So today we have a report of a tornado at Poulan (west of Tifton), tornados in Alabama and west, and right now the storm is sitting on top of Tallahassee in a circular pattern:

More maps of Dixie Alley from Is Dixie Alley an extension of Tornado Alley? by P. Grady Dixon, et al.:

The one on the left aggregates over many miles. The one on the right shows much more local detail, including what looks like a blob over Lake Park and another one somewhere between here and Tifton.

Here’s a version with intermediate aggregation:

Looks like northwest Lowndes County is somewhere near the edge of Dixie Alley.

But that paper used data from 1990 through 1999. This is 2011. Judging by today’s weather, we have to wonder if Dixie Alley has spread farther to the east, where we are. For that matter, it doesn’t take tornados to cause a lot of damage. A few years ago we drove through Darien just after a storm blew down quite a few pine trees. And that’s way over on the Atlantic coast.

Sure would be nice for people around here to have NOAA Weather Radios.

-jsq

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