PRESS RELEASE
V
ORTEK LLCMOST TORNADO-PRONE SPOT IN MISSISSIPPI IS NEAR RALEIGH
January 10, 2008 Huntsville, Alabama
As part of an ongoing tornado research project, by means of the Site Assessment of Tornado Threat (SATT) 3.0 software, and based on National Weather Service data from 1950 through 2006, the VorTek staff have determined the most tornado-prone spot in Mississippi, originally identified in March 2003, remains at latitude 31o 58’ N, longitude 89o 28’ W, which corresponds to a location in Smith County, 5.6 miles southeast of Raleigh, 1/4 mile to the north of Beaverdam Road, 0.9 miles east from Highway 37. During the 57-year period noted, 98 tornado track segments have touched down or passed within 20 miles of this point. This includes twenty F0 tornadoes, twenty-nine F1, twenty-three F2, nineteen F3, and seven F4. If the total land area disturbed by these tornadoes is divided by the land area within the 20-mile circle, on an annual basis the average fraction of land disturbed (or Annual Coverage Fraction) equals 1.4882 x 10-3 or 0.14882%, which is the largest value for any point within Mississippi.
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