tornadoes (Madison, Stoughton, Lancaster: environment, house, college)

[perhapsmad]

Hi,

I was raised in NYC and currently live in Northern NJ. I like where I live however the quality of life is difficult to maintain here due to a rise in the cost of living.
I have heard so many great things about the city of Madison and I am considering moving there however I am concerned about tornado activity. I have heard that Madison has alot of tornado activity. Is this true? How do residents handle this?

[politikally]

Originally Posted by perhapsmad

Hi,

I was raised in NYC and currently live in Northern NJ. I like where I live however the quality of life is difficult to maintain here due to a rise in the cost of living.
I have heard so many great things about the city of Madison and I am considering moving there however I am concerned about tornado activity. I have heard that Madison has alot of tornado activity. Is this true? How do residents handle this?

Hello perhapsmad...

I've been a lifelong resident of the Upper Midwest, particularly Wisconsin and Minnesota. Tornados are just something that happen

Depending on the year Wisconsin will see anywhere from 10 to 80 tornados (I got the last stat from the national weather service).

I've been through a few tornados. They're not something to be especially concerned about. 98% of the time there's plenty of warning, and most people will go out on their decks and watch the sky for the funnels or waterspouts if you are in a flat area or near a lake. Most towns have tornado sirens which will sound and wake you up or warn you if one is nearby. In the smalltown I lived in growing up they test the siren at noon everyday, so you knew if you ever heard it outside of noon there was either a bad thunderstorm with tornados or a nuclear war was on the way

Very rarely do tornados kill anyone, generally it has to be an F3 (Fujita Scale is what the use to measure a tornado F0-F5, 5 being the worse) or above AND the tornado will usually strike at night when people are sleeping. Plus it's not the tornado that kills people - it's the crap flying through the air or falling trees.

Generally speaking the odds of getting killed by tornado are probably about as good as dying in a plane crash. It's not something I would concern myself with as part of your move here.

I'd be more worried about the temperature out here than the tornados my friend

Have a good one.

[montyc]

Tornados in the city? No. Lived here all my life and have never heard of one in the city limits. Some outlying areas, yes. Only thing we have occasionally is strong winds.

[perhapsmad]

Thanks for your response to my question.

[TaraMoon]

Wisconsin has lots of tornadoes beginning in May and probably peaking in June but continuing all summer. Most never touch ground and of those that due, the destruction is limited to small area but is still devastating in that area. A tornado can take a house on one side of the street and not touch any house on the other side of the street. And a few tornadoes are huge and terribly destructive. But the reality is that every state has some sort of natural disaster tendency. Just get a house with a basement: absolutely essential. Learn what to do if there is a tornado. Generally, people respond to early season tornado warnings by taking shelter. By the end of the summer, the siren has gone off so many times people foolishly ignore them. Tornadoes do hit cities. Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota get hit on a regular basis.

[politikally]

Originally Posted by TaraMoon

Wisconsin has lots of tornadoes beginning in May and probably peaking in June but continuing all summer. Most never touch ground and of those that due, the destruction is limited to small area but is still devastating in that area. A tornado can take a house on one side of the street and not touch any house on the other side of the street. And a few tornadoes are huge and terribly destructive. But the reality is that every state has some sort of natural disaster tendency. Just get a house with a basement: absolutely essential. Learn what to do if there is a tornado. Generally, people respond to early season tornado warnings by taking shelter. By the end of the summer, the siren has gone off so many times people foolishly ignore them. Tornadoes do hit cities. Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota get hit on a regular basis.

LOL. The Twin Cities Proper haven't seen a tornado in YEARS... while they do happen the only one I could find on google was from 1965.

As for the sirens... they don't go off all the time. Tara must live in an area where the people operating those sirens are idiots frankly. Whenever I've ever heard the sirens, myself and everyone around me heed them.

Tornados are something that happen in the Midwest. Cities especially downtown areas can see them but can be protected by the heat island effect that cities have. Not to mention the geographical features of the area can help make tornados scarce. Generally you'll have plenty of warning. Just be vigilant and you'll be fine.

[Chelito23]

I think you asked a very pointed question. I majored in Meteorology in college and grew up in Madison, so I would like to clear up some of the misinformation that has been shared up until now.

Tornadoes are relatively rare. With that said, they tend to ocurr with a relatively high frequency in the Midwest United States. Wisconsin's tornado season typically runs from May through September, but there have been isolated tornadoes in most months excluding January.


MYTYH: Urban environments and cities reflect tornadoes. NOT TRUE.

The so called heat island plays no roll in tornado formation or dynamics. The upper atmosphere conditions that generate and affect tornadic conditions(steering or strength) take place up to 8 kilometers above the ground. An increase in temperature experienced by a tornado would, if anything, add more fuel to the storm complex.

Since tornadoes are usually small (average size is below half a mile in circu****ence), the geographical area that is affected and or damaged by the tornado is usually very confined. There is an equal chance of a tornado ocurring at any given location in Madison versus a corn field or trail park 20 miles south of the city limits. Since there is more rural, undevelpoed land in the Midwest, it only stands to reason that more tornadoes ocurr in rural areas, since there is more rural land versus urban areas, proportinally.

A previous poster pointed out that the sirens go off quite a bit over the warmer months, and many people heed little warning to them by the end of the season. To shed some light on this, every time a tornado warning is issued in Dane County (where Madison is located), the tornado sirens will go off county-wide in an over abundance of caution, since tornadoes are unpredictable and it is best to error on the side of caution. In fact, many times the sirens went off during my childhood while there was no sign of a storm in the sky. Keep in mind, the county is approximately the size of the state of Rhode Island...so it may be storming in another location and you could be high and dry.

Now, do people have false warning fatigue? That is a personal question, that everyone will answer based on their own experiences. To emergency management organiazations as well as the National Weather Service (NWS), the answer is: warning times have been increased to give more people more time to protect themselves, and false warnings numbers are actually down. None the less, many times when a funnel cloud has been detected on radar, or merely spotted in the field, a tornado warinng will generally be issued. This means that a tornado may be forming...therefore the the sirens will also go off.

In a nutshell, you will ultimately hear sirens somewhat often, if not for the fact that they are tested the at noon the first Wednesday of every month, but for the fact that the NWS errors on the side of caution. Remember that, despite tornadoes ocurring in a very small area, the warnings cannot be as specific and are thus generalized. This means that you should take cover when you hear the sirens regardless and not be lulled into a false sense of secuity.

Local Madison myth: The lakes protect the city, and tornadoes tend to skip over the city.

NOT TRUE! Lakes have no effect on tornadoes, they actually become waterspouts at that point. There is much footage of tornadoes traversing lakes on the internet. As a matter of fact, there was a devasting tornado in a suburban community south of Madison a couple of years ago that crossed a lake...I believe that was in Stoughton and Lake Kegonsa.

Finally, most structures here have basements where one should go in the event of a tornado. Keep emergency supplies ready just as you would prepare for any other disaster. The local media here puts a high priority on severer weather, so you would have to cocoon yourself to not be aware of extreme weather conditions here. I am sure you will be fine...we all have lived here, and we're still here to tell about it. Good luck on your move.

[Chelito23]

Just re-read your post after I posted my original response. To add to my original reply, Madison is located in one of the counties with the highest average number of tornadoes on an anual basis. Keek in mind, this number is still relatively low.

Also, to give you some personal experience...my parents, who live on the near west side, said there was a minor F0 tornado a year or two ago...downed trees and signs in the Tokay Blvd area for anyone who remebers that incident. Also, geeze, 15 or 20 years ago there was a tornado on the far east side at a car dealership called John Lancaster. If you mention those two incidents to people in Madison, they could probablly give you some more details about each event. Those are the only "in the city" tornadoes that I am aware of...in my lifetime. However, Dane County has an active tornado past and the area has grown leaps and bounds...so watch out for compalcency and that false sense of security that many "lifelong residents" will give you...

[AMJD12131987]

Originally Posted by politikally

Not to mention the geographical features of the area can help make tornados scarce. Generally you'll have plenty of warning.

Geographical features can have little effect on a tornado: mountains, hills, valleys will not stop a tornado from developing. With the warning part...many weaker tornadoes (F0, F1) come with little warning as spin ups occur rather fast, but they can also dissipate quickly leaving doppler radar little chance to catch whats going on (re: Rogers,MN). The time it takes for the NWS radars to scan is approx. 5 minutes depending what mode it is in and within that time frame many things can happen.