It was a very cold March for many areas across the country. Charlotte, NC had their coldest March on record, and cities like Atlanta, Nashville, and Birmingham were not far behind. However, although many complained of the cold, there is one benefit to having it: it kept tornadoes away. That’s right. The last March we had fewer tornadoes was almost 50 years ago when we had 8 tornadoes, back in 1969.
So far, based off of preliminary data, there were only 17 tornadoes throughout the entire U.S. in the month of March. Based off of that data, this makes it the 5th lowest March on record.
The strange thing is that last March, in 2012, we had quite the opposite. With 154 tornadoes that month, it was almost double the average. So why such a drastic change from last year to this year? That is a two part answer. First is the jet stream. Second is the cold temperatures across much of the eastern half of the country in March.
Normally, this time of year, the jet stream creates a trough, or dip, that comes from out of the western section of the country and into the central and southeastern states (think Texas to Oklahoma to Tennessee to Florida). However, the opposite has occurred for much of March this year. That allowed for a lot of those bitter cold temperatures that many folks in the southeast felt. That cold air dominated, and blocked any of the warm air from entering (you need both to create that unstable air needed for severe weather). Cold air also has a hard time supporting moist air, so the humidity was also not a factor last month.
The one thing to note is while March may have been relatively quiet, that doesn’t mean April and May will be the same!
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| Tornado path and strength from Glascock county, Georgia |
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| Damage at Magnolia Baptist Church in Glascock county, Georgia |
Sources: SPC, NOAA, Weather.com
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