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Source-LiveScience.com
Why So Many Tornadoes Are Striking the US
By Brett Israel | LiveScience.com - 4 hrs ago
A warm spell and a low-dipping jet stream are fueling the monster storms that are spawning tornadoes across a wide swath of the country, weather experts said.
The Storm Prediction Center received 311 reports of severe weather Friday, 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.
"We've been in a very warm pattern all winter," said meteorologist Mark Rose of the National Weather Service in Birmingham, Ala. "Because it has been so mild, it increases our chances for severe weather."
Also behind this week's twisters is a low-dipping jet stream. The jet stream is moving at a blistering pace today across the Mid-South and Ohio River Valley. NOAA satellites clocked the jet stream at 150 mph (241 kph) across these regions. The jet stream is bringing cold air from Canada to mix with the warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico. Where these two differing air masses meet is often an area of severe weather, hail, winds and even tornadoes. [Infographic: 2012's Active Tornado Season]
The warm air and rapid jet stream will keep fueling the storms into the weekend, according to NOAA. Weather experts continue to warn that dangerous tornado outbreaks could explode across the Mid- and Deep South and Ohio River Valley.
"We actually are looking at a risk from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes to west of the Mississippi to the East Coast," Craig Fugate, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told the Weather Channel. "And these storms are moving fast."
You can follow OurAmazingPlanet staff writer Brett Israel on Twitter: @btisrael. Follow OurAmazingPlanet for the latest in Earth science and exploration news on Twitter @OAPlanet and on Facebook.
Extreme Tornado-Producing Storm Video From Space Tornado Damage from Above The Top 5 Deadliest Tornado Years in U.S. History
Source:LiveScience
Why So Many Tornadoes Are Striking the US
By Brett Israel | LiveScience.com - 4 hrs ago
A warm spell and a low-dipping jet stream are fueling the monster storms that are spawning tornadoes across a wide swath of the country, weather experts said.
The Storm Prediction Center received 311 reports of severe weather Friday, 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.
"We've been in a very warm pattern all winter," said meteorologist Mark Rose of the National Weather Service in Birmingham, Ala. "Because it has been so mild, it increases our chances for severe weather."
Also behind this week's twisters is a low-dipping jet stream. The jet stream is moving at a blistering pace today across the Mid-South and Ohio River Valley. NOAA satellites clocked the jet stream at 150 mph (241 kph) across these regions. The jet stream is bringing cold air from Canada to mix with the warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico. Where these two differing air masses meet is often an area of severe weather, hail, winds and even tornadoes. [Infographic: 2012's Active Tornado Season]
The warm air and rapid jet stream will keep fueling the storms into the weekend, according to NOAA. Weather experts continue to warn that dangerous tornado outbreaks could explode across the Mid- and Deep South and Ohio River Valley.
"We actually are looking at a risk from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes to west of the Mississippi to the East Coast," Craig Fugate, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told the Weather Channel. "And these storms are moving fast."
You can follow OurAmazingPlanet staff writer Brett Israel on Twitter: @btisrael. Follow OurAmazingPlanet for the latest in Earth science and exploration news on Twitter @OAPlanet and on Facebook.
Extreme Tornado-Producing Storm Video From Space Tornado Damage from Above The Top 5 Deadliest Tornado Years in U.S. History
Source:LiveScience
UK DAILY MAIL
Tornadoes have ravaged the South and Midwest, destroying homes, claiming lives and wiping one Indiana town of 1,900 residents entirely off the map.
Extensive and widespread damage has been reported by authorities in Henryville, southern Indiana, where trees were downed, school roofs were ripped off and one person was reportedly left dead.
The nearby town of Marysville is 'completely gone', according to Clark County Sheriff’s Department Major Chuck Adams, and multiple injuries have been reported.
Police said there have been seven deaths across Southern Indiana, with three in Jefferson County, just above the Kentucky border, and four further north in Ripley County, ABC News reported.
Yet scores of people are still unaccounted for in Henryville. Helicopter images show debris-littered homes flattened by the severe weather, while the roof was ripped from the town's middle school.
There were also reports of four deaths in Jefferson County, although it was not clear whether they were in Kentucky or Indiana, which both have counties of that name, WHAS reported.
Friday's tornadoes - which come two days after storms killed 13 people in the Midwest and South - were part of a series of at least 51 reported across seven states. It brings the week's total to 103.
Dozens of homes, businesses, schools and vehicles were flattened or damaged across Kentucky, Alabama and Tennessee on Friday.
Anxiety also mounted from Georgia to southern Ohio across a wide swath where forecasters said severe weather could hit later in the day.
Source- Googlenews service
Massive band of storms wrecks Ind. towns, kills 8
By DYLAN T. LOVAN, Associated Press – 10 minutes ago
HENRYVILLE, Ind. (AP) — Powerful storms stretching from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes wrecked two Indiana towns and killed at least eight people Friday as the system tore roofs off schools and homes, flattened a fire station, flipped over tractor-trailer trucks and damaged a maximum security prison. It was the second deadly tornado outbreak this week.
Authorities reported the eight 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 a mangled school bus protruding from the side of a one-story building and dozens of overturned semis strewn around the smashed remains of a truck stop.
An Associated Press reporter in Henryville said the high school was destroyed and the second floor had been ripped off the middle school next door. Classroom chairs were scattered on the ground outside, trees were uprooted and cars had huge dents from baseball-sized hail. Authorities said school was in session when the tornado hit, but there were only minor injuries there.
Afterward, volunteers pushed shopping carts full of water and food up the street and handed it out to people. The rural town about 20 miles north of Louisville is the home of Indiana's oldest state forest and the birthplace of Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Col. Harland Sanders.
Ernie Hall, 68, weathered the tornado inside his tiny home near the high school. Hall says he saw the twister coming down the road toward his house, whipping up debris in its path.
"I knew there was some bad weather out in the Midwest that was coming this way, but you don't count on a tornado hitting here that bad," he said.
He and his wife ran into an interior room and used a mattress to block the door as the tornado struck. It destroyed his car and blew out the picture window overlooking his porch.
"There was no mistaking what it was," he said.
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 dangerous 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 temporarily because of debris on the runways, but one of three runways had reopened by late afternoon. A fire station was flattened and several barns were toppled in northern Kentucky across the Ohio River from the badly damaged Indiana towns.
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 ripped off their foundation and eight people were injured 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 canceled 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.
In one subdivision in in Athens, Ala., damage was visible on 10 homes. 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.
Lovan reported from Henryville. Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Jim Suhr in Harrisburg, Ill., and Jeff Martin in Atlanta, Associated Press videojournalist Robert Ray in Cleveland, Tenn., and AP Radio's Shelley Adler in Washington
Massive Tornado Outbreak-Throughout the Midwestern/Southeastern United States.....70 Reported so far!
Tornadoes have ravaged the South and Midwest, destroying homes, claiming lives and wiping one Indiana town of 1,900 residents entirely off the map.
Extensive and widespread damage has been reported by authorities in Henryville, southern Indiana, where trees were downed, school roofs were ripped off and one person was reportedly left dead.
The nearby town of Marysville is 'completely gone', according to Clark County Sheriff’s Department Major Chuck Adams, and multiple injuries have been reported.
Police said there have been seven deaths across Southern Indiana, with three in Jefferson County, just above the Kentucky border, and four further north in Ripley County, ABC News reported.
Yet scores of people are still unaccounted for in Henryville. Helicopter images show debris-littered homes flattened by the severe weather, while the roof was ripped from the town's middle school.
There were also reports of four deaths in Jefferson County, although it was not clear whether they were in Kentucky or Indiana, which both have counties of that name, WHAS reported.
Friday's tornadoes - which come two days after storms killed 13 people in the Midwest and South - were part of a series of at least 51 reported across seven states. It brings the week's total to 103.
Dozens of homes, businesses, schools and vehicles were flattened or damaged across Kentucky, Alabama and Tennessee on Friday.
Anxiety also mounted from Georgia to southern Ohio across a wide swath where forecasters said severe weather could hit later in the day.
Source- Googlenews service
Massive band of storms wrecks Ind. towns, kills 8
By DYLAN T. LOVAN, Associated Press – 10 minutes ago
HENRYVILLE, Ind. (AP) — Powerful storms stretching from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes wrecked two Indiana towns and killed at least eight people Friday as the system tore roofs off schools and homes, flattened a fire station, flipped over tractor-trailer trucks and damaged a maximum security prison. It was the second deadly tornado outbreak this week.
Authorities reported the eight 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 a mangled school bus protruding from the side of a one-story building and dozens of overturned semis strewn around the smashed remains of a truck stop.
An Associated Press reporter in Henryville said the high school was destroyed and the second floor had been ripped off the middle school next door. Classroom chairs were scattered on the ground outside, trees were uprooted and cars had huge dents from baseball-sized hail. Authorities said school was in session when the tornado hit, but there were only minor injuries there.
Afterward, volunteers pushed shopping carts full of water and food up the street and handed it out to people. The rural town about 20 miles north of Louisville is the home of Indiana's oldest state forest and the birthplace of Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Col. Harland Sanders.
Ernie Hall, 68, weathered the tornado inside his tiny home near the high school. Hall says he saw the twister coming down the road toward his house, whipping up debris in its path.
"I knew there was some bad weather out in the Midwest that was coming this way, but you don't count on a tornado hitting here that bad," he said.
He and his wife ran into an interior room and used a mattress to block the door as the tornado struck. It destroyed his car and blew out the picture window overlooking his porch.
"There was no mistaking what it was," he said.
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 dangerous 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 temporarily because of debris on the runways, but one of three runways had reopened by late afternoon. A fire station was flattened and several barns were toppled in northern Kentucky across the Ohio River from the badly damaged Indiana towns.
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 ripped off their foundation and eight people were injured 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 canceled 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.
In one subdivision in in Athens, Ala., damage was visible on 10 homes. 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.
Lovan reported from Henryville. Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Jim Suhr in Harrisburg, Ill., and Jeff Martin in Atlanta, Associated Press videojournalist Robert Ray in Cleveland, Tenn., and AP Radio's Shelley Adler in Washington
Massive Tornado Outbreak-Throughout the Midwestern/Southeastern United States.....70 Reported so far!
