If anything, the mini-peak of tornado activity that arrives each autumn has fizzled so far this year, said Greg Carbin, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla.
Preliminary data shows only 27 tornadoes reported in the entire country so far in October. That compares to 87 tornadoes last year in October and 76 in 2006. No tornadoes have been reported in the Wichita area.
“Perhaps things will pick up to our east and south come November,” Carbin said via e-mail. “But so far, it’s been quiet and I kind of like it like that.”
2008 is still shaping up to be one of the busiest tornado seasons of the past decade, statistics show. The 1,390 tornadoes confirmed through July already tops the 10-year average and is second only to 2004 in the past five years. There were 1,817 tornadoes confirmed in all of 2004.
This is already the deadliest year for tornadoes since 1998, with more than 110 fatalities. It’s only the third time since 1974 that tornadoes have killed more than 100 people in the United States. There were 132 people killed in 1998 and 122 in 1984, according to NOAA records.