Final tornado statistics for January are in at the Storm Prediction Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – and they’re eye-popping.
A total of 84 tornadoes were confirmed around the country in January. That’s four times more than last year and also dwarfs the totals for 2006 and 2005.
The preliminary numbers for February are startling, too: the total of 232 swamps the preliminary number of 87 reported in the second month of 2007. Those numbers typically drop as officials sift out multiple reports of the same tornado (the number of confirmed tornadoes in February 2007, for example, was 52), but SPC officials say this year’s high preliminary total reflects an active storm pattern.
Just 12 tornadoes were reported around the U.S. in 2006, and 10 in 2005.