MOST TORNADO-PRONE CITIES DURING APRIL

As part of an ongoing company-funded research study of tornadic risk assessment, by means of the Site Assessment of Tornado Threat (SATT) software, VorTek has determined the rankings by month of the top twenty tornado-prone cities, with Nashville, Tennessee replacing Oklahoma City, Oklahoma as the most tornado-prone city for the month of April. The rankings, based on National Weather Service data from 1950 through 2006, are as follows:

RANK STATE ACF (%) DISTURBED LAND AREA (ACRES)
1 Nashville, TN .0537 432
2 Oklahoma City, OK .0526 423
3 Tulsa, OK .0505 406
4 Topeka, KS .0473 380
5 Wichita Falls, TX .0459 369
6 Huntsville, AL .0441 355
7 Shreveport, LA .0396 318
8 Ann Arbor, MI .0395 318
9 Little Rock, AR .0376 302
10 Birmingham, AL 0330 265
11 Cedar Rapids, IA .0294 236
12 Grand Rapids, MI .0250 201
13 Wichita, KS .0210 169
14 Des Moines, IA .0200 161
15 Mesquite, TX .0190 153
16 South Bend, IN .0186 150
17 Dallas, TX .0178 143
18 Garland, TX .0175 141
19 Lincoln, NE .0162 130
20 Cincinnati, OH .0141 113

The "ACF" (Annual Coverage Fraction) represents the average fraction of land area within a 20-mile radius of the city disturbed by tornadoes during April for the 57-year period from 1950 through 2006. The "disturbed land area" represents the average number of acres of land within a 20-mile radius of the city disturbed by tornadoes during April for the same 57-year period.

As you see in the chart above, TWO cities in Alabama made the TOP TEN! This further shows the reality of severe weather events in Alabama during the spring months, namely April.