The 2017 Tornado and Severe Weather Season (Invited Presentation)

This presentation will examine the 2017 tornado and severe thunderstorm season across the United States, including trends, and a look closely at several significant tornado and severe weather outbreak days. Through October, the 2017 tornado count is above normal, while severe hail and wind reports are near normal and above normal respectively. Thus far, there have been 34 fatalities attributed directly to tornadoes. The tornado season began strongly, with cool season tornado outbreaks along the Gulf Coast states between 20 and 22 January resulting in 20 fatalities. On 28 February, strong tornadoes struck the Midwest from Missouri and Arkansas northeastward to Michigan and Ohio, with portions of Missouri and Illinois particularly hard causing 4 additional fatalities. Additional significant tornadic episodes and widespread damaging wind reports occurred in both early and late April, with portions of the Texas Panhandle and Western Oklahoma hard hit by strong tornadoes on 16 May.

The talk will discuss the entire year statistically, but also including more detailed meteorological information and visual media to summarize the most active days, and highlight important issues that arose during the past year.