First killer tornado of the year.

[Chris Sokol]

Reports of 2 deaths and numerous injuries in southern Arkansas:

Severe Weather Damage - Thu., January 13th
Two people have died and more than a dozen are injured this morning after a possible tornado hit Union County last night.

http://www.region10.com/

 

[Doug Lee]

Bummer.

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

Originally posted by Chris Sokol
Reports of 2 deaths and numerous injuries in southern Arkansas:

Severe Weather Damage - Thu., January 13th
Two people have died and more than a dozen are injured this morning after a possible tornado hit Union County last night.

http://www.region10.com/

Mother nature making up for our lack of summer in 2004 by giving us an early spring in 2005?

 

[Bryce Stone]

You really hate to see that. It wasn't until April last year when we had the first tornado death.

Interestingly, SPC is saying they have a report of a quarter-mile wide damage path which is 18 miles long (on a different tornado from the same day). Depending on what was in the path, we may have had our first significant tornado this year. There is a remote chance that the F5 drought has been broken. Does anyone know if there has ever been an F5 in January?

 

[mikegeukes]

Does anyone know if there has ever been an F5 in January?

Using NWS climatology 1950-2004. There has been no F5 tornadoes in the month of January.

 

[Kevin Statler2]

Looks like 2 more tornado deaths today...



2300 2 S ARLINGTON EARLY GA 3141 8473 *** 2 FATAL, 5 INJ *** POSSIBLE TORNADO. THREE HOMES DESTROYED. ONE WAS A MOBILE HOME WITH TWO FATALITIES AND THREE INJURIES. TWO OTHER PEOPLE WERE INJURED. (TAE)

 

[mikegeukes]

Little Rock TV Stations:
http://www.kark.com/news/default.asp?mode=...hownews&id=3973
http://www.katv.com/news/stories/0105/200122.html
http://www.klrt.com/news/local/story.aspx?...AB-88EB4C91DBE1
http://www.todaysthv.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=14136

Shreveport TV Stations:
http://www.ktbs.com/news-detail.html?cityi...yid=1&hid=25407

NWS Shreveport:
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/shv/January_12_200..._PNS_Storms.htm

Mike

 

[Bryce Stone]

I suppose that settles it then. Just an F3. It's pretty bad that we're only two weeks into January and already there have been 4 tornado deaths, though. Hope this is an aberration and not a trend for this year.

 

[Matthew Havin]

Here are pics from the 18 mile track tornado in southern Missouri....
put out by SGF NWS.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/sgf/Events/2005_ja.../pictures.shtml

 

[Craig Maire II]

2005 tornados

I wonder if anyone was able to get video footage/pictures of any of the tornados that hit southern Missouri, Arkansas, South Carolina, etc.??

 

[Andy Wehrle]

I doubt it. The tornadoes were embedded in a squall line (meaning probably rain-wrapped all to h***) and most of them happened while it was dark (overnight or early morning).

These factors seem to contribute to the deadly history of lower MS Valley/Southeastern US tornadoes. The combination of rain-wrapping, occurring in the fall, winter or very early spring (when it's more likely that it'll be dark when they hit) , and the relative prevelance of mobile homes in the region are the probable reasons that tornadoes seem to kill people more often in that region (even if they occur just as or more frequently in other regions).

 

[Jimmy Deguara]

Good point there Andy and perhaps the fact that those times of year the storms and associated tornadoes are often faster moving decreasing the lee time perhaps. What are people's thoughts?

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

 

[Thomas Loades]

I think that it wouldn't just be the fast movement that would make it harder to get warnings out; if the tornadoes are in a squall line, then it would be harder to get any sort of distinctive radar fix on a meso/tornado within that line — also, to confirm the presence of either a wall cloud or a tornado one would have to rely on spotters, whose job would be hindered by the darkness, the precip obscuring whatever tornadic features there are, and the speed of the system (making it even harder to try and see a funnel by lightning).