After several light tornado years, the country is seeing a tornado season for the record books this spring. “Since May 17, 225 tornadoes have been confirmed in an outbreak sequence that has been tormenting the country. With more than 400 individual tornado reports also logged by the National Weather Service since then, the number of confirmed twisters will probably grow,” the Washington Post reported (see: “At least 225 twisters in 12 days: A historic tornado outbreak ravages the U.S.,” by Ian Livingston).
“In the last week alone, the authorities have linked tornadoes to at least seven deaths and scores of injuries,” The New York Times reported on May 28 (see: “Kansas City-Area Tornadoes Add to 12 Straight Days of Destruction,” by Kevin Williams and Alan Blinder). “Federal government weather forecasters logged preliminary reports of more than 500 tornadoes in a 30-day period — a rare figure, if the reports are ultimately verified — after the start of the year proved mercifully quiet.”
A “stuck” weather pattern of low pressure in the West and high pressure over the Southeast pushed warm, moist air into the South, creating two weeks of heavy tornado activity, according to USA Today (see: “A month of Mayhem: ‘Stuck’ weather pattern fuels hundreds of tornadoes,” by Doyle Rice).
A powerful tornado on May 28 caused the Kansas City International Airport to shut down briefly as debris from miles away rained down on runways, reported ABC News (see: “Powerful EF4 tornado rips through Kansas, injures 18 and shuts down airport,” by Bill Hutchinson and Karma Allen).
“The National Weather Service confirmed on Wednesday afternoon that the Kansas twister rated an EF4 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, one notch below the most powerful ranking of tornadoes,” the network reported. “The menacing funnel cloud packed peak winds of 170 miles per hour and cut a nearly 32-mile long path of destruction that measured a mile at its widest point, the weather service reported.”
