Record numbers of Tornadoes continue to pound U.S.

[pscot]

By Dr. Jeff Masters
Published: 5:01 PM GMT on April 27, 2011
The nation's unprecedented April tornado-fest continued full force last night, with NOAA's Storm Prediction Center logging 57 tornado reports, 295 cases of damaging thunderstorm winds, and 254 reports of large hail. The 2-day tornado count from this latest huge April tornado outbreak is already 102. With another "high risk" forecast for tornadoes today, the tornado total for this week's outbreak may rival the April 14 - 16 tornado outbreak (155 confirmed tornadoes) as the greatest April tornado outbreak in history. It is unprecedented to have two such massive tornado outbreaks occur so close together, and the April preliminary tornado count of 654 is truly stunning. Even adjusting this number downwards 15% (the typical over-count in preliminary tornado reports) yields a probable April tornado total of 550. This easily crushes the previous April tornado record of 267, set in 1974. An average April has "only" 163 tornadoes, so we are already 300% over average for the month, and may approach 400% after today's outbreak. According to a list of tornado outbreaks maintained by Wikipedia, only two other tornado outbreaks have had as many as 150 twisters--the May 2004 outbreak (385), and the May 2003 outbreak (401). One positive note--there has only been one violent EF-4 or stronger tornado this year, despite the fact we've already had about 2/3 of the 1200 tornadoes one typically gets for the entire year. Over the past 20 years, we've averaged 7 violent EF-4 or EF-5 tornadoes per year, so we should have had 4 or 5 of these most dangerous of tornadoes so far this year.

Edited to add the
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/article.html

[rfranklin]

1. Prelude to the Apocalypse...

coming to your local neighborhood on May 21st!

[woodsprite]

2. Is that the date all these loonies go bye-bye? :)

[nebenaube]

3. Seems to be reinforcing that silly notion...

or it's just god punishing the fools who propagated it.

[Burma Jones]

5. Dang, I was going to take the kids to Hershey Park on May 21st

I suppose the traffic will be Godawful........

[hatrack]

4. The 1974 Super Outbreak (4/3-4/74) still holds the 24-hour record @ 148 tornadoes . . .

But I know they're still assessing exactly how many storms there were yesterday. Clearly multi-day counts look likely to break the 1974 record.