Check Out New Tornado Alley Map (Chattanooga: 2013, house, university)

[PlaneFolks]

The new Tornado Alley moving our way, take a look.

Tornado Alley moving closer to Georgia | 11alive.com

[danielj72]

Tornados have always been a problem in the south, but I find it hard to believe our level of threat is even close to that in Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas. All Americans who live between the Appalachian mountains and the Rocky mountains should be on guard for twisters, but those in the great plains take it the worst IMO.

[Reactionary]

Deep South tornadoes are stronger and longer, according to the report:

The study focused specifically on F2 strength tornadoes or higher. Because those are the ones that cause the most damage along with injuries and fatalities. They also looked at how long the tornado stayed on the ground, because the longer it does, the more damage it causes. The research found that Deep South tornadoes typically have longer paths than those in the Great Plains because they actually travel at a faster rate.

danielj72 - this is why changing the perception is important to the researchers: "Very little research money is coming to the southeast at this point to study tornadoes, it's all funneled into the Great Plains."

[An Einnseanair]

Originally Posted by danielj72

Tornados have always been a problem in the south, but I find it hard to believe our level of threat is even close to that in Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas. All Americans who live between the Appalachian mountains and the Rocky mountains should be on guard for twisters, but those in the great plains take it the worst IMO.

Not really. The reason OK, KS, and TX have such a famous tornado history is the simple fact that they don't have many trees, the tornadoes generally aren't surrounded by rain, and they often (not always) form during the day. So when a twister forms it can be seen and followed from several miles away, which means more people see them, and storm chasers get better pictures, so people think there are more tornadoes.

Jump down to the "Dixie Alley" and the data shows that we actually have more high strength tornadoes than the great plains. But we have lots of trees blocking the view, they are often rain-wrapped, and they often form at night (not always) from the same fast-moving storm systems that developed over the great plains and Ozarks during the day. You usually (not always) have to be within less than a mile to see a tornado, and that's if it's not rain-wrapped. Not as many people see them, so historically this area isn't known for tornadoes.

The FEMA hazard maps have shown this for years; as a structural engineer I've designed a few community and storm shelters.

I know dozens of people in Mississippi and Alabama who were affected by tornadoes; everything from damaging the door to a garage; to picking up a stand-alone carport, balling it up, and tossing it at the roof of the house; to shifting a house on its foundation; to ripping a roof completely off of a brick house; to completely obliterating frame buildings. Fortunately, I don't know of anyone who was killed by a tornado.

[Lakehopper]

Wow, that's a lot of good/bad information to know! Thanks for the heads up PlaneFolks and expert information indeed from you too jwkilgore Just makes us think more about getting another brick house like we had in Pensacola, FL... Of course, it was for hurricanes and tornadoes down there! Do the mountains being so close help or hurt us in Chattanooga as far as any future map changes?

[w00lyb00ger]

Originally Posted by danielj72

Tornados have always been a problem in the south, but I find it hard to believe our level of threat is even close to that in Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas. All Americans who live between the Appalachian mountains and the Rocky mountains should be on guard for twisters, but those in the great plains take it the worst IMO.

And you shouldn't believe it. There are far more tornados in that region of the country because of the clash of cold air masses from Canada and the warm ones from the Gulf of Mexico. The midwest is where the majority of that occurs.

The tornado that occurred in Joplin was more powerful and killed more people than anything that's ever been seen in the deep south. The powerful F5's that occur frequently around Oklahoma City and Wichita are extremely rare in the southeast. And I don't know where this poster came up with that bologna about most tornados in the midwest forming during the day while occurring at night in the southeast but that couldn't be further from the truth. Nor is it true that they're more "rain-wrapped". Tornadoes don't just appear suddenly out of nowhere in the midwest. They're accompanied by severe weather just like they are in the south. Of course anyone with common sense could surmise that on their own with even a basic knowledge of how storms work.

As for the newscast, it sounds to me like some university lobbying for more money. Parsing out important facts to try to create an argument for more federal dollars for research. F2 tornados rarely kill anyone either. So why were they included? Probably because they're by far the most common type in the south and if you parsed out just F3 and above it would slant things heavily towards the midwest region again. Stop and think about how many tornadoes you can remember in the southeast that were anywhere near as powerful as the one in Tuscaloosa. Off the top of my head I can't even think of one.

Another thing that skews their research heavily is that Florida has more tornadoes than any other state in the country. Why don't we hear anything about them or their mass destruction then? Well, because they're only technically in Florida. They don't occur over land. They occur over the ocean.

Having lived in both the deep south and the midwest, I have a pretty good grasp on what tornado season is like in both places and would tell you there's absolutely no comparison.

On a side note, since one of the previous posters went on to give their testimony about tornadoes in the south not being seen because they're hidden in the mountains and yada, yada… The majority of tornadoes that occur in the south don't occur in the mountainous regions of the south. So that's another myth debunked.

[rhp1462]

Originally Posted by w00lyb00ger

And you shouldn't believe it. There are far more tornados in that region of the country because of the clash of cold air masses from Canada and the warm ones from the Gulf of Mexico. The midwest is where the majority of that occurs.

The tornado that occurred in Joplin was more powerful and killed more people than anything that's ever been seen in the deep south. The powerful F5's that occur frequently around Oklahoma City and Wichita are extremely rare in the southeast. And I don't know where this poster came up with that bologna about most tornados in the midwest forming during the day while occurring at night in the southeast but that couldn't be further from the truth. Nor is it true that they're more "rain-wrapped". Tornadoes don't just appear suddenly out of nowhere in the midwest. They're accompanied by severe weather just like they are in the south. Of course anyone with common sense could surmise that on their own with even a basic knowledge of how storms work.

As for the newscast, it sounds to me like some university lobbying for more money. Parsing out important facts to try to create an argument for more federal dollars for research. F2 tornados rarely kill anyone either. So why were they included? Probably because they're by far the most common type in the south and if you parsed out just F3 and above it would slant things heavily towards the midwest region again. Stop and think about how many tornadoes you can remember in the southeast that were anywhere near as powerful as the one in Tuscaloosa. Off the top of my head I can't even think of one.

Another thing that skews their research heavily is that Florida has more tornadoes than any other state in the country. Why don't we hear anything about them or their mass destruction then? Well, because they're only technically in Florida. They don't occur over land. They occur over the ocean.

Having lived in both the deep south and the midwest, I have a pretty good grasp on what tornado season is like in both places and would tell you there's absolutely no comparison.

On a side note, since one of the previous posters went on to give their testimony about tornadoes in the south not being seen because they're hidden in the mountains and yada, yada… The majority of tornadoes that occur in the south don't occur in the mountainous regions of the south. So that's another myth debunked.

Well said.
Thanks.

[An Einnseanair]

Check out the maps here: These U.S. Cities Are the Safest Refuges From Natural Disasters - CityLab

On the tornado map, Mississippi and Alabama appear (to me) to have a denser pattern of tornado tracks than the plains, but maybe I'm biased.

[Pastrami]

Tornado History Project: Maps and Statistics