As Expected, Tornadoes, Storms Spread Havoc Across The South, Caps An Extraordinary U.S, Tornado Year

Screen grab from Storm Chasing Channel video of
a tornado shredding trees Saturday in Mississippi

 At least two people died and damage is widespread from Texas to the Carolinas as the widely forecast Saturday severe weather outbreak unfortunately materialized.  

As of this morning there were at least 41 reports of tornadoes, mostly across eastern Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

One person died in a tornado south of Houston, and a likely tornado claimed another life in Mississippi. 

Video showed a large tornado near Bude, Mississippi that unroofed several homes. Another video by the Storm Chasing Channel's Scott Peake shows the same tornado crossing a highway and shredding trees around a parked pickup truck. 

A likely tornado hit downtown Athens, Alabama overnight, tearing the roof off a court house and spreading debris through the streets. 

The storms moved into the Carolinas Sunday morning.

Flash flooding hit parts of western North Carolina early today in an area still reeling from the extreme floods from Hurricane Helene in September. This morning's flooding wasn't remotely as bad as that, but this region doesn't need more bad weather news. 

Up to four inches of rain fell in some of the steep terrain in those North Carolina mountains. 

During the busiest travel time of the year, storms were mostly responsible for 15,000 canceled or delayed flights over the weekend, according to FlightAware.  Most of the airports where the delays and cancellation originated were in the path of the southern storms. 

After the severe storms end later today, forecasters say there's little chance of additional widespread severe storms and tornadoes for at least a week and probably more, as colder air floods into much of the United States. 

A cold air funnel begins to form over St. Albans, Vermont
in a non-severe thunderstorm on June 9.  This was a type of
spin that is not associated with tornadic thunderstorms
and these tend not to be dangerous.

This year has been quite a year for tornadoes in the U.S. Through November, no fewer than 1,762 tornadoes were confirmed, which is the highest number since the epic twister year of 2004.  That year, 1,813 tornadoes were reported in the U.S. 

The number of death in tornadoes this year was 52, which is bad, but pretty low considering how many tornadoes spun up, and how many of them were pretty strong. 

For comparison, there were 83 U.S. tornado deaths in 2023, with 1,321 twisters being reported that year. 

Of the 24 weather and climate disasters in the U.S. this year that cost over $1 billion in damage, six were tornado outbreaks and a handful of others included some tornadoes in the mix.

NBC News reports one odd note about 2024 tornadoes, and that's the propensity for strong tornadoes with landfalling hurricanes.

Most hurricanes that make landfall in the U.S. do spin off some twisters, but most of those are relatively weak with top winds of up to 110 mph. Fewer than 1 percent of tornadoes associated with hurricanes have an EF-3 rating, which means destructive winds of 136 mph or more. 

But four of the five hurricanes that made landfall in the U.S. this year produced EF-3 tornadoes. Hurricane Milton, which hit Florida in October, sent a swarm of dozens of tornadoes through the state. 

This year also continued a trend toward more eastern tornadoes. True, the traditional "tornado alley" in states like Texas, Oklahoma and Nebraska were hit hard, but there were areas of pretty weird activity in the Northeast. 

New York had 32 tornadoes in 2024, breaking the single-year record for twisters of 25, set in 1992.

Right here in Vermont, there were no confirmed tornadoes in 2024, but some close misses. On June 23, tornado warnings were issued in parts of central Vermont due to rotating thunderstorms and reported wall clouds, but no confirmed twisters touched down in the Green Mountain State.

There was a tornado that day in Dublin, New Hampshire, about ten miles east of the Vermont border. 

On July 10, a tornado dissipated in New York state not far from the Vermont border, and a funnel cloud was spotted over Bridport. 

A tornado struck Lyme, New Hampshire on July 16, and its path started just a couple miles east of the Vermont border.