From the mountains to the sea, there’s no reprieve in North Carolina for dangerous tornadoes. Two weeks ago, the National Weather Service confirmed that an EF1 tornado, packing windspeeds in excess of 100 miles per hour, touched down along the sky-reaching peaks of Beech Mountain. Known for its views of unparalleled serenity, as well as a top snowboarding destination in the southeast, Beech Mountain is probably one of the last places meteorologists expected to be ground zero for tornadic activity. Standing at 5,000 feet with not-so-much as a football field’s worth of uninterrupted flat land, the unhospitable mountainous terrain doesn’t exactly invite images of swirling funnel clouds into the psyches of conventional thinking. When the winds finally relented on the intimidating mountaintop, a wide swath of flattened trees and shrubbery became visible to a handful of residents, who likely didn’t sleep a wink, with the hellish winds jostling them deep from their slumbers. Living up to the weatherman’s latest creed that nowhere in America is safe from dangerous tornadoes, Wilmington, located 300 miles due east from Beech Mountain, ratcheted the month of crazy cyclonic weather into full “spin mode” when the whipping outer bands of Hurricane Idalia spawned double trouble tornadoes for the port city. No deaths were reported from the storms.
Not Even Paradise is Safe From Tornadoes
Tornadoes can be a sight-seeing bunch if nothing else. After visiting the ‘Beech’ of the Blue Ridge, last month’s mountain cyclone must’ve told his foul weather friends of North Carolina’s illustrious landscape and invited them along for the ride when they visited the state’s oldest port city for a spin around town. Falling in love with the scenic views of the Appalachians, the metaphysical world became attuned to the whims of the universe and the connotation of ‘mind over matter’ with the tornadoes penning a page of poetic irony into the history books by visiting a real beach, thanks to Hurricane Idalia.(Who knew that tornadoes enjoyed a good homophone?). Wilmington’s seen it’s fair share of dangerous tornadoes, as of late. In 2021, a rare February tornado killed three people and injured 10 others after a tornado ripped through Brunswick County. The NWS estimated the twister topped off at a speed of 160 mph, a rarity for even the most tenacious of storms in the southeast. It shows that what meteorologists have been saying for several years is manifesting in true-to-form carnage: Tornado Alley is shifting to the southeast.
Tornado Alley Continues Easterly Migration
While scientists continue to wrestle with the wealth of empirical data deposited on radars by voracious tornadoes over the past few years, they can agree on the trajectory of future storms. Now surpassing their Midwestern counterparts, the southeast can now boast the notorious moniker of being Tornado Capital USA. There’s no explanation for the sudden shift, but weather forecasters believe it may be an issue of timing. With the colliding air masses of the Rockies and the Gulf of Mexico hooking up in the heat of the day, the perfect ingredients for persistent tornadic conditions can solidify in the Midwest before slowly trekking east and unleashing hellish tornadoes in the dead of night when residents find themselves most vulnerable. People sleeping soundly in their beds have little time to seek protection before their worlds coming crashing in on them. While no one can forecast dangerous tornadoes outside of an hour, a panelized steel safe room kit from U.S. Safe Room gives your family more than a fighting chance with little time to spare. By strategically retrofitting a nearby spare bedroom, basement or closet in your home, you can protect what matters most. Our panelized kits are comprised with revolutionary easy-to-assemble steel panels can transform any room into a steel fortress. The panels are lightweight and can be quickly assembled with only a few simple hand tools. Take back control of your safety and sanity with a panelized kit from U.S. Safe Room. Contact us today for a customized quote to ensure life-long protection.