Severe Weather…Or the Lack Thereof

Spring is traditionally severe weather season across the United States. However, this year there has been a pretty substantial lack of severe weather. In fact, 2014 is off to a record slow start in regards to the amount of tornadoes thus far in the year.

As the graph above depicts, 2014 is off to the slowest start on record for tornadoes. As of April 19, there have only been 92 confirmed tornadoes. The average through April 19th is 253 tornadoes. The minimum number to be recorded before 2014 was 110 tornadoes through April 19th.

The lack of severe weather has been evident in the Bowling Green area as well. As of April 20th, Bowling Green has only been under one tornado watch, and hasn’t been under any severe thunderstorm watches. On average, Bowling Green will see around 4 to 5 tornado watches and severe thunderstorm watches per year.

So when will the severe weather threat ramp up? While I’m not a fan of long range forecasting, some models indicate a pretty active pattern heading into late April and early May. I would not be surprised to see some severe weather during that time frame anyway because, we usually see an uptick in severe reports during that time.

For the latest severe weather information in the Bowling Green area, be sure to stay tuned to Wx Or Not.