US Tornado Report–October 2012
By Paul Homewood
According to data from NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center, during October, there were 41 preliminary tornado reports. This is slightly less than the 1991-2000 October average of 61 tornadoes. Tornado activity during October and autumn in general, varies from year to year. The most active October occurred in 2001 when 119 tornadoes impacted the nation and the least active October occurred in 1952 when no tornadoes impacted the United States. Despite the slow tornado activity, two unusual tornado outbreaks did impact the country — one in the Southeast on October 17th and one in California on October 22nd.
The below-average tornado activity during October continued a slower-than-average tornado year across the country. The preliminary number of tornadoes during the January-October period was 900, with 138 tornado reports still pending for August, September, and October. This marked the lowest January-October tornado count since 2002.
(Please remember that comparisons with years before the mid 1990’s are meaningless, because of the much more sophisticated systems we have nowadays, such as Doppler Radar, for spotting and reporting tornadoes.)