Sorry TX... MN has you beat for tornadoes this year.

[Jim Bishop]

Another 13 reports came from June 25th. June 26th also had 13 reported tornadoes. 6 tornadoes were reported on July 14th. 8 tornadoes on July 17th.

So if you add up the reported tornadoes for those 5 days you have 89 of the reported tornadoes. There was another day with 5 reported tornadoes and another with 4 reported tornadoes. That would make 98 of the reported tornadoes. If you look at the Severe Thunderstorm Event Database most days in Minnesota were not very active for the months of April, June and July with only six days having more than 4 tornado reports that I could find.

So if you think about it Minnesota is only doing so good in tornado count because of 6 days spread out in the months of June and July. I would think there would be fewer confirmed tornadoes then reports.

Thanks for stats, I see your point. But generally speaking, Texas didn't get much of a season since things didn't pick up until mid/late May. And the late spring and summer has been rocking for the northern Plains, Minnesota in particular. So even though the stats themselves may be a bit misleading, I think the general idea that Minnesota is beating Texas in tornadoes this year is a valid one.

The only question I have is how much longer the northern plains season will last this year? Guess we'll see...

 

[Jeff Duda]

Another 13 reports came from June 25th. June 26th also had 13 reported tornadoes. 6 tornadoes were reported on July 14th. 8 tornadoes on July 17th.

So if you add up the reported tornadoes for those 5 days you have 89 of the reported tornadoes. There was another day with 5 reported tornadoes and another with 4 reported tornadoes. That would make 98 of the reported tornadoes. If you look at the Severe Thunderstorm Event Database most days in Minnesota were not very active for the months of April, June and July with only six days having more than 4 tornado reports that I could find.

So if you think about it Minnesota is only doing so good in tornado count because of 6 days spread out in the months of June and July. I would think there would be fewer confirmed tornadoes then reports.

I'm getting the sense that it might make more sense to compare tornado days among the different states rather than tornado counts. It's much harder to skew data from over and under-reporting of tornadoes when counting tornado days. To make things even easier to count, you could set a rule that you only count a state as having a tornado day if > X tornadoes occurred, where X is any value you want (say 3 or 5 maybe). If anyone wants to do that, please do.

 

[Sean Ramsey]

Minnesota produced the most tornadoes and gets Brett Favre back all in the same week. Next thing you know, Prince will release a #1 album. Minnesota can't be stopped!

 

[mikegeukes]

Minnesota Tornado History and Statistics 1950-2009
http://climate.umn.edu/doc/historical/tornadic.htm

Before 2010, Most Tornadoes in a Year 74 in 2001
Average Number of Tornadoes per Year 25.8

Mike

 

[Chris Gullikson]

Minnesota (and its neighboring states, the Dakotas) get the nod for significant tornado events this year. I doubt this has much to do with chaser numbers, would like to see some thoughts on why the northern plains was more productive then the southern plains this year. Moisture appears to be more abundant this season and in my May/June travels, drought conditions looked quite absent with lots of healthy vegetation seen all over the plains.

 

[Kevin Walters]

Every state that has fairly high tornado activity has areas within that state that experience maximum and minimum activity. The number of tornadoes per 10,000 square miles is another way to break things down. Tornado days is another way, however "big days" are almost always going to be the biggest factor in annual tornado numbers by state.

 

[Ryan Schwartz]

Minnesota did not have it's first tornado report of the year until the middle of June.

 

[Jeff Duda]

I did a quick and very basic count of tornado days by state for 2010 using the SPC reports page or the severe storm events index, so this obviously will not be very accurate. Nonetheless, here is the list of top states for tornado days so far this year:

T1) CO & KS - 18
T3) NE & TX - 16
T5) MO & IA - 14
7) MN - 13
T8) IL, MT, ND, and WI - 10

Notables:
OK - 9
MI & IN - 7
SD, WY, AR, and MS - 6
AL - 5

StormData is only updated through April, so little "accurate" information can be gathered at this time using it. Later on I can go back through it and check to get a true count of tornado days by state for 2010.

 

[Frank Kienast]

http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2010/08/minnesota_torna.php

I'm not saying "hey look, it's global warming!" but it does seem a little odd that MN is so far ahead of the pack this year. Any theories for this?

I've always been curious about the effects of global warming on storm tracks. No matter how warm it gets, won't the earth still experience pretty much the same global circulation (i.e. with easterlies between 0 and 30 degrees and 60 and 90 degrees, and an active jet stream between 30 and 60 degrees)? Now I can understand that if it is warmer, there is more energy available for severe weather, especially in northern latitudes. So states further north, such as Minnesota, would see more tornadoes. But would places to the south actually see less, and if so, I'm curious as to why?

 

[Karen St John]

Off the top of my head, you can add two more days for Michigan in June...

I did a quick and very basic count of tornado days by state for 2010 using the SPC reports page or the severe storm events index, so this obviously will not be very accurate. Nonetheless, here is the list of top states for tornado days so far this year:

T1) CO & KS - 18
T3) NE & TX - 16
T5) MO & IA - 14
7) MN - 13
T8) IL, MT, ND, and WI - 10

Notables:
OK - 9
MI & IN - 7
SD, WY, AR, and MS - 6
AL - 5

StormData is only updated through April, so little "accurate" information can be gathered at this time using it. Later on I can go back through it and check to get a true count of tornado days by state for 2010.

 

[Melissa Jablonski]

No! No! No! Not KS. Say Michigan! Michigan!

Uh,Say Michigan and Indiana

 

[Darren Addy]

Just wanted to say: One of the best subject lines EVAR on ST.

 

[Dean Baron]

I dont think the tornado reports from 7/17 are gonna stand. I chased those storms and never saw anything that looked tornadic (although I have seen one or two pics that look "interesting") but a little birdie has told me that they will probably not be counted as there was no confirmation of them and no pics/vid to back up the reports. Regardless, it should still be a record year for MN.

 

[Paul Knightley]

I've always been curious about the effects of global warming on storm tracks. No matter how warm it gets, won't the earth still experience pretty much the same global circulation (i.e. with easterlies between 0 and 30 degrees and 60 and 90 degrees, and an active jet stream between 30 and 60 degrees)? Now I can understand that if it is warmer, there is more energy available for severe weather, especially in northern latitudes. So states further north, such as Minnesota, would see more tornadoes. But would places to the south actually see less, and if so, I'm curious as to why?

There has certainly been a rather unusual circulation pattern this year, especially for us in the UK, where we've had one of the most 'blocked' spells on record, especially in the winter. Even now, the circulation has still be fairly blocked around the hemisphere, e.g. the recent record-breaking heatwave in Russia...so the circulation might be described as rather more anomalous than 'normal'.
High latitude blocking in the Arctic has certainly played a part in this - some studies suggest a link between solar activity and the amount of blocking at high latitudes.