PRESS RELEASE
V
ORTEK LLCMOST TORNADO-PRONE SPOT IN NORTH CAROLINA IS NEAR PHILADELPHUS
January 11, 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 North Carolina, originally identified in May 2003, has moved. The new point is located at latitude 34o 46’ N, longitude 79o 11’ W, which corresponds to a location 1 mile northwest of Philadelphus, 374 yards north of Buie Philadelphus Road, 1.24 miles east of State Road 710, 3.3 miles south of Red Springs. During the 57-year period noted, 54 tornado track segments have touched down or passed within 20 miles of this point. This includes fourteen F0 tornadoes, sixteen F1, ten F2, four F3, and ten 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 1.1522 x 10-3 or 0.11522%, which is the largest value for any point within North Carolina.
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