So far this month, we
have a preliminary tornado count of only 14. According to Dr. Greg Forbes,
meteorologist at The Weather Channel, that number should be around 96. That’s
the number we normally see for the first ten days of May (when looking at data
for the last 10 years).
It’s not just May either. When you look back to March and April, those months were also way below normal. April 2013 only had 73 tornadoes, but we average 234. Prior to that, in March of 2013, we had a near record low month! The average for March is 98, and we only had 17, making it the 5th lowest count for March on record!
There is even better
news…..according to Harold Brooks, a research meteorologist from the National
Severe Storms Laboratory, from May 2012 through April 2013 there were only 7
tornado deaths in the U.S., which is the fewest number of fatalities in a 12
month period since September 1899-August 1900 when there were only 5
fatalities.
In Iowa specifically, they are close to breaking the longest
stretch in history without a reported tornado: 354 days. That’s right; the last
time a tornado was reported in Iowa was back on May 24th, 2012. The
record is 355 days, which means tomorrow they would tie it, and Wednesday they
would break the record. The current record of 355 days was set between May 5,
1955 and April 26th, 1956. The thing you have to note here is that
back in 1955-1956, tornadoes were not as widely reported as they are now. There
may have actually been one during that stretch, but if it happened in a field,
or did not cause damage, it may not have been reported. That is much different
now, so for the record to possibly be broken in this day of technology, it’s
very impressive.
With just 2 tornadoes in May 2013 through today (both rated
EF0 in FL). The first 6 days in May of this year only had 2 tornadoes, which
makes it the fourth-quietest for those days since 1950. And note, those 2
tornadoes were in Florida, and only received an EF0 rating, the lowest on the
scale.
Number Year
0 1970
0 1962
1 1952
2 **2013 **
2 2011
3 1951
5 1986
5 1966
7 1957
Sources: NSSL, The Weather Channel, NOAA, Associated Press, SPC, Iowa Environmental Mesonet, Twitter
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