Originally posted by junglejakeThat's funnel cloud.
Anyway, the cloud formation that looked like a whale's tail, on the north side, started to spiral. My eyes were glued, it was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. It started spinning faster and faster and began to form a cone coming from the now circular cloud formation. Unfortunately (though fortunately for anyone who would have been in the path) it dissipated.
www.weather-photography.com...
That site has very nice collection of different phenomons.
And looks like it was tornado which caused at least some damage of Birmingham.
www.flickr.com...:birmingham%2Ctornado/tagmode:all/
Also there's nothing strange with tornadoes in these places, tornodos can happen anywhere where there's possibility of thunderstorms.
And they're nothing new.
Biggest tornado outbreak of Finland was in 1932 and it moved railroad cars, widest paths were 500 m wide, longest continuous track 39km and some of of those were propably F3s...
And remember Finland is as north as Alaska!
So only thing which varies is just how propable strong enough thunderstorms/how strong tornados are created and how often/propable right conditions are.
Thing what makes central US as such "tornado alley" is strong differing air masses colliding over it which make it very fertile ground for strong thunderstorms and especially supercells.
And this is where climate change might come to play, remember that global warming doesn't increase temperature evenly but changes current weather patterns, causes extremeties to become more stronger so it could well mean more widespread tornado outbreaks in areas where they're currently rare.
, most of us dont have
basements...... 
