WAAY 31's Baron Tornado Index Provides Early Detection of Tornado

This past Saturday was very busy across much of the nation with regards to severe weather. Sixty-nine reports of tornadoes were reported with several being of long-tracked, long-lived, violent tornadoes. One of which occurred in Yazoo City, MS where the National Weather Service estimated the strength of the tornado at EF-4 with winds of 170 mph and a destruction path at times 1.75 miles wide. The entire path of detrusction with this particular tornado occurred for approximately 97 miles.

Across northern Alabama, at least four tornadoes touched down across Cullman, Marshall and DeKalb counties. One across Cullman County, the remnants of the Yazoo City storm, was rated as EF-2 with 115 mph winds.

A second storm system spawned two separate EF-3 tornadoes that stretched across Marshall and DeKalb Counties. The first impacted the communities of Albertville and Geraldine.

The second EF-3 touched down near the community of Mentone

Yet a third EF-3 tornado touched down near the community of Mt. Vernon about an hour later. This was quite rare as the occurrence of EF-3 rated tornadoes is only about 3% of ALL tornadoes.

During this severe weather event, a tool the is exclusive to the WAAY 31 in the Tennessee Valley and is also used by other stations across the country, the Baron Tornado Index (BTI), provided Brad Huffines and myself with valueable information regarding the tornadic potential of each individual thunderstorm. This allowed us to be able to enhance awareness to storms that could become potentially tornadic prior to even a tornado warning being issued or clear circulation being noticed by radar or ground observations. Two particular occurrences took place with regard to the EF-3 tornadoes that impact the counties of Marshall and DeKalb.

Prior to the 10 PM newscast, we had been tracking a storm with history of producing a tornado across Blount county. As the newscast began, we lead the show with this storm and provided a storm track that indicated the storm would reach the community of Hyatt around 10:11 PM. Then at 10:09 PM, we lead the news, after the break, with an update on the storm. The BTI had spiked to 5.5 from dwindling down into the 3s and as we spoke new imagery indicating BTI values had climbed into at least the 8 range. There was still no tornado warning in effect; however, we notified our viewers of the potential for strong winds and even tornadic winds with this storm. Finally, a storm track was provided and it indicated the storm would arrive into Albertville around 10:24 PM. At 10:15 PM a report of a possible tornado arrived from Hyatt and then another arrived at 10:24 PM from Albertville. The BTI helped us provide viewers with potentially life-saving awareness of an impending dangerous storm.

We continued to track the BTI through out the life of this storm and it did pulse down for awhile falling into the 4's before pulsing back up into the 7's as it approached northern DeKalb county and Mentone.

Lastly, as we continued to track the storm move from Albertville through Geraldine to Mentone we also began to pay close attention to a storm further southwest moving towards southern Marshall and DeKalb counties. This was due to, again the history of producing tornadoes, and the increasing BTI. The BTI had risen with this storm, similarly to the one above, from the 3s to the 5s and then into 7s as it moved into DeKalb County. The first rise into the 5s occurred a hour prior to the storms arrival. Again providing advance warning that may have saved lives.

If you would like to learn more about the tracks and intensities of these storms simply go to http://www.stormforce31.com/