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Tag: 2014 tornado season

  • Mississippi Tornado Weather Possible Early Next Week

    This year’s long, long winter is finally over and warmer weather is bringing people out of their houses in the Midwest and Eastern U.S. The coming of spring, however, doesn’t mean the nation’s weather troubles are quite over yet.

    After winter weather pushed back this year’s tornado season, it appears that some severe weather may make up for it this weekend and early next week. The National Weather Service is predicting a strong storm to cover much of the South and Midwest starting on Sunday. The large storm should begin forming over Texas and Oklahoma on Saturday night and begin pushing East.

    From there the storm is predicted to strengthen on Sunday, bringing high winds and thunderstorms to parts of Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. By Monday the storm is expected to move over parts of Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, and Kentucky.

    During this period the storm could become very severe, bringing intense rain and high winds. The National Weather Service states that the “potential exists for a severe weather outbreak including strong tornadoes.”

    Post by NOAA NWS Storm Prediction Center.

    By Tuesday the storm could cover much of the eastern U.S., from Southern Michigan all the way down to Florida.

    As this prediction is days in advance, there is still much uncertainty about the specifics of the storm. Though hail and tornadoes are possible, the area affected by such strong weather is likely to be smaller than the area currently threatened by the storm.

    Image via the National Weather Service

  • Tornado Season: Concerns States in “Tornado Alley”

    Now that the “polar vortex” and extreme snowy and icy weather has finally subsided, it is time to gear up for tornado season.

    Tornado season is here for a big part of what is known as “Tornado Alley“, experts from the Accu Weather Service, and the National Climatic Data Center (NOAA) have claimed.

    In the U.S., tornado season is unpredictable, however, it tends to move northward from late winter to mid-summer. In Southern states, tornadoes usually wreak havoc from March to May. In the Southern Plains, from May to early June. On the Gulf Coast they come most often during the spring. And in the Northern Plains, Northern states and upper Midwest, peak season is in June or July.

    But with unpredictable “Mother Nature”, tornadoes can happen at any time.

    The two regions with higher incidences of tornadoes are Florida and Tornado Alley. Florida’s high tornado frequency is due to their almost daily thunderstorms during the season, as well as the many tropical storms and hurricanes that affect the Florida peninsula.

    Tornado Alley was aptly named because of the extreme weather and tornado activity to a specific area. The alley includes a strip of land going north to south that covers the northern parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, the eastern edge of Colorado, southwest tip of South Dakota and the southern edge of Minnesota. Tornadoes in this area typically occur in the late spring.

    In the Gulf Coast region, another term given to this area in relation to its tornado activity is Dixie Alley. This area refers to West Tennessee, West Kentucky, North Mississippi and North Alabama. These states generally see a much later tornado season than those in Tornado Alley, occuring in the late fall from October through December.

    It usually takes a thunderstorm for a tornado to form, but they can also appear during tropical storms and hurricanes. Most tornadoes will usually be at the right and ahead of the storm path as it comes ashore.

    According to Roger Edwards of the Storm Prediction Center, “tornadoes are commonly said to be formed when warm, moist air meets cool, dry air, however that is a gross oversimplification.”

    He notes that recent theories and results from the Vortex program suggest that tornado development is related to temperature differences across the edge of downdraft air, but mathematical modeling studies of tornado formation also indicate that it can happen without such temperature patterns.

    “Very little temperature variation was observed near some of the most destructive tornadoes in history on May 3, 1999,” notes Edwards.

    In other words – listen to warnings and watches and realize that these twisters are unpredictable – so at the first indication that a tornado is possible, all storm precautions should be taken.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons