Tornado Onslaught Was One Of The Busiest Of The Decade

As you can see in this map, lots of tornado reports have
come in this month across the country. While most of them
have been in the southern and central Plains and Midwest,
some have been reported anywhere between California
and New Jersey. The map shows here in Vermont,
we've continued our long tornado-free streak. The
last Vermont tornado was in 2014.

Several days ago, I say that the number of tornadoes hitting the United States was definitely higher than normal, but not too, too far out of the ordinary.

But the tornadoes kept hitting. And hitting. Now, we're up to more than 470 preliminary reports of tornadoes in the past 30 days. There  have been only four other occasions in the past 15 years or so with that many tornadoes in such a short period of time. Those were in 2003, 2004, 2008 and 2011.

During May, the nation is typically, on average, hit by about 275 tornadoes. 

We're still not yet in record territory for the number of tornadoes within just a few weeks, but it's been busy, busy, busy.

Seven people have died in tornadoes over the past week, which is a terrible toll. But given the number of tornadoes, that number of casualties is strikingly low.  It's a testiment to great warnings by the National Weather Service and local media meteorologists. And it's a sign that people headed warnings and fled to basements, closets and storm shelters as the tornadoes approached.

Another good thing. Most of the tornadoes were relatively weak to moderately strong, not EF4s or EF5s, which are the strongest and most dangerous. Those higher end tornadoes generally cause the most deaths, because often, hiding in a closet or basement isn't good enough to survive the real biggies.

Finally, we're about to catch a break. The stalled weather pattern that has kept a clash of hot air over the Southeast, chilly air in the western United States and relentless storminess in the middle is breaking down.

This Linwood, Kansas house was wrecked by one of 475 or so tornadoes
that have struck the nation this month. Photo by Chris Neal of
the Topeka Capital-Journal

A more gentle, somewhat west to east air flow will come across the nation over the next several days. Which means, going forward into next week, there might be a few severe storms and even tornadoes here and there, not many will form. No big new outbreaks are in the offing.

Serious flooding remains a big problem, though, even as all that rain tapers off. I'm headed to South Dakota Friday, and I notice so many rivers there are in flood stage, even major flood stage. The water will be receding (I hope!) while I am there, as mostly dry weather is forecast next week.

Elsewhere, it's worse. Parts of Missouri are running a whopping 18 inches above normal for rainfall this month, says the National Weather Service in Kansas City. Some places in the Corn Belt have received an incredible 30 inches of rain in the past month. During that time, four or five inches would have been normal.

As you can imagine, the soggy, flooded fields means spring crop planting is way behind schedule. Less than 60 percent of the anticipated Midwest corn crop has been planted. More than 90 percent of the seeds should have been in the ground by now, says the USDA.

While rainfall will be less intense over the coming week in the hardest hit flood zones, there will still be bouts of unneeded rain that could dump a couple more inches of water in places like Missouri and Kansas.

The bottom line: The weather pattern has finally gotten a little friendlier, but the damage is done. And who knows whether this is a real long lasting break, or just a brief respite from the destructive weather in the middle of the nation?