There’s an up side to all of the hot and steamy weather, far fewer tornadoes. Jeff Johnson, the warning coordination meteorologist for National Weather Service office in Johnston, says June is usually one of the worst months for twisters in Iowa. That wasn’t the case this year.
“We really are below normal,” Johnson says. “We haven’t had any so far in the state. That’s unofficial. There could be one out there I’m not aware of but very few tornadoes in June which is our peak month, climatologically speaking. June is when we account for a large percentage of our tornadoes. May and June account for about 70% of our annual total.”
He says Iowa’s seen very few tornadoes in 2012, so far. “Our service area in Des Moines, which is 51 central Iowa counties, I think we’ve had a total of four tornadoes this year, which is really small,” he says.
“We had the EF2 that hit Creston on April 14th and that’s been our most significant event but otherwise, very few tornadoes in Iowa this year.” During 2011, Iowa recorded 50 tornadoes which caused 16 injuries and no deaths. Over the past three decades, Iowa has averaged 47 twisters per year.
By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City