20 years ago around July the 4th 2005 the first hurricane of the season developed and the 3rd named storm of the very active 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season. Cindy was infamous for causing a severe weather outbreak across the south.

On July 3rd a low pressure system started to organize and develop tropical characteristics. On July the 4th the low became a tropical depression around Midnight on July the 5th the depression was given the name Cindy as it had become a tropical storm. Due to above average water temperatures Cindy began to intensify. On July 6th Cindy made landfall in Louisiana as a category 1 hurricane with winds at 75 mph and a pressure of 991 millibars.

Cindy as it moved inland begin to cause a severe weather outbreak in Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Carolinas, and Virginia. Not only did the remnants of Cindy produce severe thunderstorms, in the states I mentioned but they begin to produce tornadoes.

In Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama the tornadoes started to down down. A lot of these tornadoes were rated F0 (the Enhanced Fujita scale would not be used until 2007).

The worst tornado touched down in the Atlanta Metro area. This long tracked tornado lasted 20 minutes and traveled over 20 miles Several homes, buildings, and farms had severe damage. This tornado was estimated to have 135 mph winds making it an F2.

In the Carolinas Cindy produced several F1 type tornadoes, and the tornadoes continued into Virginia.

Tennessee and Kentucky did not have that many tornadoes. However, Cindy caused a severe thunderstorm outbreak. I was a student in college and Cindy impacted my area. In Tennessee Cindy produced severe thunderstorms with 60-70 mph damaging straight line winds. Cindy also produced a lot of rain as some locations had 2-4 inches of rain which lead to flash flooding. In Eastern Kentucky Cindy produced the same with several severe thunderstorms producing 60-70 mph winds, and flash flooding.

Overall Cindy produced 42 tornadoes. There are two reason Cindy produced a lot of tornadoes. First, tropical systems often produce tornadoes when they make landfall. This is due to the tropical storm rotation creating wind shear. Then you have warm air in the hurricane and moisture.

In Cindy's case you had the remnants merging with a frontal boundary. The remnants of Cindy created that extra spin int he atmosphere to cause spinning in the atmosphere and wind shear. The trough also added to instability and more wind shear. These two reasons are the reason why Cindy produced a lot of tornadoes in a short amount of time.

For states that did not get the tornadoes damaging straight line winds and flash flooding were a problem. In TN and KY roads had to be closed due to water across the road. The storms caused several power outages.

Cindy caused about $370 million in damage, most of the damage was from the tornadoes. A total of 42 tornadoes were produced by Cindy. 24 of the tornadoes were rated F0, 15 rated F1 and 3 were rated F2. Its hard to believe this event has already been 20 years ago.

While this tornado outbreak was not historic. It was just the first of tropical system produced tornado outbreaks. As more hurricanes from the 2005 season would produce tornado outbreaks. A lot of them were even larger than this one.