70 replies to this topic

[Rwarky]

In the city, town, or local region you live in, how often have tornadoes occured (within the past several years)?  Is it very common for them to occur in this area?  What type of warning systems are used to alert people of tornadoes in the vicinity? Have you ever witness or experience a tornado?  Also, are certain southern communities (regions) more succeptable to these storms than others?

[suburban george3]

We seem to have one in the metro area per year.  They are usually weak ones here though, as the mountains seem to break up storms coming here first.  We usually don't get the strongest wind storms like Raleigh/Eastern NC does.

[mcheiss]

Probably about 5 or 6 come close to my metro a year. Sometimes it's more. I guess that's what I get for living on the edge of Tornado Alley.

[flith]

Rwarky, on Sep 19 2006, 03:12 AM, said:

In the city, town, or local region you live in, how often have tornadoes occured (within the past several years)?  Is it very common for them to occur in this area?  What type of warning systems are used to alert people of tornadoes in the vicinity? Have you ever witness or experience a tornado?  Also, are certain southern communities (regions) more succeptable to these storms than others?

The last tornado in Chattanooga, TN that I can remember was either '96 or '97.  It touched down on the West side of town in Tiftonia, then in E. Brainerd where most of the damage was done.  It damaged a family member’s house in Tiftonia (lifted part of the roof off and dropped large oak in one of the bedrooms.  This storm came from the WSW which until the new Doppler radar in Hytop Alabama was built was a blind spot for local forecasters.

[Tayfromcarolina]

Raleigh got hit by a very strong tornado in '89 it was a F-4. Several fatalities. It was really freakish late at night 3:00 AM maybe and in the month of November.  Leveled a K-mart and demolished several neighborhoods in North Raleigh.

I guess theres one of two in the metro every year. weak ones typically.

[jmanhsv]

Huntsville's notorious for its tornadoes. We have a few warnings each year, though of course many of them are false alarms.  

The worst one by far was in November 1989, when an F-4 went straight down Airport Road during rush hour. It killed 24 people and injured over 400. It took out numerous shopping centers, two schools, and a hospital, but it left the new McDonald's alone. The tornado spurred the county to create an early warning system and also inspired a local TV weatherman to start a doppler radar company (many local TV stations have a radar called "Vipir"- it was made by this company).

[AlabamaGuy2007]

jmanhsv, on Sep 19 2006, 05:23 PM, said:

Huntsville's notorious for its tornadoes. We have a few warnings each year, though of course many of them are false alarms.  

The worst one by far was in November 1989, when an F-4 went straight down Airport Road during rush hour. It killed 24 people and injured over 400. It took out numerous shopping centers, two schools, and a hospital, but it left the new McDonald's alone. The tornado spurred the county to create an early warning system and also inspired a local TV weatherman to start a doppler radar company (many local TV stations have a radar called "Vipir"- it was made by this company).

Very true..  The Huntsville-Decatur Area is on the very very edge of the outer fringe of Tornado Alley.  Decatur hasn't seen a tornado in the years that I've lived here.  I think it's cause we're surrounded by water on three sides mainly.

[Cadeho]

We have several watches a year and storms can spawn them, but luckily we don't have too many. I hate having tornado warnings and I really hate when tropical systems spin them off.

[satalac]

in nashville we'd have them maybe 1-3 times a year. we had one hit smack dab in the middle of downtown one year, i think in 99? in murfreesboro (30 mins south of nashville), we have 1 or 2 a year. an f-5 tore a lot of stuff up down here a few years back. we have sirens in the boro and a warning system. nashville is a bit more sporadic with the sirens.

[DruidCity]

Quote

Have you ever witness or experience a tornado?

One time, I saw one go right over downtown Tuscaloosa, then over my house. Fortunately,
it did not touch down.

The main damage in the Tuscaloosa area from Katrina was from (seven) small
tornadoes that spun off.

There have been a few really bad tornadoes over the years :

http://www.srh.noaa....loosa/index.php

http://www.as.ua.edu.../twister/t1.htm

http://www.srh.noaa....01_24/index.php

[Cadeho]

I'm just glad we don't have giant vacuums miles wide from the sky sucking up everything like in the plains.  Those are some brave, brave people.

[skirby]

Still walking after a 3/4 mile wide F3 paid me a visit in May 03. I've seen them before but never had one come to my door or should I say my ex door.

[SBCmetroguy]

A few years ago the local news reported that Shreveport was the fifth most likely city in the country for a tornado. I'm not sure of anything but what I heard as far as that study goes.

I will say, however, that we typically have at least one tornado in this area every year, and two years in a row (1999 and 2000) we had tornadoes hit on Easter Sunday. One Easter a tornado destroyed a trailer park between Bossier City and Benton, and the next year a tornado unleashed havoc on downtown Shreveport, causing quite a bit of damage but killing no one. I went downtown right after the tornado, just to see what it was like, and it was a huge mess. There were two large casino hotels under construction right next door to one another, and the tornado spread construction materials from those job sites all over the downtown area. Numerous business' storefronts were busted out and street signs and traffic signals were twisted all around. I wish I'd had a camera at the time because it was quite a sight to see. Shortly after I arrived downtown, the police started arresting looters and then they shut downtown off completely to vehicle traffic.

Back in December of 1978, Bossier City was almost completely destroyed by an F4 tornado. Granted Bossier City was MUCH smaller in '78, there was still a lot to destroy and it did. It also killed two little girls in the neighborhood I grew up in. I was born less than 2 years later. My older brother was 6 years old at the time and he actually slept through it. As a matter of fact, the house he was sleeping in was only about 1/4-mile from the house where the two little girls were killed in the storm.

Here's the link to a collection of photos I put together about the Bossier City tornado. These are all photos that I took of photos in a book I own, which is titled Bossier City Tornado, December 1978. Keep in mind that the areas shown in almost all of these photos are the areas in which I grew up. The elementary school shown in the photos as having been destroyed by the storm is actually the elementary school I started attending in 1985. It was rebuilt and even expanded before I started there. The two main neighborhoods listed in the book, 'Meadowview' and 'Swan Lake,' are the two different sides of the subdivision I grew up in and lived in until I got married at 23.

http://www.picturetr...amp;uid=4884268

[Fear of Heights]

Speaking of tornado likelihood, I saw a study that show Huntsville, AL as the #1 most likely metro area for tornado development based on several factors. I saw another study that had Huntsville very high but had Grand Rapids, MI #1.  Most people think of the Plain States as being THE tornado alley but the area from Ohio Valley, Mid Mississippi Valley, and the area from northeast Texas, eastern OK, Arkansas over to the norther halves of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama have far more deadly tornadoes than the Plain States (mainly because of denser population). The one thing I've noticed over the years is that the Appalachians seem to have a huge effect on tornadoes. I can't begin to count the number of times that LA, Ark, Miss, and Ala were having numerous tornado warnings along with confirmed tornadoes yet the systems tend to weaken dramatically as the front interacted with the Apps and the storm system would weaken as it entered Georgia and the Carolinas. Far more tornadoes seem to occurr west of the Apps.

[AlabamaGuy2007]

Fear of Heights, on Sep 20 2006, 04:36 PM, said:

Speaking of tornado likelihood, I saw a study that show Huntsville, AL as the #1 most likely metro area for tornado development based on several factors. I saw another study that had Huntsville very high but had Grand Rapids, MI #1.  Most people think of the Plain States as being THE tornado alley but the area from Ohio Valley, Mid Mississippi Valley, and the area from northeast Texas, eastern OK, Arkansas over to the norther halves of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama have far more deadly tornadoes than the Plain States (mainly because of denser population). The one thing I've noticed over the years is that the Appalachians seem to have a huge effect on tornadoes. I can't begin to count the number of times that LA, Ark, Miss, and Ala were having numerous tornado warnings along with confirmed tornadoes yet the systems tend to weaken dramatically as the front interacted with the Apps and the storm system would weaken as it entered Georgia and the Carolinas. Far more tornadoes seem to occurr west of the Apps.

Yea, Huntsville has had many tornadoes in the downtown area.  It's very weird though.  Huntsville Metro Area usually has quite a few warnings.  But, the metro, right across the Tennessee River, the Decatur Metro Area, rarely has tornado warnings.  I don't think that the Decatur MSA has had one this year.  The whole time I've lived here, there's only been ONE serious situation.  The funnel cloud never touched down though.

[richyb83]

Wow, great topic! Tornadoes have always fascinated me. My area has had some close calls; but nothing like what's been posted above. I can remember some scary moments as a kid.

While living less than a 100 miles from the Gulf of Mexico can be a disadvantage as far as hurricanes go(far enough inland to weaken some); the proximity to the Gulf is an advantage for Tornadoes. Tornadoes this far south tend to be weaker than the one's in northern and central Louisiana, Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas, etc.

Edited by richyb83, 20 September 2006 - 05:12 PM.

[Lexy]

About every spring and fall we have some in this area.  Most common in the spring, but occasionally we get one in the fall.

Here was the round from last spring here in Nashville.

Wall cloud and horizontal funnel north of my house.


Hail after it passed.

[rusthebuss]

We get some water spouts every great once in awhile. One tore up a gas station when it came on land

Edited by rusthebuss, 20 September 2006 - 07:16 PM.

[satalac]

hey lexy, was that the one that hit hendersonville?

[swake]

Interstate 44 between Oklahoma City and Tulsa IS tornado alley.

http://en.wikipedia....i/Tornado_alley

The 1999 tornado that destroyed much of Moore, Ok (OKC Suburb) was the most powerful tornado ever recorded on earth.

http://en.wikipedia....ak#The_Moore_F5

That said, with the weather reporting here and the preperation and how small tornados really are and how much warning you have, it's not very scary. I've only ever even seen one tornado.