Establishing a Climatology of Significant Tornadoes within the Southern United States

Keywords: tornado, severe weather, climatology, meteorology, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee
Session Type: Virtual Poster Abstract
Day: Friday
Session Start / End Time: 2/25/2022 03:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/25/2022 05:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 49

Abstract

Tornado climatologies are quite common throughout the field of meteorology, especially in the region of the Great Plains traditionally referred to as “Tornado Alley”. However, despite recent high-fatality tornadic events in a region of the Deep South colloquially referred to as “Dixie Alley”, there is limited research into the causes of significant tornado cyclogenesis in this region. Here, in order to establish a significant tornado climatology of this region, the numbers of significant tornadoes to have occurred in the past thirty years within each of the counties of the states of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and Tennessee were determined. A map was then created showing the differences in significant tornado density across the region and attempts were made to theorize about the causes of these differences, such as the high significant tornado density in the Sand Mountain region of Alabama potentially being caused by unique terrain gradient. Identifying these specific micro-regions of high significant tornado density can help provide for targeted tornadic mitigation using strategies including improved tornado warning infrastructure and stricter residential building codes similar to the changes made in the Moore, Oklahoma building codes in the wake of the 2013 tornado.