Fall Severe Weather Awareness Day is Wednesday, October 21

The information provided in this post comes directly from the National Weather Service Office in Huntsville

National Weather Service offices across Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee are conducting a Severe Weather Awareness Day on Wednesday, October 21, 2009. The purpose of this day is to call attention to the secondary peak severe weather season that occurs in Late Fall. Historically, November has been an active month for severe weather and tornadoes.

Severe weather and tornadoes can occur throughout the months of December, January and February as well.  In the last 10 years (since 1999), 88 tornadoes have touched down across the state of Alabama, with 2 violent (EF4-EF5) tornadoes ripping across North Alabama during the Super Tuesday Tornado Outbreak of February 5-6, 2008.

Recent Fall Season Severe Weather Episodes across the Valley

• 2009: Severe thunderstorms produced widespread wind damage across much of North Alabama and Southern Middle Tennessee on October 9th. An EF-1 tornado touched down just south of Fayetteville, Tennessee resulting in extensive damage around the Timber Lake community.
• 2007: Severe thunderstorms caused considerable straight-line wind damage across Northwest Alabama on October 18th. An EF-1 tornado tracked into southern Lawrence County, downing several trees in Bankhead National Forest.
• 2004: Severe weather occurred before the typical November secondary peak. Tornadoes struck Lauderdale and Colbert Counties on October 18th (check out the storm survey here).
• 2003: A significant line of thunderstorms plowed through the Tennessee Valley on November 18th, resulting in significant straight-line wind damage. Damaging wind gusts can be just as destructive as tornadoes.
• 2002: The infamous Veteran’s Day Tornado Outbreak produced an F3 tornado in Cullman County, which damaged more than 150 structures (check out the storm survey here).
• 2001: Six of the eight tornadoes that hit Northern Alabama this year occurred with the November 24th outbreak. This event broke a record for the number of tornadoes that occurred during a 24-hour period in the state of Alabama.
• Of course, the infamous 1989 Huntsville tornadooccurred in November as well. This F4 tornado (207-260 mph winds) tore through south Huntsville on November 15, 1989, touching down on Redstone Arsenal at 4:30pm. The tornado eventually killed 21 people, injured more than 460 people, and caused more than $250 million in damages.

This the perfect time of the year to check your preparedness plans. Make sure your NOAA Weather Radio has fresh batteries in it. Make sure you have a means of receiving severe weather information. Make sure you know what you should do if threatening weather approaches.

And don’t forget WAAY 31’s Weather Call. It is the most advanced weather alerting service available and for just $6.95 per year it could save your life! You can learn more and also sign up for Weather Call by clicking here.

Dale Bader / Meteorologist, Storm Force 31

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 17th, 2009 at 9:29 pm and is filed under weather conditions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.