been a nasty spring so far. I was in NC right after the tornadoes there a couple of weeks ago. I can't remember this much wind into the end of April like this. March sure, but it usually dies into April. (or maybe my memory is suspect)

YouTube - Aftermath of tornado glade spring,va 2011

YouTube - Aftermath of tornado glade spring,va 2011

glade spring around petro

Michigan, they normally see storms like this in the South in the winter months but nothing as severe as these have been. Even into the summer time they still see some nasty storms but these were some serious potent storms that are normally reserved for the Plains. The weather folks are blaming La Nina for causing these storms. What has made it worse on this particular outbreak is that in the Deep South you have a lot of single wide's and double wide's which have no basements. Normally getting in the center of the house is the best place but when an EF5 comes calling your SOL no matter what. The best place then is underground or hope you get lucky as the one guy in Tuscaloosa did. He jumped under his porch and lived, his neighbor and kids did the same but they were all killed.

This is now the deadliest outbreak, 318 lives, in the US since 1932 when a monster tornado took 332 lives in..........Alabama.

You sure know a lot about tornadoes. I don't know what an EF5 is but I'll be glad to take your word for the fact that I don't want to be around one. I was just talking about how windy it's been driving my truck this spring. It must be the La Nina.

So I just checked messages and my boss is telling me that I might have a pickup in Decatur, AL on my way back home next week. He's not sure though. He says they haven't answered their phone for the last couple of days. Scary stuff. They're really nice people and I hope they're ok.

EF SCALE EF Rating 3 Second Gust (mph) 0 65-85 1 86-110 2 111-135 3 136-165 4 166-200 5 Over 200

I try to understand them as much as I can Mich. I really want to get out on the Plains and do some chasing to see some from a distance.

An EF5 is the worst of the worst for Tornado's. Google Greensburg, Kansas for an idea of how bad it can be or simply look at the pics from Tuscaloosa. Prelims say that they got a 5, wind speeds can reach and exceed 200 mph. Anything in the path of a 5 can suffer complete destruction.

Enhanced Fujita Scale - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As for Alabama, phone lines and cell towers are down everywhere from reports. Decatur was in the path of a possible tornado that was being tracked into Huntsville where the National Weather Service office tracking it stopped tracking it. They ran and hid when they realized they were in the direct path.