2016 Least Tornados Ever

Whatever happened to the influx of severe storms? I thought we were supposed to be getting more severe storms with far worse consequences.

The numbers just are not bearing it out however. In fact 2016 may be recorded as the quietest in American history for tornadoes. The final numbers are not in yet but it appears that there were only about 900 tornados reported in America last year which is far below the average of about 1250 annually. Among those twisters only 2 were EF 4’s and there were no EF 5’s. None.

With about 900 tornados recorded 2016 comes in at well less than half the number of tornados in bad years during the 1970’s. And 2016 continues a trend over several years with fewer tornados than we used to experience. It also was a year with very few fatalaties from the storms. Just 17 people died from tornados in America this past year. By comparison the average is 60 people killed by US twisters. In 1953 519 died in America including 116 from a tornado that slammed into Flint, Michigan.

We are still checking but 17 deaths might be the lowest ever recorded for a year.

So maybe I misunderstood but I am confused because if this continues, in a few years tornados may only exist on the History Channel. (note sarcasm)