WASHINGTON (AP) — Oklahoma and Kansas may have the reputation as tornado hot spots, but Florida and the rest of the South are far more vulnerable to killer twisters, a new analysis shows.
Florida leads the country in deaths calculated per mile a tornado races along the ground, followed by Tennessee in the No. 2 spot.
They are followed by North Carolina, Ohio and Alabama, according to an analysis of the past three decades by the federal Southeast Regional Climate Center at the University of North Carolina.
Florida is No. 1 in so many factors that make tornadoes more risky: mobile homes, the elderly, and the poor, said center director Charles Konrad II, who headed the new work.
“People are just much more vulnerable in a mobile home than they are in a regular home,” Konrad said.
Along with Florida, Dixie Alley — including Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, western parts of the Carolinas — is where more people die from tornadoes than anywhere else in the world, said Conrad.
Three years ago, a four-day outbreak of more than 200 tornadoes killed 316 people in Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia.
Visibility is another problem for tornadoes in the Southeast. Because of atmospheric conditions, the region tends to get more tornadoes at night, making them harder to see, Konrad said. It also means some people may be asleep and miss warnings.
The South also has more trees and buildings to block the view of oncoming tornadoes, Konrad said. And they also tend to come from low-hanging clouds, making them harder to see.
Florida tends to get tornadoes more in the winter, while the Southeast tornado season is February through April, Konrad said. The Midwest generally sees them in the spring and summer.
This year, which is so far unusually quiet, seven tornadoes have killed 35 people – 32 of them in the Southeast.