May 1, 2025
Dramatic video shows how severe storms spawned a huge tornado in northwest Nebraska on Sunday. The twister derailed a train near Ashby, knocking over as many as 130 railcars.
Now, go from 3 deaths from thunderstorms and the current dynamics of an EF-1 is starting to come into view.
By Anthony Bettin, Jonah Kaplan, and Lisa Meadows
Both Minnesota and Wisconsin (click here) were hit by tornadoes during Monday night's severe storms, the National Weather Service confirmed.
The first hit Kenyon, Minnesota, in Rice County around 5:55 p.m., according to a storm report. The NWS said debris was blown about a mile away and the tornado has a preliminary damage rating of at least EF-1
A WCCO crew saw major damage to farm structures and houses in Kenyon, which is about 60 miles south of Minneapolis....
May 1, 2025
The National Weather Service (click here) in Tulsa has confirmed an EF1 tornado in Gravette from storms that moved through Northwest Arkansas on Tuesday.
NWS said the tornado occurred around 8:25 a.m.
Damage from the tornado included uprooted and snapped trees and damage to homes....
According to the National Weather Service, there was a confirmed brief, weak EF-0 tornado about 9:30 a.m. April 29 in Christian County. It began near Eaglecrest Street in Nixa and damaged an auto repair shop, where part of the roof was removed and a wall collapsed.
The tornado path was intermittent to the northeast, crossing Highway 160 before lifting near a storage shed business....
And let's not forget the flood waters.At least two people are dead in Oklahoma (click here) after being caught in floodwaters as thunderstorms brought destructive winds and heavy rains across parts of that state and Texas, authorities said.
The threat of thunderstorms, flash flooding, and a chance of tornadoes hovered over the south-central part of the country, with some of the greatest risk in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and north Texas, forecasters said. North Texas, southeast Oklahoma, southwest Arkansas, and northwest Louisiana were all at an enhanced risk for tornadoes, large hail, and damaging winds on April 30, according to the Storm Prediction Center....
The solid blue line is 2024. The red line is 2025 and it looks like the same trend with a slight increase. The least number of tornadoes is 2013 with only 943 for the entire year. We are nearly there on April 30, 2025 with a total so far of 689.
There are 16 years recorded here not including 2025. Of six years the highest number are only six. 2011 had the highest followed by 2024, 2019, 2010, 2017, and 2023. 2011 was a pivot point to the increase of tornadoes in the USA, it also holds the current record for deaths at 553 Americans.
The dark line in the middle is the average of all those years. So, the six years I mentioned are all above average years. Except for 2011 there was a distinct increase 2016.
Sometimes there is something called a rolling average in scientific statistics. This is from Wikipedia (click here). The trend of increased number of tornadoes began in 1990 when the numbers crossed 1000 with reliable frequency.
The year on the Wiki chart most interesting to me is 2005. There was a significantly lower number of tornadoes from 2004. 2005 saw three major Category 5 hurricanes with Katrina carrying the most deaths at 1,392. See, these storms, including tornadoes, is sort of like a heat budget. They all distribute Earth's heat to maintain a habitable troposphere.
...Of the 7 major hurricanes (in 2005), (click here) an unprecendented 3 reached category 5 status, with a 4th reaching the greatest possible windspeed within category 4 of the Saffir-Simpson scale....
How do these values compare to the average? Are we seeing more tornadoes than we used to or is this just par for the course at this time of the year? If it seems like 2025 has experienced more tornadoes through the first third of the year than normal, the data backs this up. From Jan. 1 through April 30, 2025, the Storm Prediction Center has received 689 tornado reports...
Tornado reports for the year through April 30