Some Severe Weather Likely In South, Midwest This Week

A tornado near Alma, Georgia on January 4,
one of only a handful of tornadoes
reported in the United States so far this year.  

After the quietest start to severe weather and tornado season in memory, things will finally start to get a little more active this week.

Of course, severe weather is almost always bad news, but it is a sign of spring, so there's that.

I don't think this will be a blockbuster event, which is good, but around Tuesday or Wednesday, areas in and near Missouri could get some strong winds, big hail and maybe a tornado or two.

We'll have to wait and see.  

In the meantime, one or two strong storms might get going to today in parts of southern Georgia and Alabama today.

On Monday, there might be a couple fairly hefty storms in northern Florida, and Monday night some big hailstones could bombard a town or two in Kansas.

NOAA's Storm Prediction Center said no tornado or severe thunderstorm watches have been issued anywhere in the United States this March. Nobody at the SPC can remember such a quiet start to severe weather season.

Says the SPC:

"We are in uncharted territory with respect to a lack of severe weather," said Greg Carbin, SPC's warning coordination meteorologists. This has never happened in the record of SPC watches dating back to 1970."

The SPC says there's little correlation between storm activity in March and the peak of tornado season in April, May and June.

Some years that start quietly, like 1984, get very busy later in the spring. Other years, when March has a lot of tornadoes, like 2012 end up being on the quiet side later in the spring.

Like I said,  the spotty rough weather coming this week looks to be a fairly modest severe storm outbreak compared to what often blasts the United States. But it's the opening salvo of what will be the yearly spring blossoming of occasionally dangerous weather in the South, Midwest and Plains.