Quiet Tornado Season... So Far

For those of you that love the sound of thunder or the thrill of a severe thunderstorm, you've had a rather dismal spring here in the Midwest. 

However, that could change later this weekend into early next week.  While we have a daily chances of scattered showers and thunderstorms, along with a sun and cloud mix, there are growing indications that we could see some strong to severe storms later Sunday into Monday.

Here is where the Storm Prediction Center expects the best chances of severe storms this weekend.

The red is for the Saturday and Saturday night time period, the purple is for Sunday and Sunday night, and the green is Monday and Monday night.  Keep in mind that this is still days away and the forecast will be fine tuned between now and the weekend.

This spring has been rather quiet for tornadoes reported to the Storm Prediction Center.  In the first 14 days of May, there have only been 19 reported tornadoes.

In April 2013, there were only 97 with 26 of those reported on April 11th.  March 2013 saw only 24 reported tornadoes.

Strangely enough, January and February 2013 was easily much more active than March, April, and the first part of May.

In January 2013, there were 94 reported tornadoes.  68 of those were on January 29th across the Mid-South and the following day, 15 tornadoes were reported over the southeastern United States.

In February 2013, there were 54 reported tornadoes. 

From a climatological standpoint, we see the fewest tornadoes in the United States in the winter months of December, January, and February.

Have a great rest of the week.

Anthony Peoples
CBS4 meteorologist