The Peak of Tornado Season

Unlike hurricane season which starts June 1st, and ends November 30th, tornado season is a little harder to define. In many locations, including the Carolinas, tornadoes are possible year round, but are more numerous at certain times of the year. Here in the Carolinas, our tornado season is generally late winter to early spring. There is another spike in tornadoes in November, and of course, a landfalling tropical storm can produce tornadoes.

In the Tornado Alley states of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, tornado season runs from mid March through mid June… and it is peaking right now. Many of the notorious tornadoes in this region have occurred during the first two weeks of May. Last year’s big tornado was the Greenwood, Kansas tornado that struck on May 4th. It destroyed the entire town and killed 10 people. The Greenwood tornado was the first EF5 tornado since the May 3rd, 1999 tornado that hit Oklahoma City. The peak of the 2003 tornado season was relentless. Tornadoes occurred each day from April 30 through May 11, with a seven day stretch from May 4-10 producing 401 tornado reports. I was working in Oklahoma City at the time, and the city was hit by a tornado on back to back days, on May 8th & 9th. May 8 was an EF4 tornado that quickly formed and moved across the south side of town. The next day an EF3 tornado moved across the north side of town at night. This tornado skipped right over my neighborhood and touched down ¼ mile south of the TV station. We stayed on the air, even though the house next door to the station was destroyed!

Tornado season ends in June in Oklahoma as the jet stream migrates north, and the summer heat builds in. Farther north in Tornado Alley, the season in Nebraska and the Dakotas continues through June and into July. While springtime thunderstorms can be violent in the Plains, they bring most of the rainfall during the spring wet season.

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