2011 an Exceptional Year for Tornadoes

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While 2011 marked the fourth deadliest year on record for tornadoes in the United States, Texas was spared tornado-related fatalities and recorded fewer-than-average number of such storms.

Not so Alabama, which led all other states in the number of tornadoes and the number of tornado fatalities last year. Oklahoma had the second-highest number of tornadoes and Texas had the fourth-highest number.

A total of 550 people were killed by tornadoes in the United States last year. A single violent tornado struck Joplin, Mo., in May and killed 158 people, the greatest death toll from a single tornado since 1947.

The first initial outbreak of tornadoes occurred in mid-April 2011 when nearly 300 people were killed in Alabama and surrounding states.

1925 remains the deadliest year for tornadoes with 794 people killed from what was believed to have been a single tornado that traveled 100 miles through southern Illinois.

Texas averages 135 tornadoes each year. In 2011, Texas had only 100 confirmed tornadoes and no tornado fatalities. Texas ranked fourth in the number of tornadoes in 2011.

Greg Carbon of the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said 2011 was an unusual year for its high number of fatalities and massive destruction over parts of the country, especially the south.

“More than a dozen states recorded tornado fatalities in 2011, including Massachusetts that had three people killed from a rare tornado,” Carbon said.

Mark Hanna, a spokesman for the Insurance Council of Texas, said 2011’s weather related losses were both dramatic and memorable. “We escaped the wrath of hurricanes and had fewer tornadoes, but the lack of rainfall extended the drought in many areas of the state,” Hanna said. “That led to record wildfires which I don’t think we will soon forget.”