2011: A Record Tornado Year?

The eastern two-thirds of the United States has been in a very active weather pattern the past two weeks.  This has aided in development of several big outbreaks of tornadoes.  One of the outbreaks in Oklahoma heavily damaged the town of Tushka.  And this past weekend, much of North Carolina was battered by tornadoes, killing 22 people in that state.

April 2011 could turn out to be the most active tornado month in the U.S. ever.  The record to break is 543 tornadoes during the month of May, 2003.  So far this month, there have been 509 tornado reported.  This number is usually a little inflated because many times several reports are referring to one tornado.  But with 9 days left in the month and the active weather pattern continuing, we could see that number climb even higher.

So far, for the entire year through late April, the U.S. has seen 701 tornadoes (again, actual number will be revised lower).  Here's a map of all the tornado reports so far in 2011.

At this point, we are on pace to set an all-time record number of tornadoes in a year.  You can see that we are trending above the most active year so far.