THE 2009 ANNUAL TORNADO SUMMARY: A QUIET YEAR MEANS FEW FATALITIES

摘要

Tornado activity during 2009 was below normal across the nation. Summer thunderstorms were less frequent, especially across parts of the Midwest and over the Great Lakes region, where unusually cool and stable conditions dominated the daily weather pattern from late spring through the summer months. Even so, the annual tally of tornadoes reached 50 percent of the average annual total on May 15, about two weeks earlier than the 10-year average "half-way point" of May 30. At the close of the year, the count of 1,156 tornadoes in 2009 was 134 tornadoes shy of the 1999-2008 average annual count of 1,290.