Severe Thunderstorm Season is Here! Stay Ahead and Be Prepared with EigenPrism
The US Severe Weather season generally runs from March through May and is responsible for generating convective storms that can produce devastating hail, flooding, and tornado outbreaks across the Great Plains and southeastern states. As per NOAA, there has been a general upward trend in storm activity over past few years, with tornadoes spawning as early as January.
In 2021, the number of tornadoes in the U.S. was below average for most of the year, but with a deadly quad-state tornado outbreak in December, the annual tornado report count moved closer to average. The December tornadoes also pushed 2021 to the deadliest year for twisters since 2011.
Three EF4 tornadoes ravaged communities in 2021. The first was in Newnan, Georgia, in March; The other two were in December – one struck western Kentucky and the other tracked from northeastern Arkansas into the Missouri and northwestern Tennessee.
2022 US Severe Weather Season Off to a Slow Start
According to NOAA reports, there were 64 tornado and severe weather events reported across the United States since Jan 2022. With less than 50% of average activity in January, severe weather got off to a very slow start in 2022. January’s reports of 48 tornadoes were nearly 30% lower than the month’s long-term average. This includes two destructive tornado events including the one in Kentucky on January 2 and the Florida tornadoes that destroyed hundreds of homes on January 16.
On March 5, a series of tornados ripped through many counties near Des Moines, in Iowa. The tornados caused massive damage to several homes, buildings, and caused power outages, and are said to be the deadliest to occur in the state since May 2008. According to the reports, the Iowa tornados have likely caused more than $1 billion of total damage.
Click the image below to see the event footprints on EigenPrism:
EF2 Unnamed Tornado track on 2022-01-01
EF2 Tornado track on 2022-01-16
EF4 Unnamed Tornado track on 2022-03-05
Tornadoes were reported in seven states, led by Texas with 19 of those reports. The strongest twisters of the month were three separate EF-2 tornadoes. In January, 154 reports of damaging winds were documented across 15 states.
Alabama saw the most, with 36 such reports last month. January had just 18 reports of large hail across only four states. Texas led the way, with eight total reports of large hail.
How to set-up EigenPrism
To help prepare for severe weather this season, we recommend taking 3 key steps in EigenPrism:
- Data readiness – ensuring your schedules and portfolios contain current data is the foundation for data-driven decisions. When a tornado approaches, viewing up-to-date location information will save valuable time and reduce uncertainty.
- Reassessing the propensity of exposure – you can reassess the propensity of your exposure to severe thunderstorm events using the updated occurrence frequency maps. These will allow users to investigate changes in the pattern of hail and tornado reports using storm report data.
- Alert thresholds – review your Alert settings and customize thresholds to set the frequency that reflects your requirements. Click here to see which event sets to choose for severe weather.
