Will The Nation's Good Luck With Tornadoes in 2014 Run Out This Weekend

After arguably the worst year for tornadoes in the nation's history in combined terms of death and destruction in 2011, the years 2012 and 2013, and so far 2014 have been comparatively painless in the tornado department.

A deadly EF5 tornado sweeps through Moore, OK in May, 2013.
Luckily such strong tornados have been relatively
rare for the past year, but that could change this weekend.  

That's not to diminish the terrible effects of deadly tornado outbreaks in March 2012 in the Ohio Valley, May, 2013 in and around Oklahoma; and in the Midwest in November, 2013.

Those outbreaks spread incredible pain and tragedy in the areas they hit.

But still, the number and breadth of deadly tornadoes was below normal.

So far in 2014, nobody in the United States has died in a tornado, so we've broken the record for the latest first tornado death of the year for any year.  (The old record for the first tornado death was April 21, 2003 in Illinois.

Plus there hasn't been an EF3 or stronger tornado in the United States yet this year. That breaks the record for the latest first occurence of a strong tornado in the nation. An EF3 tornado has winds of between 111 and 135 mph.

Our luck with tornadoes looks like it will probably run out this weekend. Forecasters are increasingly confident of an outbreak of tornadoes Saturday through Monday in the Great Plains and southern Mississippi Valley.

It's starting to look like some of those tornadoes might be strong, as all the weather patterns seem to be coming together to produce those dangerous storms.

There might be a some severe weather, and maybe a tornado or two today through Friday out in that part of the nation, but watch out starting Saturdy.

We can hope the tornadoes that form this weekend spin up over open country, yieldiing dramatic videos from storm chasers, but no destruction to houses, or death to anybody.