Tornado Drought?

This is the second consecutive year we are seeing few tornadoes in March!  At least something good comes out of this crazy weather pattern!

"Through March 20, only four tornadoes have been confirmed across the nation. According to The Weather Channel's severe weather expert Dr. Greg Forbes (Facebook | Twitter), only two other Marches have featured fewer tornadoes through the first 20 days of March, dating to 1950:

• 1969: 0 tornadoes
• 1951: 3 tornadoes

However, the lowest March U.S. tornado count on record dating to 1950 was six tornadoes in March 1951, according to Forbes. If the rest of the month features at most one additional tornado, we would set a record low for the month.

If this sounds familiar, March 2013 was the least tornadic March in 35 years, with only 18 tornadoes.
March continues a slumbering tornado trend for the year. A preliminary 49 tornadoes have been tallied in 2014, which is roughly one-third of the 10-year average-to-date of 144 tornadoes.

"Twenty other years since 1950 have had fewer tornadoes (than 2014) thus far," says Forbes. "There had been just eight tornadoes thus far in 1969. The 41 tornadoes in February 2014 have kept the year from being closer to a record-low pace."

So what were crop years like in 1951 and 1969?  I noticed the cattle numbers are the lowest since 1951 and that year was record high tractor and machinery sales for that time.  World food production was up with the war over.  Dad had good years early in his marriage 1949 on.  I don't remember much until 1955 but I knew he had good crops.  We were prospering.  1963, 68 and 69 were wet, we had crop loss to floods.

I remember Dr. Tom Stockdale and found an interesting report from him.  I had completed my first year at Ohio State and worked at the Beef Barn and OSU Farm Operations.  I remember pretty good crops but only the really severe years stick out.

The lack of tornadoes is "sticking out" and I have no idea what kind of year we will have but odds say it won't be quite as good as last year.

We had a good year last year and our moisture has been varying every other year.

Ed Winkle