More media reports on slow start to 2015 season

[Randy Jennings]

Here are a few more media reports on the slow start to the 2015 severe weather season:

Sleepy skies: March delivers lowest tornado activity in decades
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...-delivers-lowest-tornado-activity-in-decades/

Is El Nino behind our record-slow start to tornado season?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...hind-our-record-slow-start-to-tornado-season/

Through the end of March, 2015’s tornado drought is among the biggest on record
http://www.ustornadoes.com/2015/04/...rnado-drought-is-among-the-biggest-on-record/

And this great graphic from the SPC (http://www.spc.noaa.gov/wcm/2015/spans-update.png):

 

[Jeff Snyder]

Given the potential for an extended period of weather unfavorable for a large number of tornadoes, we may actually hold near the 77 tornado count level (presumably adding a few along the way) into late April. If so, that would put the year-to-date tornado count near the record minimum for all years since at least 1954. See more details on the "inflation" adjustment method at http://www.spc.noaa.gov/wcm/adj.html .


If we look only at the raw LSR tornado counts (using LSRs alone is dodgy since many long-lived tornadoes are associated with multiple LSRs), we see we are at the bottom of the 2005-2015 pile.