April was the second most active for tornadoes in the Lower 48. May is nearing record quiet.
A weak tornado touched down briefly near Holly, Colo., on Thursday. By Matthew Cappucci Matthew Cappucci Meteorologist, Capital Weather Gang Email Bio Follow May 31 at 9:51 AM When Jim Lihue watched the morning weather report in Moore, a suburb of Oklahoma City, on Thursday, he couldn’t help but chuckle. He laughed in surprise — and cautious relief — that the month of May was almost over.
“We’ve been through the ’99 tornado, then we’ve had some other ones, and then another bad one came through in 2013,” he said. Both of those tornadoes were EF5 or equivalent beasts on the Enhanced Fujita scale, killing a combined 60 people and scouring some neighborhoods until they were virtually bare.
“I was shocked just this morning when I heard from our local weatherman that this season has been so inactive,” Lihue said in an interview Thursday.Tornado damage on Highway 751 near Churchpoint, La., on May 18. After the second most active April for tornadoes on record, May has been extraordinarily quiet. Barely 100 twisters have spun up during a month that averages closer to three times that.
A comparison of preliminary tornado reports between May 2019 and May 2020. The lack of tornadoes is welcome news for millions of residents in the Plains and the Midwest, where most years feature swarms of funnel clouds rolling across the landscape like clockwork. Storm chasers, on the other hand, haven’t been so happy with this uneventful month.No significant tornadoes on the Plains
DOMINATOR DRONE intercept of #tornado 15 miles south of Post, Texas capturing full tornadogenesis progress off the Caprock in the southern TX Panhandle! @RadarOmega_WX @ChasinSpin @Tornado_Safe pic.twitter.com/gudlme3hhV In 2020, the National Weather Service in Norman, Okla., has issued only 29 tornado warnings across its county warning area. By this time last year, 98 such warnings had been issued.A comparison of preliminary tornado reports between April 2020 and May 2020. The May hiatus comes in stark contrast with April, which featured 351 preliminary reports of tornadoes. That would put it just behind April 2011 for the second-most active April on record dating to 1950, when reliable tornado records began.
Most noteworthy were the four EF4 tornadoes that touched down during the month — three of which took place in Mississippi and the fourth in Hampton County, S.C.Damage in the wake of the May 20, 2013, Moore, Okla., tornado. The quiet month over the central United States has been enthusiastically received at a time of high uncertainty and stress over the coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout.
The year as a whole, however, has been an expensive one, with damage from severe thunderstorms tallying $20 billion. Much of the losses stem from the tornado outbreaks that struck the South during April and the vicious tornadoes that tore through Middle Tennessee on the night of March 2. “A lot of people that I didn’t know back in 1999, you find out later that their homes [had been] destroyed,” he continued. “You would have never known that because of the rebound that they have made.”
“It’s great to know that they’re there,” said Lihue. “I feel like there is anxiety with our kids and our families. More people have in-ground shelter or above ground shelters … it’s pretty common for our area. We put one in our backyard, and just the peace of mind … my kids know that, our neighbors know that.”
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