Highly Active Tornado Year Blamed Partly on Hurricanes
Alexis Thornton
Last monthThe year is not over and 2024 has already produced the worst tornado season in 13 years. What factors have been responsible for the high number of twisters? This is what the severe weather experts are saying about the uptick in tornadic activity in 2024.
Diving Into the Numbers
The 2024 tornado season has seen the most confirmed twisters on record since 2011. This trend continued during the first week of November with over two dozen tornado reports at the hands of a severe weather outbreak across the central U.S. According to the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) out of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. has seen 1,732 tornadoes this year. This number is well over the 14-year mean of 1,355 tornadoes.
Barring an unprecedented rash of severe weather, it is unlikely that the 2024 tally will exceed the numbers put up in 2011. By the end of October of that year, the U.S. had seen more than 500 more tornadoes than the number at the same time in 2024. The year 2011 ended up with 2,250 confirmed tornado reports.