Canon City, Colorado
iWitness weather user Sawyer James Perry snapped this photo in the Spring of 2012. It's a great illustration of the height of tornadoes. Note the debris field in the bottom third of the photo. The funnel cloud itself rises thousands of feet in the air. (iWitness weather user: Sawyer James Perry)
Today marks a milestone in recent U.S. tornado history that we like: the longest stretch of days without a tornado death.
January 9, 2012 marks a milestone in recent U.S. tornado history that we like: the longest stretch of days without a tornado death. It will go down in recorded history as the longest streak with no tornado deaths: 197 days.
"If you're going to get a long stretch of death free days it usually comes in the late summer/fall/winter time period," says Tornado Expert Dr. Greg Forbes. "But to get a 197 day tornado death free streak you have to have a fair amount of luck."
The last tornado death recorded was on June 24, 2012. There was a death when a tornado from Tropical Storm Debby near Venus, Florida.
Other Notable Tornado Death-Free Streaks
- 1987: 195 days
- 1982: 190+ days
What makes this year's streak more surprising is that it happened during the so-called second tornado season.
"It's a trickier task to make it through November than it some other months without a tornado fatality," reports Dr. Forbes. "You have a tendency to get some strong tornadoes in November. November, 2012 had only 6 tornadoes in November and all were rated EF-0 and EF-1, which don't tend to produce fatalities."
Even though we had some tornadoes in December, including a rare Christmas Day outbreak, no deaths were recorded.
