Twisters Wreak Havoc Across U.S.: An Early, Violent Start to Tornado Season

Twister Slams Same Area Hit by Killer Storm in '11

In what may be the biggest daily tornado outbreak on record for March, an entire month's worth of twisters struck in a single day.

March 4, 2012

AP - Cody Stewart is done owning a home for a little while. He has lost his house to tornadoes twice in 10 months.

A killer twister wiped out his neighborhood in the epic Alabama storms April 27, causing Stewart $40,000 worth of damage that forced him to temporarily move in with his parents. In his house for less than two months with repairs still incomplete, another tornado hit again Friday, ripping off the roof, slinging it into the backyard and leaving the walls bowed outward.

This time, the damage is beyond repair.

"I kind of expected there to be more storms again this year, but you never expect it to hit the same place twice," Stewart said Saturday as he stood in what remains of his wood-frame home. "I think I'm going to live in an apartment awhile. I'm not superstitious, but it just kind of seems there's a path here and I don't want to be in it again, and I hope other people make the same choice."

While scattered damage was reported elsewhere, the worst destruction was in Limestone and Madison counties, where 190 homes were damaged or destroyed.

The damage included nearly every house in Stewart's neighborhood on Yarbrough Road, located in the Tennessee Valley about 15 miles northwest of Huntsville.

The storms were not as deadly in Alabama this time. Nearly 200 miles south of Harvest, which is near the Tennessee state line, one person was killed in the Tallapoosa County community of Jackson's Gap. Last year, twisters cut a wide path of destruction across the region, killing about 250 people statewide, including at least two near where Stewart lived.

Dozens of homes were damaged or destroyed a year ago in his neighborhood, which was left looking like logging crews had come through because all of the trees were snapped and tossed to the ground.

The twister Friday was smaller and didn't cause any serious injuries, but it hit homes where people were still recovering.

Across the street from Stewart, Jason Kerr and his wife lost their home to the April 27 twister but weren't injured. Kerr had just finished demolishing the house, rebuilding the garage and hauling in $5,000 worth of dirt for a new foundation when the latest storm stuck. Their brand new garage was damaged, and they might not be able to repair it.

Kerr dreads again dealing with insurance companies that he said seem to pinch every dollar.

"It makes it hard for the people on the ground who have lost everything," he said. "It's a difficult time for everybody."

That includes James and Judy Hodges, who live up the street on the corner. They just finished $65,000 in repairs to their home and moved back in; now the house looks it was hit with a giant ax that flayed open the roof and ripped off the front of the structure.

"Time to rebuild again," she said as church volunteers helped clear away debris and pick up belongings scattered through the yard.

Longtime residents talk about the 1974 tornado outbreak that wiped out hundreds of homes, killed nearly 90 people and injured about 950 people in north Alabama. Stewart remembers a twister in the early '90s, when he was still a boy. The repeated bashings have left people feeling short on luck, at the very least.

As Stewart left home Friday to drive to work at a tech company in Huntsville, something felt eerie. Forecasters had been warning of the chance of severe weather for days, and he said it was too warm for early March; the sky looked too gray.

"It was just that sick feeling in your stomach," he said. "It was like, 'It feels familiar.'"

Now, with Yarbrough Road hit twice in such a short period, Stewart said nothing will ever be the same there.

"It's time to move on," he said.

An Early, Violent Start to Tornado Season

March 3, 2012

Star Tribune - Last year an incredible 1,709 tornadoes were reported across the USA, according to SPC. Last year tornado season came on strong during late February, peaking in April and May.

By comparison 2012 brought more tornadoes earlier [120 total, 50 percent more than normal], and many meteorologists I respect believe 2012 could set a new record for tornadoes, at the rate we're going.

La Nina springs tend to be severe, stronger jet stream winds howling overhead, more wind shear available to spin up the rotating "supercell" storms that can go on to spin up tornadoes. There is a strong, statistical correlation between La Nina ENSO phases and more tornadoes downwind over the lower 48 states.

There's little doubt that we are on track for another very violent spring across the USA. I have a semi-educated hunch that Minnesota's severe storm season will arrive a few weeks earlier than usual, and be rougher than average, based on La Nina (which is weakening, but not quite fast enough to avoid a serious uptick in severe storms nationwide). The trends are undeniable - it's probably going to be another crazy severe storm season in Minnesota.

USA Tornado Count (courtesy of SPC)

2012: 211 (preliminary)

2011: 1709

2010: 1282

See graphs

Why So Many Tornadoes Are Striking the US

March 3, 2012

Live Science - A warm spell and a low-dipping jet stream are fueling the monster storms that are spawning tornadoes today across a wide swath of the country, weather experts said.

Today, the Storm Prediction Center has received 311 reports of severe weather, including 48 reported tornadoes and a few reported fatalities. This massive storm system also spawned deadly tornadoes on Leap Day, which raked Kansas, Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee. The severe storms killed at least 12 people and included a strong EF-4 twister in Harrisburg, Ill., a rarity for February.

As of this morning, the severe storm risk area covered an estimated 162 million people, or 56 percent of the United States, according to weather experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

While the main tornado season runs from spring to early summer, this year's early outbreaks show that tornadoes can form under a variety of conditions and strike during fall and winter, too. This year's mild winter and warm start to meteorological spring has upped the risk of dangerous storms.

Indiana Town 'Gone' After Deadly Twister

AP - Powerful storms stretching from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes wrecked two small Indiana towns, killed at least three people and bred anxiety across a wide swath of the country in the second deadly tornado outbreak this week.

Authorities reported the three deaths in southern Indiana, where Marysville was leveled and nearby Henryville also suffered extreme damage. Each is home to about 2,000 people.

"Marysville is completely gone," said Clark County Sheriff's Department Maj. Chuck Adams.

Aerial footage from a TV news helicopter flying over Henryville showed numerous wrecked houses, some with their roofs torn off and many surrounded by debris. The video shot by WLKY in Louisville, Ky., also shows tractor-trailers tossed on their side at a truck stop.

An Associated Press photographer in Henryville said the high school was destroyed and the second floor had been ripped off the middle school next door. Firefighters were searching through the ground floor of the middle school for possible victims.

The rural town about 45 miles north of Louisville is the home of Indiana's oldest state forest and the birthplace of Kentucky Fried Chicken Founder Col. Harlan Sanders.

The threat of tornadoes was expected to last until late Friday for parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana and Ohio. Forecasters at the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Oklahoma said the massive band of storms was putting 10 million people in several states at high risk of severe weather.

"Maybe five times a year we issue what is kind of the highest risk level for us at the Storm Prediction Center," forecaster Corey Mead said. "This is one of those days."

Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport was closed briefly because of debris on the runways. By late afternoon, one of three runways had reopened.

The outbreak was also causing problems in states to south, including Alabama and Tennessee where dozens of houses were damaged. It comes two days after an earlier round of storms killed 13 people in the Midwest and South.

At least 20 homes were badly damaged and six people were hospitalized in the Chattanooga, Tenn., area after strong winds and hail lashed the area. To the east in Cleveland, Blaine Lawson and his wife Billie were watching the weather when the power went out. Just as they began to seek shelter, strong winds ripped the roof off their home. Neither was hurt.

"It just hit all at once," said Blaine Lawson, 76. "Didn't have no warning really. The roof, insulation and everything started coming down on us. It just happened so fast that I didn't know what to do. I was going to head to the closet but there was just no way. It just got us."

Thousands of schoolchildren in several states were sent home as a precaution, and several Kentucky universities were closed. The Huntsville, Ala., mayor said students in area schools sheltered in hallways as severe weather passed in the morning.

"Most of the children were in schools so they were in the hallways so it worked out very well," said Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle.

Five people were taken to area hospitals, and several houses were leveled.

An apparent tornado also damaged a state maximum security prison about 10 miles from Huntsville, but none of the facility's approximately 2,100 inmates escaped. Alabama Department of Corrections spokesman Brian Corbett said there were no reports of injuries, but the roof was damaged on two large prison dormitories that each hold about 250 men. Part of the perimeter fence was knocked down, but the prison was secure.

"It was reported you could see the sky through the roof of one of them," Corbett said.

For residents and emergency officials across the state, tornado precautions and cleanup are part of a sadly familiar routine. A tornado outbreak last April killed about 250 people around the state, with the worst damage in Tuscaloosa to the south.

The Storm Prediction Center's Mead said a powerful storm system was interacting with humid, unstable air that was streaming north from the Gulf of Mexico.

"The environment just becomes more unstable and provides the fuel for the thunderstorms," Mead said.

Schools sent students home early or cancelled classes entirely in states including Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky and Indiana. In Alabama alone, more than 20 school systems dismissed classes early Friday. The University of Kentucky, the University of Louisville and several other colleges in the state also canceled classes.

At least 10 homes were damaged in one subdivision in Athens, Ala. It wasn't immediately clear how many houses were damaged overall in the area. Homeowner Bill Adams watched as two men ripped shingles off the roof of a house he rents out, and he fretted about predictions that more storms would pass through.

"Hopefully they can at least get a tarp on it before it starts again," he said.

Not far away, the damage was much worse for retired high school band director Stanley Nelson. Winds peeled off his garage door and about a third of his roof, making rafters and boxes in his attic visible from the street.

"It's like it just exploded," he said.

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