Pre-Christmas 2014 Tornado Outbreak, Flooding, More

Tragedy struck on the day before Christmas Eve this year when four people were killed by a tornado in Mississippi. Tornadoes also struck Georgia, Louisiana and (on Christmas Eve day) the Carolinas.

Relatively speaking, it was a small tornado outbreak and severe weather was forecast, but that doesn't reduce the tragedy. As of this writing, the NWS has surveyed a total of eight tornado tracks: Two EF3s in Marion County, Mississippi; another EF2 in Jones County; another EF2 in Louisiana; an EF-1 in Pierce County, Georgia, and three more EF0s in Mississippi.

In addition to the tornadoes, hail to 4.25 inches in diameter (wow!) was sighted in Louisiana. Severe flooding from heavy rain was also a problem; closed roads and water rescues were reported across the Southeast on Dec. 23 and 24; a wide area received 4 to 8 inches of rain.

Three house fires in Alabama early in the morning on Dec. 24, were blamed on lightning. Castle Hayne (a suburb of Wilmington, North Carolina, I know well from trips to the beach in my youth) made our World Weather Hotspot for Christmas Day:

High winds in the Ohio Valley (associated with a squall line on the northern part of the system) also caused trees to fall in that area. A seiche was reported in Buffalo. Wind gusts between 80 and 90 mph were also recorded in the Southwest on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

More information on these severe weather and tornado reports is available through those links.

With the severe weather, of course, came warm air, with 60s in western Pennsylvania on Christmas Eve, and temperatures in the 70s in the eastern Carolinas (despite a cold wedge keeping temps in the 40s further west in the state).

In New York City, it was the warmest Christmas Eve and Christmas Day on the record books:

Here's a radar animation during the tornadoes in Mississippi on the 23rd: