A serious storm turned deadly in the Southeast early Monday. At least two people were killed in Alabama, and severe damage spread across several states, emergency officials said.
CNN reports the two fatalities were near Birmingham, Alabama, according to Jefferson County sheriff's Sgt. Jack Self. A 16-year-old girl and an 82-year-old man were killed in the storm that hit about 3:30 a.m. local time. At least 100 injuries were reported, from cuts and bruises to broken bones, Self said. Several homes were reported destroyed.
In Arkansas, an EF-2 tornado touched down on the northern edge of Fordyce, in the south-central part of the state, the National Weather Service confirmed Monday afternoon. An EF-2 tornado has winds of up to 135 mph.
HLN meteorologist Bob van Dillen says the La Niña weather pattern is peaking right now as we head into the middle of Winter. As the Pacific waters off Peru cool down to below average temperatures, it builds a strong dome of high pressure over the Eastern Pacific. That in turn is pushing the jet stream farther north, so places like Washington state and Oregon get the full brunt of the Pacific storms. Remember all the heavy a rain and snow up there from last week and this past weekend? You knew that energy had to go somewhere, and yesterday afternoon it came slamming down the Rockies and into the Central Plains, carving a strong storm along the way.
A powerful cold front formed below the storm, and that coupled with a strong jet stream aloft set the stage for the severe weather last night and this morning. A fast moving low-level jet pumped moisture from the Gulf of Mexico northward through the South, allowing the cold front to have ample energy to produce the huge storms. At last look over 20 tornados were reported from Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee to Alabama over the last 24 hours.
It’s not normal to see a massive tornado outbreak in January for the South, but this isn’t a normal winter! It has been interesting to watch the storms roll out of Alabama and into Georgia though. A nose of cool, high pressure got trapped between the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic. As the storm hit the 45 degree temps over Atlanta, they died and turned into just plain heavy rain makers. We call this the ‘Wedge’ effect, since the cooler, more dense air from the Atlantic sets up over the East and can’t be dislodged by the Western warm air.
Southern Georgia remains in the warm sector, so the tornado watch lasts until 4 p.m. Monday in the area.
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