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"This year has had one of the slowest starts to tornado season since reliable records began in the early 1950s, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In addition, the year has featured one of the longest stretches of time since Jan. 1 without a tornado-related fatality.\nThe quiet start to the year is no guarantee that the rest of the season will be quiet, especially considering that tornado season typically peaks in May and June. It is a function of the weather pattern that has dominated the lower 48 states since the fall, with a deep dip, or trough, in the jet stream across the Midwest and East, and a ridge of high pressure off the West Coast. The trough brought colder than usual temperatures and above-average snowfall to the East, while the ridge kept the West warmer and drier than average.\nSee also: California Suffers Astonishingly Fast Snowpack Melt as Drought Intensifies\nThe prevailing weather pattern has not allowed many opportunities for all of the necessary tornado formation ingredients to come together, from a flow of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico into the Plains states, to high amounts of atmospheric wind shear, which provides the twisting motion that generates rotating and long-lived thunderstorms. \n\nInflation adjusted running tornado counts, showing 2014 so far ranking near the very bottom of the list.Image:  NOAA/SPC.According to a database maintained by the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., 2014 is among the lowest three years on record for the number of tornadoes through mid-April, after the data has been adjusted for modern-day inflation in tornado counts. Such inflation results from population growth and the surge in storm chasers who document each and every tornado, sometimes multiple times. \n\"It's certainly a low year, but 'smallest' is limited to the inflation-adjustment procedure,\" Harold Brooks, a senior scientist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, told Mashable.\nBrooks says that tornadoes rated EF-1 or greater on the enhanced Fujita Tornado Damage Scale were at the second-lowest levels through the end of March, and more recent data is not yet available. \n\"We may be slowest by now, but that's not a guarantee,\" Brooks said via email. For the 1954-2014 period, Brooks added, he's \"very comfortable with the notion that 2014 is in the conversation about which year is the smallest.\"\nTwo other candidates for the slowest start to the tornado season are 1969 and 1987, Brooks said. \n\nLikely the quietest start for tornadoes in over 60 years and possibly back into the 1900s. 2014 data remains prelim. pic.twitter.com/8vH0JJO7dH\n\u2014 NWS SPC (@NWSSPC) April 21, 2014\n\nThe lack of tornado fatalities flows directly from a combination of the low number of tornadoes so far and plain luck that the tornadoes that have already touched down have been relatively weak and didn't strike heavily populated areas. There have not been any tornadoes rated EF-3 or greater during 2014 thus far, and the intense tornadoes do most of the damage and account for most of the tornado deaths.\nAccording to The Weather Channel, only one other year since 1950 \u2014 2002 \u2014 has gone this long without a tornado death.\nThe slow start to the 2014 tornado season follows an unusually inactive 2013. On Jan. 30, 2013, the longest streak of days without any tornado-related deaths came to an end (219 consecutive days without a fatal tornado). According to the Storm Prediction Center, the span of time between EF-3 or stronger tornadoes was the fourth-longest such span in the last 60 years, as of April 18.\nThe most recent killer tornado struck the U.S. struck in December 2013, which means the record set in 2012-2013 is safe, at least for now. \nIt is unlikely that manmade climate change is leading to the slowdown in tornadoes. A warming climate is likely to lead to more severe thunderstorms in parts of the U.S., but potentially fewer tornadoes, studies have shown. This is an area of active research, with  computer modeling advances allowing for improvements in scientists' ability to simulate small-scale weather systems like the thunderstorms that produce tornadoes.\nHave something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.\n      window._msla=window.loadScriptAsync||function(src,id){if(document.getElementById(id))return;var js=document.createElement('script');js.id=id;js.src=src;document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0].parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);};\n_msla(\"//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\",\"twitter_jssdk\");"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2014/04/21/tornado-season-record-slow-start/>