Dear Tom,
Does Alaska ever get tornadoes?
Thanks, Amy Duplaga, Kouts, Ind.
Dear Amy,
Tornadoes occur in Alaska, but they are quite rare, with only four confirmed twisters listed in the record books since 1950. More often, funnel clouds are observed there during the warm season, but few of them reach the ground.
Meteorologists feel that more tornadoes do occur in Alaska, but that the state’s vast and largely uninhabited area ensures that nearly all of them go unnoticed.
Three of the state’s four documented tornadoes have been reported since 2004, with two of them in the southwest portion of the state near Bethel. The third was sighted near Sand Point on the Alaskan peninsula southwest of Anchorage.
All three of these storms produced little, if any, damage. The fourth tornado is reported to have occurred nearly 50 years ago on Nov. 4, 1959, but there is no record of where it touched down.
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