Categories: Tornado ClimatologyTornado History

The Perfect Tornado Year

Map of tornadoes in the "Perfect Tornado Year." This is based off a combination of all the top months on record. Map by Katrhyn Prociv.

Map of tornadoes in the “Perfect Tornado Year.” This is based off a combination of all the top months on record. Map by Katrhyn Prociv.

3,300+ tornadoes in one year. Crazy? Yes, and no.

It is crazy, in that it is more than likely meteorologically impossible for the conditions to come together to produce the “Perfect Tornado Year.” It’s also not crazy, because if we took the top years for each month, and combined them into one continuous stretch, that’s what we’d get.

Top monthly counts for tornadoes and the years in which they occurred. This comprises the Perfect Tornado Year. *Nov 2004 tied Nov 2005.

Months contained within the Perfect Tornado Year compared to the current climatological average.

In total, 3,318 tornadoes touch down in this Perfect Tornado Year. About 83 percent are rated weak (0 or 1), with the other 17 percent rated strong. 44 violent tornadoes are part of the Perfect Tornado Year, six of which are 5s on the scale.

Months that are almost always reliable tornado producers, like May and June, don’t have outliers as high above average as months which see either sporadic or little activity as a norm. As one example, the January in the Perfect Tornado Year had over 600 percent normal tornadoes, while the June had only a little more than 150 percent normal.

State totals during the Perfect Tornado Year, as percentage of the current climatological normal. The states of Rhode Island and Alaska are not included as they both average 0 tornadoes and saw 0 tornadoes. Red line highlights the 100 percent average bar.

38 of 48 (or 79 percent of) states that have a tornado average (Alaska and Rhode Island do not) finish with above average tornado activity during the Perfect Tornado Year. Those states seeing fewer than normal are on the peripheries of the regions most likely to see tornadoes. Wyoming fell just shy of average, the only state partly in the Plains or other tornado prone area to do so.

The Perfect Tornado Year contains 103 killer tornadoes, 13 of which killed 10 or more people. The April 2011 Super Outbreak accounts for roughly 60 percent of the 548 tornado deaths in the Perfect Tornado Year.

Note: This is just a quick intro to a series where I’ll be taking a closer look at each month within the Perfect Tornado Year over the next year.

The Perfect Tornado Year (links added as articles completed)

Record months: Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec

U.S. Tornado Climatology by Month

All: Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec
Significant: Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr| May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec

SPC tornado data obtained at the Tornado History Project. Images can be selected for larger versions. Get updates about U.S. Tornadoes on Twitter and Facebook. Data for any year will be available during spring the following year.