Interesting Topic from Kentucky New Era

Link to Hopkinsville's Kentucky New Era

This is a quote from the Kentucky New Era about Tornadoes and why you need to get a noaa weather radio.

http://www. kentuckynewera. com/articles/2009/03/14/news/free/doc49bb2f72dcd25178781145. txt


"By Julia Hunter, New Era Staff Writer
Published: Friday, March 13, 2009 11:40 PM CDT
Meteorologist Rick Shanklin can’t predict what tornado season will look like this year, but he can say with almost certainty that this region will likely see the worst of it.


“We have had among the highest frequency of strong and violent tornadoes this decade than anywhere in the nation,” Shanklin told the New Era in a recent interview.


Shanklin, a Hopkinsville native, works in the National Weather Service’s Paducah office, which covers 58 counties in southeast Missouri, southern Illinois, southwest Indiana and western Kentucky.


Although the highest frequency of tornadoes previously occurred near the Great Plains area, commonly referred to as “tornado alley,” Shanklin said that since the turn of the century, the tornado region has shifted east, encompassing western Kentucky.


Shanklin said the peak season for tornadoes is April, May and June, with most occurring in May.


“We average about half of all tornadoes we get year round in those three months,” Shanklin said.


The Paducah Warning Area sees an average of about 22 tornadoes a year, which is about one tornado every three years within a given county, he said.


Of all the counties in the warning area, Calloway, Christian and Hopkins counties are most prone to tornadoes, Shanklin said. Shanklin said the location is favorable because of its geography and proximity to the Gulf of Mexico and Canada.


“Those features can help yield more unstable air mass environments and stronger winds throughout the atmosphere.
”

Still, Shanklin said tornadoes are difficult to predict. As far as he can tell, nothing indicates that the season will produce a particularly large number of storms.


“It only takes one strong weather system to move through the area, though,” he said.


Shanklin said particularly during the next several months it’s important for people to be prepared for these storms.


Shanklin said of the 38 tornado fatalities the Paducah Warning Area has seen in the last 13 years, 34 of them occurred at night.


This is why, he said, it’s important to have a weather radio — and to use it properly.


Kelli Keller’s Happy Hollow Road home was heavily damaged during the April 2006 tornado, said since then her family has upgraded their weather radio. The never turn it off.


“It will wake you up. That’s the point of those,” Keller said.


Martha Marcum lived on Gilkey Lane next to the Sinking Fork Baptist Church in the April 2006 tornado. As soon as she and her husband moved back into their home after two months of repair, they bought a weather radio. They didn’t own one before the storm.


She also said she’s started to watch the weather reports and be much more cautious.


Shanklin said it’s important to have a “designated weather watcher” in each home to keep up with weather reports daily, especially during a tornado watch.


Keller said another thing she learned from the tornado was not to try to out-run it.


“I actually did something that nobody should do,” she said. “I jumped into my car and flew out of (the area). If I would have gone the other direction, I would have driven right into it.
”

Keller said she later discovered that the tornado struck near her home about 20 seconds later.


“Now that it’s happened, I see the power of just weather and natural disasters,” Keller said. “It can destroy everything you’ve got in a matter of seconds and it can take your life.
”

JULIA HUNTER can be reached at 270-887-3262 or by e-mail at jhunter@kentuckynewera.com."