摘要：Using rain gauge and satellite-based rainfall climatologies and the NOAA Storm Prediction
Center tornado database (1952–2007), this study found a statistically significant tendency
for fall–winter drought conditions to be correlated with below-normal tornado days the
following spring in north Georgia (i.e. 93% of the years) and other regions of the Southeast.
Non-drought years had nearly twice as many tornado days in the study area as
drought years and were also five to six times more likely to have multiple tornado
days. Individual tornadic events are largely a function of the convective-mesoscale
thermodynamic and dynamic environments, thus the study does not attempt to overstate
predictability. Yet, the results may provide seasonal guidance in an analogous
manner to the well known Sahelian rainfall and Cape Verde hurricane activity
relationships.
