The tornado damage inflicted on Tuscaloosa on April 27, 2011,
was just one part of a tornado track roughly 80.3 miles (129.2
kilometers) long and up to 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) wide. On
May 4, 2011, the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and
Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite observed
another segment of the tornado track, closer to Birmingham,
Alabama. ASTER combines infrared, red, and green wavelengths of
light to make false-color images that distinguish between water
and land. Water is blue. Buildings and paved surfaces are blue-
gray. Vegetation is red. The tornado track appears as a beige
stripe running diagonally through this image. On May 5, the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National
Weather Service issued updated information on the violent storms
in the Birmingham area. Along the length of its 80-mile path,
the tornado that passed through Tuscaloosa and Birmingham caused
more than 1,000 injuries and at least 65 deaths. With winds of
190 miles (310 kilome