Frequent tornado warnings are a part of life in St. Clair County, but having a weather alert radio can help local residents prepare to avoid loss of life or injury, according to a Birmingham weather forecaster.

“You’ll have close encounters with tornadoes if you live in Alabama any length of time,” said James Spann, chief meteorologist for ABC 33/40.  “For that reason, please get a weather radio and program it.  Every home in the state should have a weather radio.”

That’s particularly important in rural areas, he added.

“Seventy-one percent of the population base lives in mobile homes outside of urban areas, and mobile homes are tornado death traps.  Lobbyists for the mobile home industry say they are perfectly safe for tornadoes.  My response is, ‘Are you kidding me?’ It should be required that every mobile home in the nation should come with an operating weather radio installed.”

Rural areas are also less likely to have tornado sirens, Spann said, although he isn’t a proponent of the devices.

“Seems like most Alabamians are born with the notion that you should hear a siren before a tornado.  Quite frankly, tornado sirens are very ineffective.  They reach a very limited area.  It doesn’t make sense to blow the sirens in Ashville or Springville if the tornado is down below Cropwell.”

Another problem with sirens, according to Spann, is that they often can’t be heard in homes or businesses.

“Never, ever rely on outdoor warning sirens.  They do serve a purpose, but that purpose is not warning people inside a home, business or church.  Sirens were a product of the Cold War with the Soviet Union 50 years ago, but we now prefer that every family depend on a NOAA Weather Radio in a home or business to receive warnings.”

Spann’s television station also offers Weather Call, which provides text updates to subscribers’ cell phones when tornado watches or warnings are issued.  The service may be obtained through www.abc3340.com.

“When a watch is issued, we simply ask people to be close to a good source of weather information so they won’t miss a warning,” said Spann, who has reported on Birmingham area weather since 1979.  “If a warning is issued, and if the polygon falls within your part of the warned county, that is the time to take action and go to your safe place.  It’s important to take action right away, because you never know what can happen.  It may not be the next tornado that blows through, it may not be this generation or the next, but eventually there will be one in which lives will be lost.”

The danger exists, he added, even though most tornadoes that occur in central Alabama are lower on the intensity scale.

“About 80 percent of our tornadoes are EF0 and EF1, the ‘weaker’ tornadoes. Only about two percent of all tornadoes are at EF5 strength.  Really, most all tornadoes in Alabama are often wrapped in rain, and with our terrain, coverage of pine trees, and the fact that many tornadoes happen it night, they can certainly be life threatening.”

Tornadoes are rated according to the Enhanced Fujita Scale based on how much damage they cause.  EF classifications replaced the Fujita Scale, developed by Dr. Tetsuya Fujita in the early 1970s.

“Using modern engineering techniques, we learned that Dr. Fujita’s scale was off just a bit, and it was adjusted in 2007,” Spann said.  “Wind speeds were adjusted downward.  For example, on the old F scale, an F5 tornado had winds of 261-318 mph.  On the new EF scale, an EF5 has winds of over 200 mph.”

Spann provided the preparedness information during a visit to Springville.  “I love St. Clair County.  My family has roots here.”  His mother was a teacher in Springville, Ashville, and Ragland schools, and his grandfather served as the county’s probate judge, he said.