UPDATE 4-Indiana tornado kills 23, injures at least 220

[skooooo]

http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2005-11-06T215416Z_01_N06462253_RTRIDST_0_WEATHER-TORNADO-INDIANA-UPDATE-4-PICTURE.XML


Officials said the death toll would likely climb as rescue workers picked through rubble in house-to-house searches and scoured farm lands. About 130 Indiana National Guard troops were called in to assist in recovery efforts and to help provide security and clean up debris.

At least two people were found dead in a soybean field in Warrick County, according to the Newburgh fire department.

The Eastbrooke mobile home park in Evansville was one of the places hardest hit when the storm struck well before dawn. Many homes there were reduced to twisted piles of metal that lay mixed with the remains of downed trees, smashed cars, and other debris.

In one trailer home, rescue workers found a young mother alive, but her husband and daughter dead and her two-year-old missing, said Eric Williams, chief deputy of the sheriff's department in Vanderburgh County.

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Tornado in November?

Since when is November tornado season?

[greekspeak]

2. When you live on the fringes of the Midwest, tornados happen any time

I lived in Springfield Missouri, and I can remember damaging tornados in both November and December. I think there was one nearby in January too once. Certainly March, April and May are much more likely months. But with the warm southern air and cold northern air playing war overhead, anything can happen at any time.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. I have lived my entire life in the middle of tornado alley

and I don't remember any tornadoes in November. I am not disputing what you are saying, just that they haven't happened here in KC.

I am wondering if global warming has something to do with the tornado today.

[Tess49]

6. They happen here in Oklahoma in Oct and Nov. Some years it is

almost like a second mini season.

[AngryOldDem]

14. It is a second season

Just as there is a clash of air masses as spring approaches, so it is when late fall comes around, especially if the Indian Summer has been really mild, as it has been in Indiana and Ohio this week.

In Ohio it's become fairly common to have a mini-outbreak of tornadoes (mainly north of where I live) in November. Some of our worst storms (like the Van Wert twister a few years back) tend to hit a week or so before Thanksgiving. Again, it depends on how warm it gets.

[Catch22Dem]

10. Some notable late season tornadoes

http://www.tornadoproject.com/past/pastts.htm

November 23, 2004
A two-day outbreak of mostly small tornadoes struck the southern United States on November 23rd and 24th. On the 23rd, a 77-year-old woman was killed when her trailer was destroyed, 5 miles north of Silsbee, Hardin County, Texas. A few hours later, the worst tornado of the outbreak destroyed the small town of Olla, LaSalle Parish, Louisiana. More than a hundred homes were damaged or destroyed, and an 89-year-old woman lost her life in one of them. On the 24th, a tree crushed a mobile home at Bynum, Calhoun County, Alabama. Another early morning tornado caused a death 15 miles southeast of Louisville, Winston County, Mississippi.

November 10, 2002 8:30 PM CST
An intense tornado or family of tornadoes cut a swath across Cumberland and Morgan Counties in Tennessee. Four people died near Crossville in Cumberland County as home were destroyed in several small communities. Mossy Grove, Morgan County, 40 miles west of Knoxville, was devastated. More than half of the two dozen homes were reduced to piles of rubble. At least 7 people were killed there, and 28 were injured. Two others died near Petros.

December 18, 2002 4:35 PM CST
Between Hamlet and Enola, Faulkner County, Arkansas, an 84-year-old woman was carried 800 feet to her death as a tornado struck her mobile home. A total of 13 people were injured as homes were detroyed along Route 36. The next day, a tornado ripped through the town of Newton, Mississippi, tearing apart a Wal-Mart store. About 50 people were injured.

November 24, 2001 5:20 AM CST
A violent tornado(F4) destroyed about 50 homes in the Fairfield subdivision of Madison, in Madison County, Mississippi. Madison is a suburb of Jackson. Two people were killed, and at least 21 injured, several critically. A 25-year-old woman, visiting her parents for Thanksgiving, was killed in the destruction of a frame home. In another home, a pregnant woman was critically injured. Her infant son was delivered by emergency c-section, but the newborn infant died soon after.

November 26, 2001 11:29 PM CST
An intense tornado struck just southeast of Paris, Henry County, Tennessee just before midnight. At least a dozen homes were destroyed. One woman was killed when her mobile home was ripped apart. Seven other people were injured in other homes, both frame and mobile.

December 16, 2000 12:54 PM
A tornado rated at F4 cut a path about 18 miles long and up to about a half mile wide across the southern edge of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Most of the 11 deaths were in the sprawling Bear Creek Road Trailer Park, where mobile homes were "blown to unrecognizable fragments." At least 75 people were injured, with 31 hospitalized, 4 of which were in critical condition. At least 300 homes were damaged or destroyed, including frame homes in Taylorwood and Woodland Forest subdivisions. The tornado moved forward at about 60 mph.

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. Wow I had no idea

Thanks.

[Catch22Dem]

13. Not a problem

I was kinda curious myself, so I went digging around. I know we've had a few oddly timed tornadoes here in Oklahoma in the past, but I was wondering what an overall picture might look like.

[barb162]

15. We got an inch of rain last night from the same storm system

We really needed it. WHat I noticed was that at midnight it was about 60 and very humid and with no wind. It was warmer than during the day. Then the lightning started very quickly and then the rain and wind. There was basically no damage in my area. After the storm passed it dropped about 15 degrees very fast.

[greekspeak]

21. Maybe you are just too far north?

I am not sure. I left Springfield in mid-2003 after the storm that totalled Stockton, Pierce City, and large amounts of Battlefiled. The last tornado before that had been in early December. A storm hit a trailer park and killed someone. It was VERY warm that day. More like May than December. I was at a restaurant that night with friends and they came by and told us to be ready to go to shelter, as there was a tornado warning. We all thought it was crazy. But these things do happen.

[Tom_Foolery]

8. We had a tornado in my town in January 2000...

and we are just across the Ohio River from where this storm hit last night.

[BiggJawn]

16. A church in Indy was flattened on Thanksgiving morning several years ago.

Since when can you run around in shirtsleeves on November 5th in Northern Indiana, too.

Very strange weather this summer. Very hot and dry from Memorial day to about mid-October, then we started having the kind of wether we had in late September 40 years ago.
This past week, I've had my windows open and the furnace has run 5 minutes all fall.

Very strange weather.

[thinkingwoman]

24. The seasons have been strange

for about a decade now in Southern Indiana. I notice every year that the weather and the months just seem off.

Springs are later, cooler, and wetter than they were when I was a kid (I'm 40 now). Summer starts a little later and the heat lasts through September.

October is what September used to be and the leaves don't really turn right until right at or just after Halloween. When I was a kid, most of the leaves were off the trees by Halloween. This year there were still some trees full of green leaves by then.

November--severe weather 2nd season as another poster described.

December like old November, and what is it with that weird Summer in January thaw we've been getting for the last few years? Playing fetch with our lab in short sleeves in January should NOT be the norm in Indiana!

Sorry if I'm rambling. But I'm noticing a pattern with the weather and it's even more weird because the weather people keep acting like nothing is wrong. :eyes:

[daleo]

4. Sounds like a bad one

They can do an amazing amount of damage in a short time. My city was hit by one in 1987, with similar results. Trailer parks are bad places to be.

[montana_hazeleyes]

17. tragedy

This is a terrible tragedy and I'm asking this question not to be silly but I wonder why is it so often trailer parks that are hit?

Is this the main kind of housing in these areas most hit? I just really don't know the answer.

[daleo]

20. It is a good question.

First off, they are just very vulnerable, so when they are hit there is huge damage. So, a wind that might not be too damaging in a neighborhood of permanent brick homes will tear up mobile homes.

Second, tornadoes often track along certain linear physical features, or so I have read. For example, they sometimes follow utility corridors (e.g. power lines) or creeks. These often aren't the most desirable places to live (people with higher incomes usually don't want to live near power lines, for example), so land values are lower and they can be zoned for mobile home parks. So, that can be another cause.

That's about all I have heard on the subject.

On edit: Here's what an Environment Canada site says:

Myth: Tornadoes are attracted to mobile homes and trailer parks.
Fact: Mobile homes are not more likely to be hit by a tornado but they are more vulnerable to damage because of their construction.

http://www.pnr-rpn.ec.gc.ca/air/summersevere/ae00s26.en.html

Here is something about whether tornadoes follow rivers, etc:

30. Is it true that tornadoes avoid (follow) rivers (or other topographic features)?
In many locations around the world, it's widely believed that tornadoes are deflected by such things as rivers, hills, or other topographic features. Although there are good reasons to believe that tornadoes are indeed influenced by topographic features, it's also true that there have been notable exceptions to the local mythology about tornadoes being deflected by such things. For example, it was accepted for a long time that Topeka, Kansas was protected by a hill called Burnett's Mound to the southwest of town ... this idea may have had its origins in Native American legends. However, on 08 June 1966, a violent tornado went directly over Burnett's Mound on its way into Topeka! So much for that legend! During the 03-04 April 1974 tornado outbreak, a violent tornado apparently went right up the side of a 3,000 foot mountain and then right down the other side, all without any break or diminution in damage along its path. It seems that for violent tornadoes, at least, "obstacles" like hills and rivers mean virtually nothing.

Most significant tornadoes are thousands of feet tall, so that it seems unlikely to me that minor bumps in the terrain, or a river valley is going to have all that much of an effect on such a tornado. However, this is not to say that topographic effects are completely negligible. There is evidence that alterations in the low-level winds by topographic features may make tornadoes more or less likely in a given weather situation, or might nudge the tornado path one way or another. Based on available evidence, such effects seem most likely in cases where the tornado is not a violent one. This has not been studied to the point where it is possible to offer a strong conclusion ... but it seems very unwise to count on the efficacy of some topographic feature to protect you and your property from a tornado.

http://www.cimms.ou.edu/~doswell/ChasFAQ.html

[montana_hazeleyes]

23. Thanks

Thanks for the good information and research daleo.

I've lived my whole life in S.F. Bay Area where of course we have our 'quakes but I've always thought tornadoes are the most frightening of nature's fury.

[pansypoo53219]

5. weather was freaky yesterday

thunderstorms in wisconsin and not very warm. so i imagine where it was awarm, it was unusual as well.

[ananda]

7. God, it's global warming, stupid!

Global warming..

That's about it. Strange and extreme weather patterns from now on.

[Catch22Dem]

11. Are you calling pansypoo stupid?

Surely not.

[magdalena]

22. yes, freaky indeed

I'm in Wisconsin and I left to go out for the night with downpour, thunder and lightning...coming back home in the morning there was snowfall. I've lived here my whole life and don't really remember anything this bizarre.

[jody]

9. A fascinating Tornado site below.

Killer tornadoes that have taken place in the US since 1995

and THE SPC TORNADO/SEVERE THUNDERSTORM DATABASE shows

[halsaxby]

18. According to Fox...

the tornado was due to excessive atmospheric pressure differentials that were original generated by Clinton's hummer back in the late 1990s.

[ninkasi]

19. I learned about tornadoes in the early 50s

My dad was born in Searcy, Ark., and grew up in Judsonia. In 1952, I think it was, he got a call from a relative that some of his family members had died in a tornado that ripped through Judsonia. I remember that after the call, he packed, and must have driven all night to get to his family.

Because this was a long time ago, I might not have the name right, but if memory serves, his favorite aunt, Georgia Young, was killed in that tornado. I don't remember how many other family members might have been killed, but he always told me that she was one of the finest women he ever knew. My daughter is named after his Aunt Georgia.