[boomer]

The family and I are moving to Northern Alabama later this year. Living in a state with very few toranadoes, I have few concerns.

1. Do tornadoes hit mountainous and hilly areas?
2. What part of Alabama have the most incidences of tornadoes?
3. Do most people in Alabama have basements?
4. What is Alabama ranked in tornadoes compared to the rest of the US?
5. What is a typical year concerning tornado incidences in Alabama?
6. If you were to buy a place in Alabama, what are some of things you would look at concerning, type of house, terrain, and location?

[Southlander]

Originally Posted by boomer

The family and I are moving to Northern Alabama later this year. Living in a state with very few toranadoes, I have few concerns.

1. Do tornadoes hit mountainous and hilly areas?
2. What part of Alabama have the most incidences of tornadoes?
3. Do most people in Alabama have basements?
4. What is Alabama ranked in tornadoes compared to the rest of the US?
5. What is a typical year concerning tornado incidences in Alabama?
6. If you were to buy a place in Alabama, what are some of things you would look at concerning, type of house, terrain, and location?

1. Generally no, they tend to skip over or the hills prevent formation of winds. But Alabama "mountains" aren't that tall.
2. Any fairly flat region. Almost all of Alabama is fairly flat. Tornadoes can occur all over the state.
3. In 40 years of living in Alabama, I've never lived in a house with a basement. Here in Decatur, there are few because the water table is high (we're next to the Tennessee River). But people in a Birmingham tornado a few years ago died in their basement because of debris falling on them.
4. Don't know...I think somebody posted a site somewhere that has that.
5. Typical year, you'll see from 1 to 4 major strikes somewhere.
6. Look at the history of the area, if tornadoes have struck before. You are not looking at broad regions, you're looking at towns or fairly small areas. If you're going to be in an area that gets tornadoes, you might look at putting in a storm shelter. Look around...if the houses in that area have them...consider yourself warned. Brick houses are not tornado proof...no house is tornado proof (unless you live underground) And if you buy or build a mobile home or manufactured home, be sure it's tied down and DON'T STAY THERE DURING A TORNADO WATCH OR WARNING. Learn where the nearest shelter is. Learn the weather signs, the difference between a watch and a warning. Make sure you have a weather radio and use it. Learn what to do if you're in a car, or a place away from home.
Learn, use your brains, use common sense.

[Twostep]

If you are that spooked by the idea alone you may not want to relocate to AL. Weather is a part of daily life. We have not yet figured out how to reroute a tornado nor do they (unfortunatley) let us know in advance when and where they plan to visit. Here we have storms, back home we have avalanches. Some risks you have to take.

Take precautions, have an emergency plan and a good generator.

Go back about three weeks. The same question had come up and I posted a series of links. Let me know if you cannot find them. Easiest way - at least for me - click on "all posts by Twostep" and scroll down.

[KewGee]

TORNADOES HAVE BEEN DOCUMENTED TO CROSS THE APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS AS WELL AS GO UP AND DOWN A 10,000 FOOT TALL MOUNTAIN IN YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK.

[tom62]

Originally Posted by boomer

The family and I are moving to Northern Alabama later this year. Living in a state with very few toranadoes, I have few concerns.

1. Do tornadoes hit mountainous and hilly areas?
2. What part of Alabama have the most incidences of tornadoes?
3. Do most people in Alabama have basements?
4. What is Alabama ranked in tornadoes compared to the rest of the US?
5. What is a typical year concerning tornado incidences in Alabama?
6. If you were to buy a place in Alabama, what are some of things you would look at concerning, type of house, terrain, and location?

Go to www.weather.com. You should be able to find information there. Alabama is prone to these storms especially springtime, but can happen all year. The southeast, particularly the deep south is very prone. If you do a google search on your town, or town in the area, scroll the results and click on some of the town demographics. Usually they post tornado frequency, and a (+ or - %) of the average compared to other areas.

[Buckhead_Broker]

Generally, tornados hit trailer parks. If you don't live in a trailer, you should be OK.

[dbkeel1]

I stood in my backyard in May 1995 in NE Madison County and watched a wall cloud go past. On it's path it literally took out Anderson Hills subdivision, Steger Road and some other areas, but only resulted in one death - someone in a trailer in east Limestone County. In 1998 we had a tornado literally bounce over our house in north Dallas, TX area, too, leaving snapped-off tree tops in our yard and the yards of neighbors. In 1984 I was in a Boy Scout leaders meeting in Dunn, NC in 1984 when the entire town went dark for an hour or so as some 7 or 8 tornados went on a wild spree just east of the town. The aerial photography after the fact looked like giant cat scratches across the terrain of several eastern NC counties.

The point is tornados do happen here but they can happen vrtually anywhere. We are a bit more prone than some areas but most of us plan for the possibility and don't live our lives being paranoid. The local TV stations all do a wonderful job of telling us - sometimes days in advance - of the day and even the time they expect the potential for severe weather (check out www.waff.com, www, whnt.com, www.waaytv.com); (broken link) there's so much aerospace going on here, this community is wired for such things.

Huntsville is a great place to live and raise a family even with the risk of an occasional 'wind event.' I think bigger 'wind events' than those can happen in Congress and with our commitment to the Army and NASA, those events have the potential to do a lot more damage in Huntsville than any tornado.

Welcome.

[Soon2BNYer]

I currently live in Enterprise, AL. You may have heard of it because of the tornado that hit here on March 1st, destroying our high school and killing 8 students and one elderly woman. Up until March 1st, our town had not been effected by tornadoes. We have watches and warnings, as is common in the south, but this was the first time (in I am not sure how long) that one actually touched down and caused damage. Truthfully, I wouldn't worry too much. Weather is random and I would bet one would have more chance of being in a car wreck and sustaining injuries than being in a tornado.

[Twostep]

Originally Posted by Buckhead_Broker

Generally, tornados hit trailer parks. If you don't live in a trailer, you should be OK.

You may want to share this with CNN and the folks in Enterprise.

[Keeper]

Where do you live now? I came up here from FL., there are tornadoes in FL too, but the main difference here is they are well prepared for tornadoes. There are sirens everywhere and the TV stations do an excellent job by staying on tracking any storm that has potential to produce a tornadoe. One TV station is live online with open chat. The advice to check out the area is an excellent one as tornadoes tend to follow the same path. DON'T live in a trailor since they do tend to attract tornadoes.