State climatologist John Christy says that 2012 is the fourth year since Doppler radar revolutionized weather monitoring in 1992 that Alabama has had an April with no tornados—not even a tornado warning this year.
Christy, who also teaches atmospheric science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, said that the same storm systems that kept away tornados also kept away Alabama’s usual spring rains, so that by April’s end some 91 percent of the state was experiencing some level of drought.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has started drought-condition activities to keep water flowing in the Chattahoochee and Appalachicola rivers.
By Nedra Bloom
