An Introduction To Dixie Alley
By looking at the graph above, the time of day that these tornadoes strike is usually after the sun has gone down, taking away a vital way of spotting tornadoes. This leads to a problem because storm chasers and storm spotters cannot be as effective due to the lack of sunlight illuminating features of the storm that can lead to one to think that there is a chance of tornadoes forming. Plus, at night, people are sleeping and are unable to receive information from multiple sources. As a result, many of the reports of nocturnal tornadoes comes from looking at radar signatures formed by the supercell in question.
The time of year matters as well when a tornado strikes. The Southeast experiences two different annual peaks of tornadic activity because of the movement of the jet stream. As it moves down and up according to the season, it adds another piece of instability into the atmosphere. If the winds are in a different direction at the surface than aloft, then wind shear is present. These two peaks correlate to the Spring and Fall seasons and they occur in April and November. However, these two peaks do not limit the months that tornadoes can occur. They can occur year-round whenever there is a chance of severe weather with the right ingredients.
Finally, where people live makes a major difference as well. There are more trailer parks in portions of the Southeast, and these homes are not made to withstand the high force winds that a tornado can bring. This statement was unfortunately proven correct when an EF-4 tornado struck the town of Beauregard, Alabama on March 3rd, 2019. The people that also live in the Southeast may not have adequate access to a tornado shelter or may not be within hearing distance of the sirens. The sirens are not meant to be heard inside, so if someone is inside a building, they may not know what is coming. There are other ways of receiving the information, such as a NOAA weather radio, but some people may not even have that.
Dixie Alley is a second area in the United States for frequent tornadoes to strike. Although it is getting easier to detect when they are coming, their impacts are well known. From where and when they strike, to how people are warned, these tornadoes can often turn into significant tornadoes, forever changing the lives of those who have survived them.
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Sources Cited: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/climate-information/extreme-events/us-tornado-climatology/trends
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©2019 Weather Forecaster Shannon Sullivan
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