Dear Tom,
Recent weather has included snow, tornadoes and even thunder-snow. Has a snowstorm ever produced a tornado?
— Ed Eicker, Des Plaines
Dear Ed,
Dr. Harold Brooks of the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla., tells us that though extremely rare, there are at least one or two reliable reports of tornadoes that occurred with temperatures very near the freezing mark.
But, in general, most tornadoes form in warmer environments where the temperature and dew point are at a minimum, in the lower or middle 50s. When tornadoes do occur during the winter season, they usually develop on the warm side of a major storm system that is producing heavy snow on its cold, northern flank.
Such was the case Feb. 5 when at least 64 twisters battered the South while heavy snows were sweeping the central Midwest. A similar type of storm system produced twisters in this area earlier this year, on Jan. 7, striking locales from near Rockford to Kenosha.
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