Tornadoes Sweep South, Including Mobile, AL

It's been a heck of a weekend in the South -- since October 21st, there have been 11 tornado reports and another 5 funnel cloud sightings reported to the NWS Skywarn Spotter program.

The storms first started in New Mexico (video) then moved into Texas yesterday, where this incredible closeup tornado video was taken in Rice, Texas.

The most recent were two reports out of Mobile, Alabama as what appeared to be a supercell storm with a hook echo passed over the city early this morning. At first I thought it might have disrupted "Woofstock" but it sounds like that festival for the dogs was just yesterday. The "festival" referred to in the Skywarn report was in fact Festival Center, a local business area: "DAMAGE REPORTED AT THE FESTIVAL CENTER. SEVERAL AC UNITS BLOWN OFF ROOF. GAS LINES BROKEN. NUMEROUS SHOPPING CARTS AND LOOSE ITEMS BLOWN AROUND. LARGE CHARITY DONATION BOXES BLOWN INTO MONTLIMAR BOULEVARD." On the east side of the city, "A HOUSE ON GREEK CEMETERY ROAD RECEIVED SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE."

Believe it or not, this October is still measuring below normal for severe weather and tornadoes, with only 22 (plus 6 over the weekend = 28). That's compared to 65 twisters nationwide last October and a 3-year average of 57. Add in hail and wind, and we've had about 280 severe weather reports this month, similar to the slow year 2008 and nearly half of last year's reports.

For the year, we appear to be below normal (1,300) at around 1,120 tornadoes (adjusted for approximate duplicates), as you can see from the graph above, but nowhere near the minimum of 944.

You can get forecast updates on this storm system from our news article "Dangerous Thunderstorms Advance into Southeast."