No explanation for high number of January
tornadoes
Copyright 1999 Associated Press
February 1, 1999
January was one for the record books in terms of the tornadoes
that Americans
normally associate with any season but winter.
Unofficially, 161 tornadoes were spotted last month. The
previous record for
January was set in 1975 when 52 tornadoes occurred.
More tornadoes occurred in one day, Jan. 21, than any
previous day in January
and in all of January previously. That day, 87 twisters were
spotted in
Arkansas, Louisiana and Tennessee.
Nineteen tornado-related deaths were recorded during the
month.
"When conditions are right, you have tornadoes,"
said Joe Schaefer, meteorologist and director of the National
Weather Service's
Storm Prediction Center in Norman.
"People want an explanation, but it isn't anything more than
having the right
conditions."
The center tracks weather systems throughout the country.
Schaefer said
tornadoes occur every
day all over the world.
January's tornadoes began on Jan. 1 with 18 tornadoes over
two days through the
South. More were reported on Jan. 8 and on Jan. 17, when 10 people
were killed
and 100 were injured.
During the next three days, 104
more tornadoes were spotted, including storms that heavily damaged
a
neighborhood near downtown Little Rock, Ark.
Schaefer said lives were saved in Arkansas that night
because of the beating
Tennessee took four days before. Eight people were killed in the
Arkansas
storms.
Why the high number of
January tornadoes?
"Perhaps the most important question we have to answer
is whether
global warming is creating more violent weather," said Harold
Brooks, a meteorologist with the National Severe Storms
Laboratory.
"We can't answer that. The number of tornadoes this month
absolutely is a rare
event. But this could happen at any
time of the year if the atmosphere is right."
Schaefer said the one good thing about January's rash of
killer tornadoes is
that warnings and lead times continue to improve.
"We put out a two-day forecast before those
tornadoes," he said.
"About 52 hours is about as far ahead of a
storm as we can get. We alerted local forecasters four days before
both of
those storm systems hit."
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