PRESS RELEASE
V
ORTEK LLCMOST TORNADO-PRONE SPOT IN TENNESSEE
IS IN LAWRENCE COUNTY
January 14, 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 point in Tennessee, originally identified in March 2003, remains at latitude 35o14’ N, longitude 87o 28’ W, which corresponds to a location in Lawrence County, 7.5 miles west of Lawrenceburg, 3.0 miles south of the intersection of Mount Lebanon Road with Granddaddy Road, in the vicinity of Pea Ridge Cemetery. During the 57-year period noted, 42 tornado track segments have touched down or passed within 20 miles of this point. This includes eight F0 tornadoes, thirteen F1, eleven F2, six F3, two F4, and two F5. 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 1.2873 x 10-3 or 0.12873%, which is the largest value for any point within Tennessee.
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