[BamaBound]

Hello Everyone!!
I am from Arizona and my husband and I plan on moving to northern Alabama in the next five or so years- or sooner if we can swing it!! My question is regarding weather/tornadoes. I would really like my parents to move to AL with us- but my mother is afraid of the tornados. Is this something that, living there, you feel is a daily problem/concern that you have to deal with? Do you live in fear of tornados on a regular basis? From the research I've done, and my visit there, I get the impression that you do NOT, but my mom seems to feel that this is something she'd have to be worried about all the time. I am hoping for some feedback from current or past Alabama residents regarding your feelings towards living with tornados. Thanks in advance for any responses, and have a great day!!

[Tristan]

I lived in Alabama most of my life. There are two distinct tornado "seasons". They are spring and fall. You may get tornado watches or warnings a few times each season. Even during a warning, which means there IS a tornado, you are almost never in real danger. A warning covers a very wide area as a safety precaution. The local news will be telling the public where the tornado is and what neighborhoods are in the path. Imagine something a block to a mile wide going through a town. Not much of a chance that it will choose your home out of all the others. Even if you had a tornado barreling down on you, you can seek shelter in a basement or center part of your home. For 3000 to 5000 dollars you can have a real tornado shelter installed. The largest tornado there is cannot hurt you when you are underground in a shelter. BTW we never had a tornado shelter and my parents home did not have a basement.

As a child I was in a very rare "outbreak" where there was several tornados. I watched them go by from the basement window of our church. Our home was fine. We were fine. No matter where you live there are dangers. A tornado is not something you worry about anymore than a snowstorm up north, thunder during a summer storm or an earthquake in California. You watch the news when there is a tornado watch. You take cover when there is a warning.
Check out this page: http://www.tornadochaser.net/location.html

Tornadoes happen in EVERY state. It's really not a big deal.

[BamaBound]

thnx for taking the time to answer, your answer is what I expected, and thanks again!!!

[Rick in Dixie]

Greetings Bama Bound
I live in Arab Al. we are just 15 min south of Huntsville, Yes Tornados can and do happen here but in my life time they have been 15 to 20 years apart. We do have big stong thunderstorms quite freaquently thruogh out spring and late Fall. The last time one of these produced a serious Tornado was in November of 1989. and the one before that was April 3rd 1974. which was part of a wide spread Tornado outbreak that covered an area from south Miss. to the Ohio River Valley. Huntsville suffered extensive damage as well as many as 30 people killed. In November 1989 a massive F5 Tornado touched down in the south central part of Huntsville and cleared a path 1\2 mile wide and 3 miles long ,13 Huntsvillians lost there live that afternoon at around 4:00. These make our area sound like a dangerous place to live but its really not in comparison with other areas of the country such as Kansas or Oklahoma where they may see storms of this magnitude every year. We do have our fair share of Tornado Warnings but very seldom do we see any damage from these storms. Which in my opinion make people become complacent with storm warnings. We have one local news weather man that can find a "Hook Echo" (Doplar Radar Tornado Signature) in a snow storm. He is really out in left field on Tornados, He came here from Norman Oklahoma as a Tornado specialist, but when he comes on for live weather warning coverage he tends to scare people half to death. and your can almost hear the disapionment in his voice if the storm does'nt produce a Tornado. I usually watch another news station. He accually got in trouble with the National Weather Service for issuing his on weather warnings and cancelling warning issued from the N.W.S. Yes it was quite a dangerous game being played with the lives of the viewers. For the most part the weather is absolutlly beautiful here, some of the best fishing lakes in the country , not more than 30 min away from anywhere in the state. I live near Lake Guntersville with some of the biggest large mouth Bass in the world. Theres lots of other activities all over the Tennessee Valley happening every weekend. I think your family will fall in love with this area.

Rick

[atlantagreg30127]

Originally Posted by Tristan

The largest tornado there is cannot hurt you when you are underground in a shelter. Tornadoes happen in EVERY state. It's really not a big deal.

If you mean a real designated tornado "shelter", then you're right - if it's properly built and installed underground then you're safe. If you're talking about a simple basement, then a F5 *CAN* still completely damage a home including the basement. And Alabama, especially in the Birmingham and slightly north area of it, can get F5 tornados. For whatever reason, Birmingham seems to be a magnet or factory for these things - you can watch the SE regional weather radar in motion mode sometimes and it looks like the major storms just literally appear out of nowhere right over top of Birmingham, and start drifting east/ne from there.

I can't remember the year, but a friend of mine and his girlfriend had just moved out to Birmingham the year the F5 tornados went through the subdivisions there. He said they left their house and just a block away everything was gone like a huge vacuum cleaner had just sucked it all up - and yes, they saw a couple of deceased people/pets who had been in basements that were pulled out - the tornado was that strong. Granted, tornados like that are NOT an everyday thing... still, they can happen. Not long after that, he had a home built with an actual "safe room" built underground in the basement and it would withstand everything. An 8x10 safe room cost him $15,000.

I don't know if I'd go so far as to say people "shouldn't be worried" about tornados. I live in West Georgia and we get the spillover from Alabama storms quite a bit. Luckily due to our jetstream and heat dome Atlanta produces, the punch is knocked out of many of these and most of ours are rarely above F0 or F1. A F2 or F3 is very very rare. 60 miles east into Alabama and they get larger. We've still had smaller ones hit close (within 5 blocks) of my house three times in the last ten years - enough to "worry about", but knock on wood, nothing that's damaged our house.

If people from Alabama moved to California they'd be mental wrecks the first time an earthquake hit. Natives there would sleep through it. Still, a "big one" will one day hit and everyone will have to worry about it. Same with tornados - locals laugh them off most of the time, but you *should be prepared* - buy a home with a basement at least, keep bottled water, a med kid, and some food down there with blankets and batteries, etc. Get a weather alert radio, cut down any flimsy looking trees that are within "falling distance" of your bedrooms, etc.

[Jan-N-AL]

I am in Rainbow City sitting right next to Gadsden AL. We are about 50 miles east/north east of birmingham and around 65 miles south of huntsville.
I'm 30 years old and I have never ever seen a tornado do damage around here like out in Texas or the plains. My mom live in Arizona as a child for years and she seems to think the big difference is the heat. Arizona you have 100 degrees but do not sweat from humidity. Here you feel like you are gonna die it seems at times. It get really hot and muggy. As far as the tornado go we have had a few nasty ones go through Ohatchee area following the river I suspect. They tend to move over into Center and Piemont,AL areas. The tornadoes are not an everyday thing though. You may see something like that ever 2 or 3 years. If you are looking into schools in the area Rainbow City has wonderful schools. John S. Jones is a blue ribbon School excellent AR Reader program. They have BETA club , strings, 4-H club,
School dances, fall and a spring fling at the school. Rainbow City is a very community oriented small town middle to upperclass but has the very friendly feel. Southside City is just across the Coosa river from us again very sought after area around here. Southside is not in the middle of all the big cilty buildings nor is Rainbow City. Our schools are actually Etowah Coutny Schools System and not part of Gadsden City School system. Around here you don not go far out of town 5 mins or so and you can have you garden,walk on your lawn with out having to touch your neighbor from your window. As far as in Gadsden you have to know the areas to live and the ones to stay away from outside city limits normaly better but Gadsden,AL has been refered to as the retirement city. We have a local community college in Gadsden that is a very good school. We have alot of nurses,teachers go through that school they are the only two year college that is accredited by CISCO. Commputer networking or something along that line would be great there. In the Gadsden,Rainbow City,Southside,Hokes Bluff,Glenco area I've never seen town destroyed by tornadoes. I have seen out more rual areas with trees completely wiped out for yards end and lots of trailers totaled or just gone. Piedmont had it rough for a few years and I'm sure if you looked long and hard you'd find something on the internet about it. Piedmont or Heflin area is nice. People like to live in these areas and work in GA. Georgia pays better but cheaper living in Alabama. If you want beautiful areas to live in move close to one of our national forest there is one close to Heflin,AL but even if you do not move to The Mentone,AL or Little River Canyon area please do visit there sometime take your mother she will ove it. The kids can swim at the water fall or swim at the mouth of the canyon. There are places to ride horses,picnic is a must. If you pull up Little River Canyon you will see exactly what I mean. As far as weather we do not get anything really. My husband and I wait for a good thunder storm to pass through just to here the thunder and see the lighting it never last long. Snow you start to wonder I say what is that. My kids get out of school for ice on the roads but they have never even seen enough to make a snowman. Its always to warm for a white christmas or to cold so it won't snow. Most jobs/good paying jobs for Alabama are in cities 50,000 plus but I would commute. You'll have better schools and enviroment all togeather. Good luck!

[Lodger]

The key to tornado safety is keep informed. Nowadays the local weathermen do a really good job of telling people when tornados are possible, so the few times a year when conditions are right for a tornado you'll know about it if you watch the local news. Get a weather radio, that can really save your bacon in the middle of the night. Modern weather radios can be programed so only alerts in your area come through, so you're not being waken up in middle of the night for a storm a hundred miles away. A basement is better than no basement, but a few years ago a big tornado went north of Birmingham and killed over 30 people and several of the victims were in basements. An underground shelter is best, next would be an above ground safe room.

[AndyG]

Also, tornadoes are very localized. People that are not from tornado prone areas seem to think they affect a wide area, but they don't. You can have a tornado on one side of town and not even know it on the other side of town.

Unless you are in the direct path of one, its effects on you will be minimal unless you are in the area very close to it. Also, with rare exceptions, the kinds of tornadoes we have in Alabama are smaller, and don't last very long. Not to discount them as being dangerous of course, but we don't have too many of the F4-F5 ones like they have in the plains. When we do get an F4 or F5, it's very rare.

Also, just as a little additional information, our tornadoes like to come at night. The vast majority of tornadoes in Alabama happen after sundown, usually just after it gets dark. We will get them in the late afternoons sometimes, but for the most part, our tornadoes like the darkness.

[KMK]

Tornados in North Alabama? Severe thunderstorms are a frequent occurance in the Northwest corner of Alabama and almost always are followed by tornado warnings. My farm has been hit by 2 and it lifted the 100 year old oaks out of the ground roots and all. Weather is very unstable here and more so in the past 10 years.

[AndyG]

It's funny this topic came up when it did. Oneonta got the crap beat out of it last night by a tornado. So did Locust Fork.