Tornado Season! Yippee!

[IROC]

From an article on our local news station's website. The "mark" the guys talks about is about a mile from my house as the crow flies...great.

"As Severe Weather Awareness Week winds down, you're probably aware that the Valley is a dangerous place.

Harvest Monrovia is an area subject to tornado touchdown.

One spot above all is in northwest Madison County, a location not far off Highway 53, and even closer to Douglass Road.

There's more than a hundred others across Madison county, but only one most vulnerable spot.

100 yards deep in the middle of a cotton field long since picked clean, it looks like any other cotton field in Madison county, but this one's different.

According to the math, this exact spot is the most tornado prone area in all of Alabama.

A spot that was determined in a tiny building where Doctor Frank Tatom punches numbers into a computer program he developed, all based on the amount of land disturbed by twisters in the past 56 years.

Sixty-eight tornadoes passed within 20 miles of latitude 34 degrees, 48 minutes, longitude 86 degrees, 41 minutes, where a pin pokes the map, where dark red lights the monitor, where x marks the spot.

According to Tatom's study, Alabama is the 8th most tornado-prone state.

Huntsville is the 2nd most tornado prone city."

[Jims5543]

I don't know how you live there knowing your going to get hit by a Tornado.

[rouxroux]

IROC, I can still remember seeing a couple of them there in April of '74. I was at a Wednesday night class @ UAH, and they told us to go home early. Well, I headed north on Sparkman and almost got blown off the road. That was when the 1st one went south and hit around the old airport and Parkway City. Saw the next one that skipped up the southern side of Monte Sano. It was almost surreal.

[Moneyguy1]

My daughter and her family live in Huntsville area. In their back yard is a mound with a big steel door. I do not know if I could live there with that possibility hanging over my head. I will take my chances with the "warm" summers and the occasional isolated "micro bursts" down here. I can always drive to the top of the Catalinas if I want to escape the heat, and they are only 18 miles from my door.

[IROC]

Yep, and the F4 that basically eliminated everything either side of Airport Rd in 1989 is still fresh in my memory (I wasn't here in 1974). The "Anderson Hills" tornado went about 2 miles north of my house. That was the first time I remember them coming onto TV and pleading for anyone with a 4WD to come and help carry the injured to area hospitals because they had run out of ambulances.

It has actually been pretty quiet lately.

[HardDrive]

No problems from above here in Seattle......but the ground has a nasty habit of shaking. An those volcanos are a nasty business.

I grew up in Michigan, and I remember being terrified of tornados when I was a kid.

[teenerted1]

Originally posted by Jim Cesiro
I don't know how you live there knowing your going to get hit by a Tornado.

and a living where hurricanes come every year is better?

[Flatbutt1]

thats just one of the advantages of living in jersey. people break our stones all of the time but the ground doesn't shake, we don't get tornadoes, rarely anything approaching a hurricane and there aren't enough trees remaining statewide for forest fire to be a real problem!

[Bryans951]

Originally posted by Flatbutt1
thats just one of the advantages of living in jersey. people break our stones all of the time but the ground doesn't shake, we don't get tornadoes, rarely anything approaching a hurricane and there aren't enough trees remaining statewide for forest fire to be a real problem!

Sounds like a pretty boring place to live to me. Of course, I don't recall any thing touching down on this side of the river. But we get plenty of warnings.

[IROC]

Originally posted by Bryans951
Sounds like a pretty boring place to live to me. Of course, I don't recall any thing touching down on this side of the river. But we get plenty of warnings.

As long as you're not in Phil Campbell or Double Springs I think you're OK!! :>) It seems those two communities are always taking a beating.

[Bryans951]

I try to avoid both places if at all possible.

[Jims5543]

Originally posted by teenerted1
and a living where hurricanes come every year is better?

And living among volcanos is better?

[M.D. Holloway]

We have a Tornado Watch right now. Scary stuff but if you consider percentages, not many people actually die from them. Totally fantastic because of the power they produce is amazing.

[Bryans951]

Originally posted by LubeMaster77
We have a Tornado Watch right now. Scary stuff but if you consider percentages, not many people actually die from them. Totally fantastic because of the power they produce is amazing.

People talk about the winds of a hurricane, but a f5 can have well over 300+ MPH winds. Scary indeed.

[Clay Perrine]

I was on my way home on the north side of DFW airport when I tornado hit Downtown Fort Worth in 2000. I could see the clouds off in front of me.

It was surreal seeing it from a distance. It was devastating to the downtown area.

We don't have a storm shelter.

[nota]

hurricane's have Tornado's in or near them
so we get both

I never understood why they build stick homes
in the Tornado zones
I would want a fero-cement house
or at least CBS with a multi ply roof
but fero is stronger

[Hoots]

Originally posted by IROC
Yep, and the F4 that basically eliminated everything either side of Airport Rd in 1989 is still fresh in my memory

I remember the looters raiding Goldbro and seeing an LTD on top of the Movie Theater.

The first 21 years of my life were in Harvest, Al. I remember the Tornadoes of 78. We had one pass by my Dad's cattle farm. Until a few years ago the high tension power line poles were still crumpled in the adjoining cotton field. I can live with the tornado's they normally follow certain tracks. The worst storm I remember was the six inches of ice in 86.

[IROC]

Originally posted by nota
I never understood why they build stick homes
in the Tornado zones
I would want a fero-cement house
or at least CBS with a multi ply roof
but fero is stronger

It wouldn't make any difference. There's been tornados come through here that removed asphalt. An F5 went through just north of here a few years ago and even removed the grass in it's path. There was nothing left but dirt. No structures survived, needless to say.

I actually don't worry about it much. Even a really big tornado is only say, a 1/4 mile and stays on the ground for a few miles. So, even a big tornado only destroys a few square miles of property, max. Madison county (where I live) is about 400 square miles, so over the years, only a very small percentage of Madison county has ever been impacted.

Hoots...I actually live just south of Harvest...big place, huh? :>)

[nota]

I think even the most extream F5 can be stood up to
not cheap or eazy but doable
fero cement buildings survived an A-bomb
and hurricane Andrew in south dade eye wall zone
key is window protection plate steel not sheet or ply
with motors to place in seconds
and strong doors with multi point anchor bolt latches

with home values going up up up the quality
has gone down

[teenerted1]

Originally posted by Jim Cesiro
And living among volcanos is better?

yes it is.