SURVIVE THE STORM: 2016 tornado drought
When it comes to tornadoes, 2016 was a fairly quiet year overall. We took into account the main severe weather months from March through June.
March started off busy with 86 reported tornadoes but as we headed into April and May those counts started to drop off when you compare it to the average and then we really quieted things down by June with the number of tornadoes well below the average.
As we look at the Nationwide totals for 2016. 971 tornadoes were reported compared to the average of 1041. In Missouri we had 23 reported tornadoes and that was also well below average. As you might expect, with less tornadoes, the number of deaths were also below average.
So far in 2017, we have completely changed our weather pattern and it has been incredibly active. We started off with a bang in January with 142 reported tornadoes compared to the average of 16. February and March were also busy months. If this trend continues it looks like it could stay very busy as we head deeper into the spring.