Last month there were over 400 tornadoes reported with about 370 of them being confirmed at this point.1 That tops the totals for May 2009 and May 2010. It is also higher than the average number of tornadoes in May over the last 10 years, 298.2 Though it was a far cry from the 542 tornadoes that were confirmed in May 2003.
Right now, as of June 14, we are almost tied for the fifth most deaths in a year from tornadoes. 1925 had 794 deaths, 1936 had 552 deaths, 1917 had 551 deaths, 1927 had 540 deaths, and 1896 had 537 deaths.2 We are at 536 deaths this year from tornadoes. That is over double the total number of tornado deaths in the previous three years combined. Hopefully this month won’t be so bad. Thankfully June is where the tornado activity starts to drop off again.
Here is where there were tornadoes reported last month:
Background image courtesy of picsneed.co.cc, tornado counts courtesy of SPC
1http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/online/monthly/newm.html#latestmts
2http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/2011_tornado_information.html