Spring began on March 20. Although the Dayton area has not experienced much spring-like weather thus far, tornados will be more of a possibility.
According to Geography Professor Mohsen Khani, there is no particular tornado season, although they are more likely in spring and summer.
“There really is not a tornado season as such,” he said. “It mainly happens in spring and summer time. The farther north you are, the later it happens in spring and summer because of the warm weather that has to be present.”
Tornados form within severe thunderstorms by heavy rotation, but not every thunderstorm creates tornados, according to Khani.
“Sometimes tornados are preceded by a mesocyclone, which is a vertical rotation of air within the thunderstorm,” he said.
A severe thunderstorm is categorized by storms with hail, wind speeds of 57 miles per hour or greater, or both.
“A lot of the times you might have wall clouds, which are very low clouds that form. Funnel clouds are what are issued at the base of the cloud, but sometimes they cannot touch the ground so they don’t necessarily become a tornado. Funnel clouds can come down, then disappear. [However] it is a sign of rotation within the thunderstorm,” he said. “There are many tornado alleys, when you hear of the main tornado alley, its referring to northern Texas through Oklahoma through Kansas, but there are many smaller tornado alleys and they change because of weather patterns changing.”
Xenia was the site of an f5 tornado 40 years ago, on April 3. It was one of multiple tornado outbreaks in 11 different states on April 3 and 4, and the most severe.
Khani said the outbreak of tornados killed 315 people, and injured 6,142.
“The hardest hit town was Xenia, where a half-mile wide tornado smashed homes and businesses in the town,” Khani said. “Less than one percent of tornados are violent or super tornados, but they cause over 75 percent of fatalities.”
Homer Ramby, who runs xeniatornado.com and experienced the tornado in Xenia firsthand, took photos and helped rescue people with the Wayne Township Fire Department.
“Most people don’t take the tornado watches and warning serious — believe me, once you see the destruction in person, you will take it serious,” Ramby said in an email interview. “When there [are] tornado watches out and the sky gets black — I get nervous. When I worked at GM Security [and] there was a tornado warning for our location, we would signal thru the PA system for the employees to take cover in the designated areas, some one [would] go and look out the door to see if they could see it.”
If a tornado were to strike the area with individuals at Sinclair Community College, the Sinclair Police advises everyone present to seek safety. For more information about where the designated tornado safety locations are, see the service box below.
“We’re going into severe weather season, people need to pay attention to severe weather warnings,” Khani said. “Be careful about it because you don’t want to mess with tornados; you want to be aware of it, you want to take precautions, you want to be in an area where you increase the chances of your survival. The more knowledge people have about tornados, they can increase their safety. Make sure you understand severe weather forecasts, and pay attention.”