Dec was a historical month with a record number of severe weather reports, 9th longest tornado track on record, record number of tornadoes, first Dec tornado in MN history, the most mesoscale discussions issued in a day. Below is a not so brief summary.
December 2021 had the most preliminary severe weather reports (1261) since the preliminary report database began in 2000. This is more than double the previous record of 645 from 2002.
There were 193 surveyed tornadoes (so far) in December 2021. This is almost double the prior record of 97 from 2002. There were 1700 miles of tornado during the month.
December 2021 had 23 watches which was the 7th most December watches since the watch database began in 1970.
A tornado tracked 166 miles across Tennessee and Kentucky on December 10th. This is the 9th longest tornado path on record. There were over 850 total miles of path length on December 10-11.
43 total mesoscale discussions were issued in a 24 hour day on December 10th-11th (12Z-12Z). This exceeds the record (42) previously set on April 27, 2011.
There were 64 preliminary hurricane force wind gusts from the preliminary storm reports from December 15. This is 11 more than the previous record number of significant wind gusts when 53 occurred on August 10, 2020.
Minnesota had never had a recorded tornado in the state during the month of December until December 15, 2021. By the end of the day they had 17 tornadoes.
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Check out the 2024 Year-In-Review! We will take the next several tweets to point out some of the most notable events from the year.
Most notably, 2024 preliminarily had the 2nd most confirmed tornadoes on record (1950-present) with 1,796 tornadoes. The previous record was 1,817 tornadoes in 2004. This was largely driven by a near record April & May tornado count.
Embedded within this near record tornado count, there were 6 state tornado count records (New York, Ohio, West Virginia, Illinois, Iowa, and Oklahoma).
There were 3098 severe weather reports in August 2024. This is slightly above the 10-year rolling average of 2674.
There were 62 confirmed tornadoes which is slightly below normal.
Despite a below normal tornado month, 2024 is still on pace above the 90th percentile and has the 3rd most confirmed tornadoes on record (since 1950) through the first 8 months of the year.
Overall, severe weather was near the long term average for overall number of severe weather reports.
However, there were at least 180 confirmed tornadoes which is the most since 1997. The majority of these tornadoes were associated with Hurricane Beryl, and the Chicago area derecho.
This active month for July tornadoes helped 2024 move into 3rd place for the most year-to-date tornadoes since records began in 1950.
Summary: 1. 2nd most prelim reports 2. 4th most May tornadoes (2nd most Apr/May) 3. 8th most May watches 4. 2 violent tornadoes (Ends streak of Mays without a violent tornado) 5. Most Enhanced + risk days in a month.
See below for more details.
There were 6,284 total severe weather reports in May 2024. This is the 2nd most preliminary May severe weather reports on record (2004-present)
May 2024 had the 4th most May tornadoes on record (1950 to present), and the most since 2019.
Preliminarily, April 2024 saw the 2nd most tornadoes on record (300).
Despite it being a prolific month for tornadoes, the overall number of severe weather reports was only slightly above the 10 year average.
It had been more than a year since the last violent tornado in the United States, but this ended on April 27 when an EF4 tornado struck near Marietta, Oklahoma.