Midwest Disaster resulting from 81 Tornado's

[Cheshire Cat]

Another major disaster has hit the planet, this time in the Midwest.  Some areas completely destroyed.

http://www.news4jax.com/weather/tornadoes-devastate-homes-and-families-in-midwest/-/475702/23026300/-/546pdy/-/index.html   (click link for full story)

A devastating Sunday afternoon was brought on by the onset of 81 tornadoes which obliterated hundreds of homes and killed six throughout Illinois and Indiana with countless other counts of wind damage and large hail.

So what the heck happened? I mean November isn't necessarily a month you think about when you think of tornadoes. April and May, yes. But November?

According to Dr. Greg Forbes, tornado expert who worked along side famed researcher Ted Fujita who invented the F scale for tornadoes, "November is the second season for tornadoes."

The most notable of November tornado outbreaks occurred in 1992 when 94 tornadoes wiped out thousands of homes and killed 26 and injuring 641 people across 13 states stretching from southeast Texas all the way to Maryland. 

Sunday's outbreak in Illinois and Indiana, while rare, isn't unheard of. However this outbreak is notable for producing Illinois' first EF 4 tornado on record in November.

annual tornado graph

The reason Dr. Forbes described this as "the second season" is because it really is the counterpart to the Spring. Anytime you have two colliding air masses, cold verses warm, you create an unstable environment that severe storms thrive in. According to NOAA (see at right), November is responsible for 52 tornadoes of the annual total. Clearly outbreaks this large are rare.

The atmosphere is currently being set up for the Winter months. So you have the cold air rushing in from Canada and you still have the warm, moist air feeding in from the gulf. The battle of the seasons is on and often times, this is the result: 81 tornadoes, 525 damaging wind and 42 large hail reports totaling 649 reports overall.

[fsquid]

I've been in more tornados near Thanksgiving than at any other time of year.  People don't realize that.

[BridgeTroll]

Spring and fall... especially in the midwest...