Atmospheric conditions are behind what was a significant April concerning tornado counts in the U.S., just as the peak of our nation’s tornado season takes place. Rod Bain reports.
PARTICIPANTS: Rod Bain and USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey.
Transcript
One month down, two more to go.
April, May and June represents the peak of the US severe weather season.
That is the time of year where we see our greatest numbers of not only isolated tornadoes, but also significant or severe thunderstorm winds and large hail.
USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey says this past April illustrated that significant upturn in tornadic activity after a relatively quiet first three months of 2024.
Given the fact that we saw a mild winter and general lack of extreme cold, it's not really a surprise when you add to that the fact that we've had a very active El Nino related storm track heading into spring that we would have an early peak of that severe weather season with the last week of April, particularly active tornado wise.
If you look at April of 2024, the preliminary number coming in from the National Weather Service indicates that we saw 373 tornadoes, a lot of them occurring right at the end of the month, either the 25th through the 28th or the 30th.
But we did see some earlier outbreaks that occurred between April 1st and 2nd and 9th through the 11th and the 15th through the 18th in terms of how this past April measures with prior years regarding tornado counts in the National Weather Service.
They use a 30 year average, so if you look at the latest 30 year period that we have the average number of tornadoes from 2001 to 2020.
The average number of tornadoes across the United States for the month of April is just 193, so we were almost double that 30 year average total with our account of 373 for April 2024.
Rippy says in the 21st century there was only one April recording more tornadoes than this year.
That was the historic and deadly 2011, a year where we saw more than 550 US tornado related fatalities through the course of the year that April featured an all time record 817 tornadoes across the United States.
Hopefully a number that will never approach again, but again to put that in perspective, this year's 373.
If that number holds up would rank as the number two in the 21st century.
He adds the early peak to an increased activity in this year's tornado season lent itself to climatic conditions in April.
A lot of energy coming in from the Pacific.
It has been entering the country through the West or the Northwest primarily, and then as those systems worked away across the Great Plains, we have a very nice temperature gradient where the storms can work with the cool air to the North.
The warm humid air coming in from the Gulf of Mexico in the Atlantic, and with a lot of the dynamics there, it doesn't take much of a spark to get these big storms rolling on a daily basis at the activity peaking in the early hours.
I'm Rod Bain reporting for the US Department of Agriculture in Washington DC.
