Global Weather & Climate Center
  • Home
  • About
    • GWCC Is
    • Where in the World is GWCC?
    • Contact Us
  • Global Regions
    • Africa
    • Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea
    • Central and Eastern Pacific Ocean
    • Central and South America
    • Europe
    • North America
    • Indian Ocean and Asia
    • Polar Regions
    • South Pacific Ocean and Australia
    • Western Pacific Ocean
  • Weather
    • Applied Meteorology >
      • Air Quality
      • Aviation
      • Droughts
      • Fire Weather
      • Flooding
      • Geosciences
      • Global Environmental Topics
      • Weather Observations
    • Weather Education
    • Weather History
    • Weather Research
    • Weather Safety and Preparedness
    • Severe Weather
    • Social Sciences
    • Space Weather
    • Tropical Cyclones
    • Weather and Health
    • Winter Weather
  • Climate
  • GWCC Global Imagery Archive
  • GWCC Window to the World
    • GOES-16 Live Satellite Imagery Portal
    • GOES-16 ABI Channel Description and Examples
    • GOES-16 ABI Satellite Products
    • GOES-17 Live Satellite Imagery Portal
    • Himawari-8 Live Satellite Imagery Portal
    • Meteosat-11 Live Satellite Imagery Portal
  • Kids Corner
    • Kindergarten to 5th Grade
    • 6th to 12th grade
    • Fun Facts & Weather Trivia
    • GWCC Weather Radar Education
    • GWCC Wheel of Science

Severe Weather Topics

Harper brings tornadoes to the Southeast (Photo Credit: Weather Prediction Center)

1/29/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture

DISCUSSION: On Saturday, January 19, 2019, a cold front affiliated with Winter Storm Harper swept through much of the Southeast United States including Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida panhandle. The storm started as a low-pressure system that came into California earlier in the week bringing much needed rain in amounts totaling well over an inch to much of the San Francisco Bay Area. However, Harper grew in intensity once it passed the Rocky Mountains. The cold front brought enough cold air to interact with the warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico to produce severe thunderstorms and even some tornadoes.
The first tornadoes affiliated with the cold front were in Central Mississippi where two tornadoes formed at about 7:30 AM CST with the second one forming minutes after the first one dissipated. The first two tornadoes, however, were only rated as EF-0 and EF-1 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. The Enhanced Fujita scale is a scale based on winds and damage to measure tornado strength and was first developed by Dr. Tetsuya (Ted) Fujita at the University of Chicago in 1971. The scale is divided based on wind speed and damage with EF-5 being the strongest and most damaging. However, these tornadoes were not high on the scale to cause major damage and only damaged trees, shrubs, and a few small buildings.
Later in the afternoon, four tornadoes struck in Alabama around 3 PM EST with the strongest being an EF-2 tornado which had winds maxing at about 135 mph. The EF-2 was the longest one of the day as it had a path length of over 18 miles and was just north of the state capital of Alabama, Montgomery. The final tornado of the storm event happened at about 7:22 PM EST on the panhandle of Florida.  There was a total of six injuries as a result of the later storms with a bit more damage to buildings including a barracks in the case of the Florida tornado. Luckily, there were no deaths reported.

To learn more about preparing for extreme weather events, please click here!

©2019 
 Meteorologist JP Kalb

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016


    RSS Feed

© 2020, Global Weather and Climate Center
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
​Webmaster - Stephen Piechowski
  • Home
  • About
    • GWCC Is
    • Where in the World is GWCC?
    • Contact Us
  • Global Regions
    • Africa
    • Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea
    • Central and Eastern Pacific Ocean
    • Central and South America
    • Europe
    • North America
    • Indian Ocean and Asia
    • Polar Regions
    • South Pacific Ocean and Australia
    • Western Pacific Ocean
  • Weather
    • Applied Meteorology >
      • Air Quality
      • Aviation
      • Droughts
      • Fire Weather
      • Flooding
      • Geosciences
      • Global Environmental Topics
      • Weather Observations
    • Weather Education
    • Weather History
    • Weather Research
    • Weather Safety and Preparedness
    • Severe Weather
    • Social Sciences
    • Space Weather
    • Tropical Cyclones
    • Weather and Health
    • Winter Weather
  • Climate
  • GWCC Global Imagery Archive
  • GWCC Window to the World
    • GOES-16 Live Satellite Imagery Portal
    • GOES-16 ABI Channel Description and Examples
    • GOES-16 ABI Satellite Products
    • GOES-17 Live Satellite Imagery Portal
    • Himawari-8 Live Satellite Imagery Portal
    • Meteosat-11 Live Satellite Imagery Portal
  • Kids Corner
    • Kindergarten to 5th Grade
    • 6th to 12th grade
    • Fun Facts & Weather Trivia
    • GWCC Weather Radar Education
    • GWCC Wheel of Science