Shoals feels impact of fourth tornado

Tim Troutman, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service office in Huntsville, is spending a lot of time in the Shoals this spring inspecting tornado damage.

After inspecting fallen trees and battered buildings near Waterloo on Monday, Troutman determined that a Saturday tornado packing 100 mph winds had caused the damage.

The twister left a four-mile stretch of destruction, up to 250 yards wide, along Waterloo Road from Lauderdale 194 to the Natchez Trace Parkway, said George Grabryan, director of the Florence-Lauderdale County Emergency Management Agency. Four homes were damaged, but no injuries were reported.

It was at least the third tornado to strike the Shoals last week and the fourth this year.

A home near Anderson was damaged by a possible tornado late Saturday. Weather service officials have yet to determine if the damage was from a tornado or straight-line winds. Grabryan suspects a small tornado was responsible for the damage.

"To have three, possibly four, tornadoes touch down in the county in one week is unbelievable," Grabryan said. "This is definitely an active year for tornadoes."

Statewide, the 45 tornadoes reported to the weather service this year already exceeds the yearly average of 42.

"I've been here right at 10 years and this is the worst year for tornadoes we've had since I became EMA director," Grabryan said.

A Feb. 6 tornado that cut a 16.7-mile path of destruction across Lawrence County south of Moulton killed four people.

In addition to the Alabama twisters, tornadoes struck Lawrence County, Tenn., on April 11 and May 8.

John Christy, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and state climatologist, said a cooling of water in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of South America known as a La Nina is responsible for the busy tornado season in north Alabama.

"During a La Nina period, the tornado belt out west gets shifted to our part of the world," Christy said.

Alabama is not the only state having an active spring tornado season.

Harold Brooks, a research meteorologist at the National Severe Storms Lab in Oklahoma, said there have been 910 preliminary reports of tornadoes this year in the United States. He suspects that when the reports are finalized, the number of twisters will drop to between 650 and 700. That would still be well above the average of 400 confirmed tornadoes reported through mid-May each year.

"Since 1950, the highest number of confirmed tornadoes through May 11 is 676 in 1999," Brooks said. "It appears this year will be comparable to that. It could be a little bit higher or a little bit lower, but there's no doubt it's going to be one of the most active years on record."

One bright spot among the destruction from the twisters is a heightened awareness of severe weather, said Mike Melton, director of the Colbert County Emergency Management Agency.

"We've had a lot of people bringing their weather radios to our office to have them programmed," Melton said. "We've had a lot of people calling with questions about tornado safety. During the tornado warning Saturday night, we probably had 100 people taking shelter at our office. People are taking the weather watches and warnings much more seriously than they did before we had all these tornadoes around here."

Melton said long-range weather forecasts predict a storm front will pass through the Shoals about every four days through the end of May.

Severe storms are possible in the Tennessee Valley on Wednesday and Thursday.

"People just need to be weather aware," Grabryan said.

"They need to have a weather radio and a flashlight with fresh batteries handy just in case the storms do become severe."

Dennis Sherer can be reached at 740-5746 or dennis.sherer@timesdaily.com.