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Alabama
America will probably get more killer tornado- and hail-spawning supercells as the world warms, according to a new study that also warns the lethal storms will edge eastward to strike more frequently in the more populous Southern states, like Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee. The supercell storm that devastated Rolling Fork, Mississippi is a single event that can't be connected to climate change. But it fits that projected and more dangerous pattern, including more nighttime strikes in a southern region with more people, poverty and vulnerable housing than where storms hit last century. And the season will start a month earlier than it used to. The study in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society predicts a nationwide 6.6 per cent increase in supercells and a 25.8 per cent jump in the area and time the strongest supercells twist and tear over land under a scenario of moderate levels of future warming by the end of the century. But in certain areas in the South the ...
An Alabama engine mechanic took refuge in a shipping container as a tornado from a violent storm decimated his shop and killed two of his neighbours along its destructive path across Alabama and Georgia. The harrowing stories of David Hollon and other survivors of Thursday's storm are emerging as residents comb through the wreckage wrought by tornados and blistering winds that have led to the deaths of at least nine people. In Alabama's rural Autauga County, where at least seven people have died, Hollon and his workers saw a massive tornado churning toward them. They needed to get to shelter immediately. Hollon said they ran into a metal shipping container near the back of his garage because the container had been anchored to the floor with concrete. Once inside, Hollon began frantically dialling his neighbour on the phone. But as they heard the garage being ripped apart by the storm, the call kept going to voicemail. The storm passed and they emerged, only to find the body of his
Authorities believe a child playing with a cigarette lighter started a mobile home fire in south Alabama that killed the young boy and a sibling, the sheriff's office investigating the fire said Monday. Investigators found the butane lighter next to a mattress that caught fire in the children's bedroom, the Mobile County Sheriff's Office said in a news release. It said preliminary autopsy results indicate smoke inhalation and burns killed 4-year-old Liam Barnes and 2-year-old Noah Gordon when their home burned last Thursday in Irvington, southwest of Mobile. Sheriff's investigators said the children's mother was next door visiting a neighbor when she saw smoke pouring from her home. Kali Sherman rushed inside the burning mobile home and rescued her 10-month-old son from his crib, but couldn't save the other two. Smoke detectors inside the mobile home near the children's bedroom weren't working, according to the sheriff's office. It said investigators consulted with local prosecutor