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During the early afternoon of Wednesday, 11 December 2003, a strange and unusual cloud formation occurred over the Mobile,
Alabama area.
This is the same phenomenon over Tampa and Tampa Bay.
Acadiana, Louisiana
Houma, Louisiana
Gallatin, Tennessee
We love to be able to say that this type of cloud is unique to the South but it ain't so. We do get more than our
fair share of them perhaps.
Now nasty weather:
To see a lot of mammatus, downdraft (not microbursts), updraft, mesocyclone (rotating updraft), and wall clouds, you
need to find a tornado tourism operator in tornado alley in the parts of The South that verge on the Midwest Great Plains
such as Texas and southeast Oklahoma towards Kansas.
All southern states get tornados but most places are wooded enough that tornados usually sneak up on people and are gone
before people can whip out a cameraphone or videocamera to record the event. Most people are too busy trying not to
die to think about recording their own death (the electronics would get smashed too). And yes, tornados love mobile
homes and trailers. Tornados find them easy to pick up and steal, joy ride for a while and then wrap around
a tree.
The editors have not ascertained yet whether The South gets more supercells than other regions of North America.
meanwhile, back in Mobile . . .
In the 21st century hurricanes have started to occur in all twelve of the year. Previously, the only severe storms
capable of that were thunder storms and tornadoes.
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