Be prepared for El Nino's nasty flip side

Despite predictions of another active hurricane season, it was smooth sailing for Florida thanks to the weather pattern known as El Nino, which creates wind shear that helps prevents storms from forming.

This season, Florida was clipped by just two minor cyclones. Better yet, the Tampa Bay area was completely spared. Hurricane season begins in June and ends at the end of November.

But there's a flip side to El Nino: potentially wicked winter weather. And we're not talking snow.

While this winter is supposed to be cooler and wetter than normal, which will be welcome, the National Weather Service also recently issued a warning to residents that the chances of hazardous weather - namely tornadoes - will increase due to an expected "active weather pattern."

This should prompt residents to form storm plans in the same fashion as you should for hurricane season.

Florida, with its climate and location, is an El Nino magnet. Statistics are alarming.

Forecasters say the state's 10 deadliest "tornado days" during the normally dry winter season have killed 119 people since 1892. And all occurred in El Nino years, when powerful storm systems cross the Gulf of Mexico.

No one should forget the devastation in February 1998 and that same month in 2007. El Nino-powered storms spun off tornadoes that hit in darkness, killing a total of 63 people in Central Florida. All but one were either in mobile homes, automobiles or recreational vehicles, according to the weather service.

And in 2006, a Christmas Day tornado damaged dozens of homes in the San Antonio area, and farther north, in Pasco County. That was an El Nino year, too.

Unlike hurricanes and tropical storms, tornadoes form quickly. And as forecasters stress, twisters during El Nino years usually strike at night, when residents are most vulnerable. People are usually asleep, unaware that hazardous weather is approaching and weather forecasters have issued watches and warnings.

But as Tampa Bay area Meteorologist-in-Charge Brian LaMarre stresses, "During an emergency, information is your greatest asset."

Residents can easily be alerted to watches and warnings on NOAA Weather Radio, which is broadcast from weather service offices around-the-clock. The broadcasts can't be heard on standard radio receivers, so residents have to purchase special ones.

But they're not expensive. Costs can range from about $20 to more than $100, depending upon the variety of features they contain. They're available at a number of stores, as well as online.

These radios should be a standard item in any home, business or RV, similar to a major appliance or smoke detectors. The device would make a good gift this time of year.

This isn't being paranoid. It's about being prepared - and safe.

Florida has unpredictable weather, especially during El Nino years. The region's lack of siren systems, often employed in other tornado-prone parts of the country, makes having weather radios all the more valuable. They can be life-savers.