Fat Tuesday tornado upgraded to EF-4

The Fat Tuesday tornado that hit Jackson and Franklin counties has been upgraded to an EF-4, the National Weather service has reported. That tornado started near Perryville, Missouri, where it did significant damage and killed one person, and then traveled more than 50 miles east where it finally dissolved just southeast of Christopher. It was…

5 tornadoes cause injuries, damage Saturday in Louisiana

Storms that rolled through Louisiana Saturday (Jan. 21) dropped five tornadoes across the state within the span of a few hours, leaving uprooted trees, crumpled homes, toppled power lines and several injured people in their wakes. The tornadoes formed amid thunderstorms Saturday that pummeled the Southeast, with the system ultimately killing 18 people in Georgia…

Weather service: Tornado hit Lowndes

VALDOSTA — A tornado touched down in Lowndes County Sunday during the violent weather outbreak, a weather service forecaster said. The twister ranked as EF1 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, with winds of 86-110 miles per hour, said Parks Campa, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s office in Tallahassee, Fla. The Enhanced Fujita Scale…

4 hurt as tornado hits Outer Banks; NC man dies when truck flips on bridge

HATTERAS, N.C. (AP/WNCT) — Authorities confirmed Saturday afternoon that one of two tornadoes spawned from Tropical Storm Hermine in North Carolina knocked over two trailers and injured people on the Outer Banks early Saturday. Meanwhile, two main bridges were closed for hours after a Randolph County man died when the Harris Teeter tractor-trailer he was…

China Tornado Kills 98, Injures 800

The death toll in eastern China skyrocketed to 98 after a powerful tornado and severe storms hit a densely populated area of farms and factories on Thursday. The tornado hit near the city of Yancheng in Jiangsu province, about 500 miles south of Beijing. Some 800 people were also injured. Teacher Guo Haimei said the…

Joplin tornado spawns research among engineers, scientists

OPLIN, Missouri — Tornado research has surged since a massive twister destroyed much of Joplin and killed 161 people. Engineers, meteorologists and social scientists have published almost 800 peer-reviewed studies about tornadoes over the past five years, The Joplin Globe reports. David Roueche, a doctoral student in wind engineering at the University of Florida, said…