{"id":53407,"date":"2023-04-03T21:17:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-03T21:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=53407"},"modified":"2023-11-29T21:19:20","modified_gmt":"2023-11-29T21:19:20","slug":"anniversary-of-the-super-outbreak-of-1974","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/53407","title":{"rendered":"Anniversary of the Super Outbreak of 1974"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This year will mark the 50th anniversary of the \u201cSuper Outbreak\u201d of April 1974. The event was unique for the number of tornado touchdowns, the number of F5 tornadoes, and the conditions that fostered their formation. Also unique is that the University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center recently digitized over 66,000 Applications Technology Satellite (ATS)-1 and -3 images from the late 1960s to early 1970s. These include ATS-3 visible images from April 3, 1974 that clearly show the development of the squall lines. ATS were experimental NASA geostationary satellites that carried the Spin Scan Cloud Camera. The camera, developed at SSEC, allowed for nearly continuous viewing of weather systems, like the Super Outbreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Northern Hemispheric views from the ATS-3 of the Super Outbreak on April 3, 1974.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The 3-4 April 1974 Super Outbreak (NWS Wilmington OH<\/strong><\/a> | Wikipedia<\/strong><\/a> | Interacive WebMap<\/strong><\/a> | Monthly Weather Review<\/strong><\/a>) was one of the largest and most deadly tornado outbreaks on record in the United States. Several images from the ATS-3<\/strong><\/a> satellite are shown below (thanks to the work of SSEC Satelite Data Services<\/strong><\/a> and Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences Library<\/strong><\/a> staff!). Large clusters of thunderstorms that produced the tornadoes are very apparent, along with a hazy plume of blowing dust that moved across much of North Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Northern Hemispheric views from the ATS-3 of the Super Outbreak on April 3, 1974 (Click to play<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n
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ATS-3 Visible images, 1941 UTC and 1955 UTC [click to enlarge]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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ATS-3 Visible images, 2007 UTC and 2022 UTC [click to enlarge]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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 ATS-3 Visible images, 2034 UTC and 2049 UTC [click to enlarge]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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 AS-3ATS-3 Visible images, 2100 UTC and 2114 UTC [click to enlarge]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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 ATS-3 Visible images, 2126 UTC and 2140 UTC [click to enlarge]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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 ATS-3 Visible images, 2153 UTC and 2207 UTC [click to enlarge]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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 ATS-3 Visible images, 2219 UTC and 2232 UTC [click to enlarge]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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 ATS-3 Visible images, 2245 UTC and 2259 UTC [click to enlarge]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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 ATS-3 Visible images, 2307 UTC [click to enlarge]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

HT<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This blog post leverages a similar post from 2023<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year will mark the 50th anniversary of the \u201cSuper Outbreak\u201d of April 1974. The event was unique for the number of tornado touchdowns, the number of F5 tornadoes, and the conditions that fostered their formation. Also unique is that the University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center recently digitized over 66,000 Applications Technology […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":55742,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[146],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ats-3"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53407"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53446,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53407\/revisions\/53446"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}