© 2024 WFIT
Public Radio for the Space Coast
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

This Past May Is The First Since 2005 Without A Tornado Fatality

Storm clouds pass over the devastated Greenbriar Nursing Home in Joplin, Mo. on May 25, 2011. Eleven residents of the facility died when an EF-5 tornado tore through much of the city.
Charlie Riedel
/
AP
Storm clouds pass over the devastated Greenbriar Nursing Home in Joplin, Mo. on May 25, 2011. Eleven residents of the facility died when an EF-5 tornado tore through much of the city.

This tweet from Justin Kenney, of the Pew Environment Group, caught our attention:

"This was the first May without a fatality in US since 2005"

And, indeed, it's a bit of sunshine in all the bad weather news we tend to bring you. For the most part May is usually very deadly when it comes to tornadoes. In 2011, according to the National Weather Service, 178 people died in May. That was the May that saw the EF-5 tornado in Joplin, Mo. In 2010, 7 did. In 2009, 5 Americans perished.

And it all makes sense: Looking at historical data from 1991 to 2010, May has been the most active month of the year for tornadoes. Look at this chart:

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

NOAA chart showing average number of tornadoes per month.
/ NOAA
/
NOAA
NOAA chart showing average number of tornadoes per month.

Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.