Interesting Statistics...
* We all know how active this Spring has been in east Mississippi and west Alabama. Here's an e-mail I received from Jeff Craven, the Science and Operations Officer at the National Weather Service in Jackson:As you know, it has been an active Spring for severe weather and especially hail in the Jackson County Warning Area (CWA). Attached is a comparison of Golfball (1.75") and larger hail events in the current Jackson CWA since 1955. Obviously, since the mid 1970s, we've been better at receiving and documenting severe weather reports.
Nonetheless, the numbers show that we nearly doubled our previous maximum for combined March and April hail reports of at least Golfball size. The previous maximum was 43 events in 1996, and we had about 82 in March/April 2005.
* Wild times!
posted by WTOK Weather Staff @ 9:57 PM
1 Comments:
May 6, 1975: Omaha won't forget
BY RHONDA STANSBERRY
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
On Thursday night, Ken Vrana asked others at his homeowner's association meeting if they remembered what Friday marked.
After a long pause, one member figured it out - it's the anniversary of the tornado.
THE tornado.
With each major anniversary of the storm, Omahans remember the powerful tornado that ripped through the city's midsection on May 6, 1975.
Because the city hasn't experienced anything close to that tornado since then, meteorologists worry that a generation of Omahans might not understand the devastation a twister can bring.
Top tornado states
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
States with the most tornadoes,
1950-2004:
1. Texas
2. Oklahoma
3. Florida
4. Kansas
5. Nebraska
6. Iowa
7. Missouri
8. Illinois
9. South Dakota
10. Louisiana
Source: National Weather Service
The tornado's winds of more than 200 mph tore out a nine-mile-long section of Omaha, killing three people and injuring hundreds.
The path was roughly from southwest to northeast, with a turn due north: 96th and Q Streets to 72nd Street and Ames Avenue.
Costs ran into the hundreds of millions, as structures were severely damaged or destroyed, including more than 570 homes, two schools and 55 businesses.
The tornado hit at 4:29 p.m. All the classic signs were present, weather experts said afterward. The air was unusually warm and moist, and a cold air mass was moving in rapidly on top of it. Meteorologists say a tornado of that magnitude could happen again.
Among the states, Nebraska ranks No. 5 - and Iowa No. 6 - for the number of tornadoes recorded since 1950.
Last year, Nebraska saw 110 tornadoes, the highest annual count for the state. The average for the state is 52.
In 1999, the state saw the second-highest number: 102. May and June are peak tornado months.
The concern of meteorologists today is that Omaha is a bigger target than it was in 1975. And it's still at the northern edge of what has become known as "tornado alley," where there's a high number of tornadoes.
Each of the past three years spawned devastating tornadoes - in Hallam in 2004, Coleridge in 2003 and Seward in 2002.
Glenn Meyer knows what a tornado can bring. He still has his reminder of the 1975 tornado - the "dent" in his back from the I-beam that fell on him and his son.
Meyer had rushed home from Union Pacific that day to check on his boys. As the warning sirens continued, Meyer and his boys ran to a neighbor's basement. In what Meyer estimates was two minutes, the tornado had come and gone.
"There was a horrendous noise before, and a complete vacuum after," Meyer said.
When they looked up from the basement, the house - all but the I-beam that crashed onto Meyer - was gone, blown away. Five others in their Westgate neighborhood, including the Meyer house, were destroyed.
World-Herald staff librarian Jeanne Hauser contributed to this report.
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