Indiana considered a secondary tornado alley

As springtime brings warm weather and sunshine, meteorologists are paying attention to weather patterns in the rest of the country as the peak season for severe weather in Michiana is in May.

Of course, in most cases, severe weather in this area refers to thunderstorms with damaging winds, hail, and occasionally tornados. The other forms of severe weather, such as heat waves, are not as common in this area.

“We [Indiana] are considered a secondary tornado alley,” said Rick Mecklenburg, chief meteorologist for WSBT.

According to Mecklenburg, Indiana has seven days of tornados a year. Other states in Tornado Alley like Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, range from seven to nine days of tornados a year.

Many people in the area remember Palm Sunday 1965, when 51 tornados in six states killed 260 people on April 11.

In Michiana, a string of F3 and F4 tornados hit through Porter, Laporte, St. Joeseph, Elkhart, LaGrange, and Stuben counties in Indiana and Hillsdale county in southern Michigan.

Palm Sunday isn’t the only strange outbreak of tornados in early April for Michiana either.

The Super Outbreak of 1974 was the biggest outbreak ever recorded in the United States. On April 3-4, 148 tornados ran through 13 states killing 330 people. An F4 tornado that began in Warren County in central Indiana hit through Fulton, Marshall, Kosciusko, and Noble counties before finally stopping in LaGrange County.

Events like these are abnormal for the time of year.

“Our peak is usually in May and June in Michiana,” said Mecklenburg.

Current technology may help people in the area become more informed about severe weather. At WSBT, computer models, radar loops, and satellite loops are used to forecast weather. TV reports and sirens in the area help alert residents about severe weather.

Weather in other areas of the country effect the weather in Michiana, as well. Winds move across the country bringing with them warm or cold temperatures and fronts. As spring arrives and summer approaches, weather patterns in the southern part of the United States can help predict weather patterns in Michiana.

Some southern states have already experienced a few tornados this year. As the southern air moves north and heats up Michiana, Mecklenburg said that tornados might be possible.

“I definitely wouldn’t eliminate the threat of tornados up here.”

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