Another Big Round Of U.S. Tornadoes, But This One Was Typical For May

People try to recover items from destroyed homes after
a deadly tornado in Laguna Heights Texas on Saturday.
Photo by Julio Cortez/AP.

 There were LOTS of tornadoes in the United States over the past several days. But unlike some big outbreaks earlier this year, the spate of twisters this past week was mostly typical for the United States this time of year. 

NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has a preliminary count of 108 twisters, mostly in the Plains and western Midwest between Wednesday and Saturday.  While many of the tornadoes caused a lot of damage, we don't have any reports of fatalities in the main tornado zone.

However, there was one strong tornado along the extreme southern Texas Gulf Coast early Saturday that unfortunately killed one person, injured 10 and caused extensive damage to the little town of Laguna Heights, Texas. 

A tornado watch in Iowa prompted former President Trump to cancel a rally in Des Moines. Although this will make people mad, I can't resist asking why Trump didn't simply use a Sharpie to move the tornado threat to another location so he could have his little festival. 

On average, the United States sees an average of about 275 tornadoes each May. That makes May the busiest tornado month of the year for the United States. 

It's hard to say if this May will end up turning out busier or lighter than average in terms of tornadoes. An odd for May weather pattern features a record breaking heat wave in the Pacific Northwest and southwestern Canada.

April this year was also light on tornadoes, with 109 preliminary reports as opposed to a monthly average of about 190. However, tornadoes, some quite deadly, were much more frequent than average in January through March.

So far this year, we've seen at least 64 deaths from tornadoes in the United States. That's definitely above average for the date, but thankfully not the worst it's ever been. Fingers crossed it stays that way. 

That will introduce a rather dry northwest flow over much of tornado country.  That type of weather pattern sure really suppress the severe weather threat for the next week or so. There still could be a handful of tornadoes during that time. After all, it is May. But won't' be any big outbreaks for awhile. 

 However, we don't know whether the final week or so of May will become busy again.  Some long range forecasts suggest the weather pattern in the final week of the month might be pretty favorable for tornadoes, we'll have to wait and see.

Here in Vermont, we know tornadoes are rare, but we do receive severe thunderstorms from time to time. Severe weather season in Vermont starts about now, and peaks roughly from mid-June to early August.

The same weather pattern that is suppressing national tornadoes for the upcoming week will prevent severe thunderstorms in Vermont for the time being. Sure, we might get some showers Tuesday and next weekend, but nothing scary.