500 Tornado Warnings - Outbreak Stats Compared

Here are the storm spotter stats for this outbreak (so far, Thursday and Friday - the severe weather will reset to west Texas today and move east again through the weekend). see the StormMatrix for details on yesterday's storms, and see my blog for radar shots & videos.

While these numbers sound large, and some are the media are hyping them, it was just last May that we had a 2-week severe weather outbreak that pulled in as many or more daily and total reports -- except for, interestingly, tornado warnings, which were higher in this two day period than during either week last year. Certainly when I saw 50 warnings in one hour yesterday, I thought that was pretty unusual. Not sure why, either the NWS is over-warning, or these storms were more cellular and warranted smaller warnings.

Warnings This Week From NOAA GIS

Here are some of the damage reports that the NWS is working on - containing specifics on tornado declarations, radar images, photos and more:

[Interesting Fact: They were hit with an EF-2 in 1993]

NOAA Mena, AR Tornado Photos (SEE ALL):

Remember: This is the peak of the first Southeast severe weather season.

*Warning numbers are composited from daily numbers. Due to Z-time, warning numbers could be polluted by previous day or may not contain reports after 00Z. Storm Report numbers are correct because they are 12Z-12Z.