There have been 123 tornado fatalities in the United States this year. This ranks as the tenth deadliest season since 1950, or when reliable tornado records began. The long term average is 79.4
It is the deadliest year since 1998, when there were 130 fatalities, most of them in a February outbreak in Florida and in the deadly Oak Grove tornado in western Jefferson County. Before that, you would have to go all the way back to 1974. And we all know what happened then.
The tenth deadliest season and we are just now in our secondary severe weather season across much of the country. Five of the last eight years have had double digit fatality counts in the last two months of the year. If that happens again, 2008 will catapult up the charts to seventh.
The 87 tornadoes that occurred during the Super Tuesday Outbreak on February 5th and 6th of this year resulted in 57 fatalities. It is the deadliest tornado outbreak since 1985, the 13th deadliest outbreak overall and the deadliest February outbreak in U.S. history.
The Sumner-Macon County, TN EF3 resulted in 22 deaths. Two EF4 tornadoes hit North Alabama early on the morning of the six, killing four in Lawrence County and one in Jackson County. The EF4 tornado in Pope and Izard Counties in Arkansas was on the ground for 122 miles, the longest tornado path ever in the state.
The Picher, OK EF4 is the second deadliest tornado of 2008. It resulted in 21 fatalities as it chewed its way out of eastern Oklahoma and into western Missouri.
So, as we enter our secondary tornado season here in Alabama, let’s have a tornado fatality free November and December.
